Networking

When the NAACP's conference ended here last week, civil rights leaders left behind a portrait of black men in crisis. Too many young black men, said the civil rights group, are underemployed, alternately feared and reviled, and living at risk. Now come the men of Sigma Pi Phi, a once-secret black fraternity that celebrates the professional and material success of black men.

Maybe what Facebook really needs is a "buy" button. After a lifeless opening last week, Facebook shares tumbled on their second day of trading, losing about $10 billion in market value Monday as investors questioned the company's revenue prospects. Shares of the Menlo Park, Calif., social network fell to as low as $33 before closing down $4.20, or 11%, to $34.03. It was unclear if Facebook shares got help from traders at the company's lead underwriter, Morgan Stanley, who stepped in Friday to prop up shares just a hair above their $38 offering price.

Group therapy, health clubs and the Polo Lounge--once networking hot spots--are now strictly passe. These days, heavy-hitters take a power . . . facial. Step into Nance Mitchell's private, by-appointment-only skin-care parlor in Beverly Hills, oh nonbelievers, and catch some serious business-card swapping. Some clients, such as filmmakers Matia Karrell and Tim Healy, schedule side-by-side facials, instead of power lunches, to talk shop.

So, against all odds, you managed to get your hands on a few shares of Facebook stock via one of the most hyped initial public offerings of all time and managed to survive its messy first day of trading. Congratulations. You're now married to Mark Zuckerberg. The 28-year-old company founder is today one of the most deeply-entrenched chief executives in American business. Thanks to a two-class stock structure, Zuckerberg will own about 28% of Facebook but control 57% of all shareholder votes.

Environmentally minded business professionals are increasingly finding one another -- and finding jobs -- at green-networking events. Tatjana Luethi landed a gig as an independent sales representative for a compostable-packaging company at such a meet-and-greet. Jodi Plaia found the first customer for her soon-to-be-launched business making organic dog treats. Drumming up business and capital is still a time-honored goal for business networking. But these networks purport to push the more noble agenda of saving the environment.

When it comes to social networking, women outshine men, according to a study released Wednesday from ComScore Inc. Women spend more time on social-networking sites than men — averaging 5.5 hours a month compared with 3.9 hours for men, said the Reston, Va.-based Internet research firm. Likewise, 76% all women online visit a social networking site compared with 70% of all men online. The study, conducted in May, investigates how women are shaping the Internet. "Understanding gender-specific differences in Web usage is valuable to any digital stakeholder looking to successfully reach and engage both women and men in the online environment," said Linda Boland Abraham, ComScore's chief marketing officer.

Almost as soon as Guang-Yu Xu was laid off from his engineering post at a Silicon Valley Internet company last month, he visited LinkedIn.com and updated his job status from "current" to "past." Through their interconnected contacts, he soon heard from headhunter Robert Greene, one of more than 530,000 recruiters trolling the professional networking site for job candidates. Within a few weeks, Xu had three offers. He started at Mint.com, a personal finance website, two weeks ago.

BNI, an international networking organization specializing in business referrals among members, is opening a chapter in Camarillo. BNI was founded in 1985 by Ivan R. Misner, author of "The World's Best Known Marketing Secret," "Seven Second Marketing," and "Business by Referral." "Our style of networking is based on the philosophy [that] givers gain--if I help you, then you'll help me and we'll all do better business," Misner said. The Camarillo group is having its first meeting at 7 a.m.

It's 7:16 a.m., and the 30 eager, earnest people gathered in a conference room at Glendale's Red Lion Inn are ready for business. Between sips of coffee and forkfuls of eggs, the participants--a dentist, a salesman and an accountant among them--will spend the next 75 minutes trying to rustle up customers for one another. Make no mistake: This is not your father's Rotary Club. There are no reports on community service projects, no guest speakers talking about California's water system.

It was Bayani Baloloy's first trip to America, and an accounting job awaited him in New York. But when the flight from the Philippines landed on the West Coast for a layover, Baloloy placed a call. "I told my contact in New York: 'I am in Los Angeles. If I can't find a job by the end of the week, I'll be in New York Monday.' " By the end of that week, he had found a single-bedroom apartment with a relative in Hollywood.

