Social Networking: Cast Your Social Net on the Web
You’ve undoubtedly heard the names Facebook, MySpace, and Friendster thrown around in recent years. These sites are examples of online social networks, and are a tiny fraction of the number of similar sites taking root on the Web. We're all familiar with social networks offline; they could be one’s professional contacts, college friends, or family members. Online social networks take this idea of connecting with others and make it digital. Whether it’s for fun, business, romance, or any other reason, more and more people are interacting over the Net. To learn more about this phenomenon, and to do some networking of your own, use the resources provided in this guide. For a Spanish-language version of the Guide, click here.
Expand All Guide SectionsBasics of Social Networking
Joining an online social network is pretty simple. In general, you’ll go to the site, create ... read more »
Choosing a Social Network
There are many ways to get involved in the social Web. With so many sites out there, the hardest ... read more »
Social Networking Safety Tips
Anytime you put personal information into the public domain you run the risk of that personal ... read more »
The Latest Social Networking News
When a new site strikes gold with an idea, waves of imitators and innovators follow with hopes of making a stake of the fortune. Social networking is no exception. Although still a fairly young industry, the face of social networking is constantly changing, with new sites cropping up all over the Web. To keep up, all you have to do is a little surfing.
Dulcinea's Insight
- Bloggers play a large role in evaluating, recommending, and circulating news about social networking (including new developments on older sites as well as the emergence of newer sites). Finding a blog or blogger that you like to read can be a great way to stay up to date with social networking developments. For more information to help you discover a new blog, see our findingDulcinea Blogs Web Guide.
- Lots of social networks have started integrating "news feeds" into the sites so that you know exactly what your online friends are up to in their daily lives. One social network, Twitter, has only one purpose: to let users answer the question, “What are you up to?” With Twitter, you can let your friends know what you’re doing, in real time, whether it’s studying, sleeping, using the bathroom, or any other mundane daily activity.
One trend in social networking is to combine your online and offline activity by taking social networks to your mobile phone: mobile phone alert features are integrated into the online community. Sites such as Dodgeball.com and Going let you take your network with you (via your phone) and contact other users who are out on the town, via text message.
See our findingDulcinea Technology Web Guide (and check out the “What’s happening in technology today?” section) to get more sources for Web and technology news.
Dulcinea's Picks
Mashable
is a blog that covers much of what you’d want to know about online social networking. If something new develops in the social networking market, you’ll read about it here.
Read/WriteWeb
has an entry by Marshall Kirkpatrick that explains why he thinks there is a seemingly never-ending need for niche social networks.
TechCrunch
evaluates new Internet companies. Try searching for “social” or “social network” in the “Search posts” box (scroll down the right side to find it) to read their reviews of new social networking sites.
KillerStartups.com
reviews around 20 new sites each day, so it’s no wonder that this is the place to go to find new social networking sites. Although KillerStartups might not be the first site to review a startup (a startup may actually be online a few weeks before it appears here), it does a good job of covering the gamut of startups (while some sites that review new sites end up leaving out a few here and there). Users can then vote on how successful they think each site will be.
Micro Persuasion
is a blog that discusses marketing communications as it relates to new technology. Here you’ll find an index of all posts tagged with “social networking,” plus plenty of discussion on how new developments in social networking might impact online marketing.
© 2009 Dulcinea Media, Inc.
