Social networking isn’t a new phenomenon. It wasn’t invented in the twenty-first century. Every Elks Lodge, Lions Club, Chamber of Commerce, Church, Sewing Circle, Book Club, etc. that ever existed afforded an opportunity for social networking. Some social networking groups are secretive.
They have passwords and secret signals that help one member
identify another member. Others may be more open but they are aware of who is
and who is not a member in good standing of the social networking group. The members of any social networking group identify with and
help other members of their group. They provide information to one another that
is mutually beneficial. They tell each other when something of interest or something
of concern in happening that is interest to or a threat to their particular
social network and the members collectively pursue the interest or ward off the
threat. These social networking groups can be either very close knit
or very loosely organized or even have no apparent organizational structure at
all. The organization is of a great deal less importance to the members than
the benefits that each gains from it. Many times social networking groups are work related. For example: you have very likely heard of the way that law
enforcement personnel stick together and ‘watch each other’s backs’ so to
speak. This social networking group is often referred to as ‘the
long blue line’. Another work related social networking group is long
distance truck drivers. By using their CB radios, they stay in contact with one
another and warn each other of road hazards. If one of them has a problem,
others go to his or her aid. No, social networking was not invented in the twenty-first
century and it didn’t come into being with the advent of the personal computer. It has been around probably since the beginning of time in
some form or another but the advent of the personal computer certainly put a
new spin on social networking. Web 2.0 has really kicked social networking up
several notiches. No longer is social networking limited to people who work at
the same jobs or who live in the same communities. Social networking is now
world wide and easily accessible to everyone who has access to a computer and
an internet connection. It all started with the advent of instant messaging
technology but it has grown far beyond that limited ability. With instant
messaging it was necessary to let others see your email address and so you lost
much of your anonymity. In today’s Web 2.0 world, social networking and complete
anonymity are both possible. The online dating sites are a very good example of this
compatibility. People can register and pay for memberships on online dating
sites and conduct an entire relationship for many months without either party
knowing the other party’s real name, ISP email address or the name of the city
in which they live. All communication is conducted on the online dating website
itself thus affording both social networking and anonymity. There are Web 2.0 websites that are dedicated to nothing BUT
social networking. One of the better known ones among the younger set is
MySpace but there are at least a hundred different social networking sites on
the internet and probably a lot more that that. Web 2.0 social networking sites are divided in many
different ways. There are social networking sites that are dedicated to
specific ethnicities; BlackPlanet.com is for African Americans, Babbello is for
Australian teenagers, FaceBox is for European young adults, Gronco.net is for
Poland, iWiW is for Hungary, Migente.com is for Latinos, Mixi is for Japan are
just a few examples. Social networking sites are also divided sometimes by
interests. For example you can find such social networking sites as CarDomain
for car enthusiasts, Flickr for photo sharing, Gaia for gamers, Gopets for
virtual pets, Joga Bonita for football or soccer, or Last.fm for music. These are only a very few example. There are a great many
more. Most social networking sites, however, are not dedicated to
a specific group. They are general membership sites and the members themselves
divide themselves into appropriate groups according to interests and
compatibility. Almost all of the social networking sites are free to join.
There are just a few that have membership fees. The site owners make their
money from advertisers rather than from users. A few sites are only open to
those who have been invited to join by other members. Most of these social networking sites provide you with your
own blog when you join the site. You can make posts to your blog and you can
invite others to post to your blog. The trick here is to also use the social
bookmarking sites and upload links to your blog posts into them with the
appropriate tags containing key words. The blogs on social networking sites are in addition to and
not a replacement for blogs on your own website if you are an internet marketer
and the social bookmarking sites should be used to upload links to both blogs. Social networking is easy and it is fun. It is a way that
you can enhance your online business and have a lot of fun in the process. You can
meet some of your very best potential customers on social networking sites. You
can make friends and influence people as well. It has long been a well established fact that more business
is actually conducted in social settings than in offices. More deals are made on golf courses than in board rooms in
the real world and more sales are made through the use of social networking
sites on the Internet than through all of the paid-for advertising combined. People HATE commercials but they don’t mind hearing their
friends recommend a product or service. Not only do they not mind...they even
go to a lot of trouble to seek out that information. In addition to being a great way to advertise a business
social networking sites are also a great research tool and one that should
never be overlooked. Rather than having to conduct a lot of expensive and
time-consuming surveys for example, you can simply look through a social
networking site and find out exactly what people are thinking about.You can find out what their problems are and what measures
they are taking to solve those problems. You can find out what their interests
are and how they go about pursuing those interests. By using social networking sites as research tools, you can
likely get more and better information in a single hour and for free than you
could get by spending hours on sending out surveys and trying to decipher the
results. One very interesting social networking site is called 43
things. That is the name of the site. On this social networking site people
list their goals and then other people with similar goals discuss how to best
achieve those goals. Some goals that have been listed are ‘learn a foreign
language, be a good parent, improve my memory, get in shape, lose weight, be a
better gardener and the list just goes on and on. As a research tool it would be hard to beat 43 things to
find out what people are interested in and concerned about. Web 2.0 is great! It is driven by those who actually USE the
internet and not by people who are sitting behind desks at large companies and
who are out of touch with the real world. Social networking is simply a group of like-minded people
exchanging information that is of mutual interest. That is all it is and all it
has ever been. It is important that when you are using social networking
sites that you remember this and conduct yourself accordingly. If you join a site and start just posting blatant
advertisements, you are not going to be doing social networking. You are simply doing advertising...which people hate. If you
establish yourself as part of a group, then you are social networking and you
will find that those who are members of your online social circle are the best
help you can find anywhere. Social networking is valuable in and of itself but it can be
made doubly valuable by using social networking in conjunction with social
bookmarking. Join a social networking website. Find a group of people who
are interested in the topic of your website but don’t start out advertising that. Make posts to your own blog on the social networking sites
as well as to the blogs of others. Add those links to your social bookmarking
account. Be certain that you use the appropriate key words in those tags
otherwise they are worthless. Altogether this is an excellent marketing strategy. It is a
way to market your website and your products or services and have a lot of fun
at the same time. You will meet people that you really do like and even admire
and respect. Friendships are not made for the purpose of profiting from
them but they usually are profitable.
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