Social Networking
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, My Space, Ning, bebo, Hi5…
My head is spinning! Which network should I join? Which one I haven’t logged in for very long time and which have I even forgotten I am a member of… too many options but what do they all do? It used to be more about which IM service you are using nowadays it is about which Social Network you belong to. Social Networking sites have not replaced messaging they have incorporated messaging under their umbrella, well for the most part. Still if you want to chat to someone outside the confines of a social network and chatting is not only about talking to your friends, it is an accepted practice for conducting business as well then you might want to consider a service such as Meebo (www.meebo.com) where you can combine Yahoo IM, MSN and AOL in one place.
What about the Social Networks? Well, if you are anything like me, interested in following the current trends and trying to stay above ground with everything that is boiling below surface as you never know if it will be the next revolution… then you might find the list compiled by Alexa (www.alexa.com) of the Top 20 networking sites interesting http://htxt.it/DEsA
Personally I use 4 Social Networking sites: Facebook, LinkedIn, Ning and Twitter.
- Facebook, to keep in touch with friends and family and play the odd game when I am bored. Facebook has been the means to reconnect with cousins and family that I haven’t spoken in years! Check out my brother’s holiday pictures and see what my friends have been up to. Ok, one might argue that this is the lazy person’s resolve to keeping touch with friends and family and I will be the first to admit and I am not the kind of person that will pick up the phone to call friends and family to chat. I am more likely to send an email than call and I am more likely (especially these days) to leave them a note in Facebook…
- LinkedIn, I use linkedIn for professional networking and business development. It’s a great way to keep in touch with my industry (Telecommunications), follow the latest discussions, Connect with people to do business and research potential customers.
- Ning, this is an online service that allows you to create your own Social Network. I have used it to create a Social Network for Nomads of the Word (http://htxt.it/KMlZ
- Twitter, I have signed up to twitter to keep in touch and follow some topics of interests for entertainment and industry news.
I also have a couple of blogs (or are there more) that I try to keep current, “try” being the operative word. Social networking updating is very time consuming and I have spend many hours trying to balance it all.
Why you might ask, because Social networking over the web has become as important as joining your friends and/colleagues for a drink after work. It has become not only an accepted way to keep in touch with friends and family but also a very good and cheap way to promote yourself and your business. Being Social Networking savvy it will be a key component in business going forward. Think that many companies are now hiring Social networking manager. Indeed to help them create a brand and keep with cyber world updated with new trends and new products. Just check out Google, Cisco and Vodafone to name a couple companies, in Twitter or Facebook.
The question remains, how we can automate the different social networks so we don’t constantly have to move from one to the other to make and monitor changes and spend the whole day doing so. I have found a couple services that help achieve just that:
- www.ping.fm - They post messages to many Social networks and help save time updating your feeds
- www.hellohtxt.com - Similarly to ping.fm Hellotxt will help your status updates for all your social networks and help you save time posting. Post updates available by group so you can keep work and social groups separate.
- www.switchabit.com: SwitchAbit routes your content to multiple social Services.
Have a look and choose the one that best meets your needs.
Happy Social networking!
My head is spinning! Which network should I join? Which one I haven’t logged in for very long time and which have I even forgotten I am a member of… too many options but what do they all do? It used to be more about which IM service you are using nowadays it is about which Social Network you belong to. Social Networking sites have not replaced messaging they have incorporated messaging under their umbrella, well for the most part. Still if you want to chat to someone outside the confines of a social network and chatting is not only about talking to your friends, it is an accepted practice for conducting business as well then you might want to consider a service such as Meebo (www.meebo.com) where you can combine Yahoo IM, MSN and AOL in one place.
What about the Social Networks? Well, if you are anything like me, interested in following the current trends and trying to stay above ground with everything that is boiling below surface as you never know if it will be the next revolution… then you might find the list compiled by Alexa (www.alexa.com) of the Top 20 networking sites interesting http://htxt.it/DEsA
Personally I use 4 Social Networking sites: Facebook, LinkedIn, Ning and Twitter.
- Facebook, to keep in touch with friends and family and play the odd game when I am bored. Facebook has been the means to reconnect with cousins and family that I haven’t spoken in years! Check out my brother’s holiday pictures and see what my friends have been up to. Ok, one might argue that this is the lazy person’s resolve to keeping touch with friends and family and I will be the first to admit and I am not the kind of person that will pick up the phone to call friends and family to chat. I am more likely to send an email than call and I am more likely (especially these days) to leave them a note in Facebook…
- LinkedIn, I use linkedIn for professional networking and business development. It’s a great way to keep in touch with my industry (Telecommunications), follow the latest discussions, Connect with people to do business and research potential customers.
- Ning, this is an online service that allows you to create your own Social Network. I have used it to create a Social Network for Nomads of the Word (http://htxt.it/KMlZ
- Twitter, I have signed up to twitter to keep in touch and follow some topics of interests for entertainment and industry news.
I also have a couple of blogs (or are there more) that I try to keep current, “try” being the operative word. Social networking updating is very time consuming and I have spend many hours trying to balance it all.
Why you might ask, because Social networking over the web has become as important as joining your friends and/colleagues for a drink after work. It has become not only an accepted way to keep in touch with friends and family but also a very good and cheap way to promote yourself and your business. Being Social Networking savvy it will be a key component in business going forward. Think that many companies are now hiring Social networking manager. Indeed to help them create a brand and keep with cyber world updated with new trends and new products. Just check out Google, Cisco and Vodafone to name a couple companies, in Twitter or Facebook.
The question remains, how we can automate the different social networks so we don’t constantly have to move from one to the other to make and monitor changes and spend the whole day doing so. I have found a couple services that help achieve just that:
- www.ping.fm - They post messages to many Social networks and help save time updating your feeds
- www.hellohtxt.com - Similarly to ping.fm Hellotxt will help your status updates for all your social networks and help you save time posting. Post updates available by group so you can keep work and social groups separate.
- www.switchabit.com: SwitchAbit routes your content to multiple social Services.
Have a look and choose the one that best meets your needs.
Happy Social networking!
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