Social Networking - What's all the hype?

Thursday, 11 June 2009 23:20

Social networking is a phenomenon that’s turning everyone into a media mogul. Forget the local press, the TV News or even the Internet News sites; By using social networking you can get information direct to thousand if not millions of people as quick as you can type it. I found out about the death of Michael Jackson by reading Twitter Tweets.

But what is it?

Basically, Social Networking is groups of people that gather together in almost tribe like formats to share common information. For example, take Facebook.com. You can sign up on their webpage for free and add some information about yourself in the profile like your School, Workplace, Home Town etc. Facebook will then search for other people in your school around the same time and offer them to you as potential friends you may like to contact. Powerful stuff. You can also search for people by name, add your Facebook link to your email signature, website or whatever and gather more people into your network. What you do with this network of people is completely up to you. In my local town we always know whats going on... birthdays, events, fiestas. If anyone needs information about anything they type a question on their facebook wall and someone will reply with the answer. Sometimes lots of people will answer so its a great quick way of keeping in touch. I repair and sell computer equipment as a sideline and when I have a new product thats good value, I'll mention it on my facebook wall to let everyone know quickly. It works better than email, because people just dont read them.

Here's a small list of the most common social networking sites that you should sign up to first.