It was Sunday and the Enabler was at Silver Lake's Red Lion Tavern with her band mates Charlie and Emily when she spied a placard for a new mobile app called Slingr. It promised to enable friends to "remotely send drinks and food directly to your table through Facebook and Twitter. " A social networking tool for drinkers? It was a dream come true. We immediately texted our table number to Slingr and checked in at the Red Lion. "It's Sunday!" The Enabler wrote as her reason for asking for shots in what suddenly felt like a Kickstarter campaign for her late-afternoon drinking habit.

Social media start-up Pinterest has raised $100 million in a recent financing round led by a Japanese online retailer, increasing the estimated value of the virtual scrapbooking company to $1.5 billion. Japanese e-commerce firm Rakuten Inc. led the fundraising for the Palo Alto company, which is now ranked by Experian as the third-most-popular social network behind Twitter and Facebook. Pinterest users check out thousands of images collected by fellow users and "pinned up" on their online scrapbooks.

What's so funny about the TV networks' new fall schedules? Everything - or at least that's the hope of programmers who unveiled their new lineups to advertisers this week in New York and have gone cuckoo for comedy in a way not seen in at least 15 years. Reversing their lament from a few seasons ago that sitcoms were suffering from a creative and ratings drought, the networks are now whipping up a cloudburst of hoped-for laughs that will rain across flat screens, laptops and tablets come September.

NEW YORK — Spanish-language media giant Univision Communications touted something that its English-language broadcast rivals cannot: Prime-time ratings at its flagship TV network, Univision, have grown 7% during the current season. Ratings gains in an era of shrinking TV audiences are uncommon as major broadcasters struggle to maintain their standing. Cable channels, social media and advances in technology — including digital video recorders — continue to nibble away at viewership, particularly among younger audiences.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Africa's rapid economic growth has helped change the stereotype of a hopeless continent of starving people waiting to be rescued, but it has also created an intense need for strong managers, according to a report released Tuesday. Poor management is hurting the effectiveness of global multinational corporations, major local companies, governments and charitable foundations in many African countries, says the report by the African Management Initiative, a nonprofit organization focused on training managers to help business development on the continent.

General Motors Co.plans to pull its paid advertising from Facebook Inc. after the nation's largest automaker determined its ads on the social network had little effect on consumers. The move represents an ill-timed setback for Facebook, which is gearing up for what is expected to be the largest ever initial public stock offering of an Internet company. In the run-up to its IPO, expected Friday, investors have been weighing Facebook's revenue prospects and have questioned the effectiveness of advertising on the social networking site.

It was dark and drizzling when screenwriter Justin Marks did what many in Hollywood have fantasized during their bleakest career moments: He attacked his agent with a chain saw. Marks hunched behind a wall, revved the chain saw motor and leaned forward. Next came the grinding, spinning sound of metal cutting through bone, the blood spattering, the agent's arm and head flying off. Marks grinned, unsheathed a shotgun and went in search of his next target: a reporter for Variety. Marks was just doing his job -- kill or be killed -- in the video game Gears of War, which he plays from the comfort of a brown leather couch in his Los Angeles home.

Movie moguls Bob and Harvey Weinstein's Weinstein Co. said it had taken an undisclosed stake in social-networking website ASmallWorld. The founders of Miramax Film Corp. led a group of investors including Bob Pittman, former chief operating officer of AOL Time Warner Inc., to make a "significant investment" in the site, which can be joined only by invitation from members.

NBC evidently believes laughter is the best medicine: The struggling network will have a strong dose of comedy on four nights in its fall lineup plus the Season 3 return of"The Voice. " Keeping its Thursday sitcom block essentially intact with existing series, NBC will push the low-rated comedies"Community"and"Whitney"to Fridays and open up Tuesdays and Wednesdays for new sitcoms such as "Go On," "Animal Practice" and "Guys With Kids. " Nearly one-quarter of NBC's fall prime-time schedule will consist of sitcoms; last fall, the figure was just 14%. Also on the schedule: the Monday one-hour series "Revolution," the new sci-fi drama from producer J.J. Abrams, and, for Wednesday, "Chicago Fire," from "Law & Order" mastermind Dick Wolf.

SAN FRANCISCO - California is one step closer to becoming one of the first states to ban companies from asking job seekers and workers for their user names and passwords on Facebook and other social networking websites. The state Assembly on Thursday passed a bill sponsored by Assemblywoman Nora Campos (D-San Jose) that would make anything workers designate as private on social networks off-limits to employers. The bill, which passed the Assembly without a dissenting vote, now goes to the California Senate.