Social Networking sites have taken the internet by storm. No longer just for keeping track of high school and college classmates, social networking has gone mainstream. I knew when I signed up for Facebook and saw that not only my younger cousins, but also my Aunts and Uncles in their 60’s had profiles, that social networking had grown up.
If you define a social networking site as a web site with public profiles, a friend or contact list, and the ability for contacts to view and follow the contact list of their buddies, then the first social networking site was Six Degrees in 1997. Social sites hit the big time in 2002, and 2003 with Friendster and MySpace. Friendster became very popular and is seen as one of the biggest success stories, and failures of internet marketing, as its user share diminished with the popularity of MySpace and Facebook.
Starting as a professional network in 2003, LinkedIn is a job related social networking site. I call it MySpace for grownups. Plaxo, which started as a contact management application, has added more commenting and other features that make it into a full fledged social networking site. There are even social networking sites for your dogs and cats – Dogster and Catster allow pet owners to create profiles for their animals. With the rapid growth of web, more and more networking sites are opened with innovative concepts, like Acobay in late 2008, which allows you to connect with people who have purchased the same products you own or are considering buying.
Sites such as Facebook have extended the traditional three elements of social networking (profiles, networks, and messages) to include features such as access from mobile devices, and applications that enhance the user experience on the site. Until legal problems pulled the application, Scrabulous had fantastic success on Facebook, and was responsible for some of Facebook’s success in reaching a wider audience. Facebook’s iPhone application is one of the most popular applications for download in the Apple App Store. The ability to take a picture on your iPhone and instantly and simply upload it to your Facebook profile is one of the most gee-whiz features of Facebook.
LinkedIn has become an integral part of maintaining a professional network. Since the economic downturn, it is more important than ever to keep in touch with people who work in the same industry and have similar backgrounds. LinkedIn, with its emphasis on current and previous co-workers and college contacts is a great way to develop and keep up with your network. LinkedIn gives people the ability to make professional recommendations for their coworkers, managers, and subordinates. LinkedIn lets you list your job skills and prospective employers and recruiters will use the site to search for job candidates.
Each social networking site has its own culture. MySpace has a strong youth feel to it, and many bands and artists have fan pages there. The ability to customize your profile with music and flashy graphics makes MySpace a favorite for younger set. Facebook seems to be growing in popularity and I am personally astounded at the number of my friends, relatives, and co-workers on there. I am jealous of iPhone owners ability to run the mobile application. LinkedIn is my favorite site as a job searcher. I have collected quite a few professional recommendations from my prior co-workers, and at least one recruiter has contacted me based on searching my LinkedIn profile.
Which social networking site or sites an individual signs up for will depend on a few factors. The biggest is probably who of your “real life” friends and relatives are on which site and who is trying to convince you to sign up. If your best friends keeps showing you cool stuff from their MySpace profile you may sign up and be their friend. If you find out all your cousins are on Facebook, you might be tempted to sign up for that. Whichever sites you sign up for, resist the temptation to release your inner child. Treat information listed on social sites as if it were accessible publicly so you will not regret posting anything later.
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