Careers Slideshow:
CIO LinkedIn Groups: Our Eight Favorites

Many of you may reflexively take a dim view of social networks. Perhaps you view the sites as unnecessary time wasters and productivity drainers or, worse, potential security threats. Chances are, Facebook, the world’s top social network, and Twitter are especially viewed in that light. True, some CIOs cite Twitter as a valuable career tool. Still, you're more likely at this point to find your peers on, LinkedIn, the professionally oriented social network. For CIOs, LinkedIn offers a wealth of opportunity. Not only is it a place to mingle, it’s a place to share best practices and stay up to date on important news. The site is rife with hundreds of networking groups made up of CIOs, CISOs, CTOs and other IT leaders. There are robust and meaningful discussions underway at any given time, while the site's Twitter interface enables members to make the best of both tools. You can search LinkedIn for groups built around just about any given topic or discipline. Here, we've highlighted the eight that have the broadest profile for a social CIO. If you want to investigate further, you'll find a link to each group in the HTML field that appears above each slide. However, please note that you have to be a LinkedIn member in order to join the site's networking groups. In addition, while some groups have open membership policies, others will require that your membership request be approved by group moderators.