Social Networking (Online)

Assembled by © Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.

Online social networking is viewed by many as the next new paradigm in business marketing and collaboration. The following sections give a broad overview of the movement of social networking, including basics about each of the most popular tools. Perhaps the reader would best be served by reading the articles in the Overview, and then read about each of the major tools. The General Resources list many more social networking tools and the purpose of each.

Overview
LinkedIn
Facebook
MySpace
Twitter
YouTube
General Resources

Overview

The following links will give you a general understanding of social networking and its many uses, and will mention some of the most common social networking tools -- although the number of tools seems to be increasing daily. The following paragraphs in this Library topic give you more information about some of the most popular tools.

Social Networking
Social Networking 101 (basics)
Social Networking in Business Is Next Big Things
Leveraging Social Networking Sites to Generate Business
Online Social Networking Goes to Work
Social Networks Dominate in Online Display Ads
More Marketers Use Social Networking to Reach Customers
Social Networking for Nonprofits: Panacea or Hype?
Free Software Isn't Free!
Are You Better Off NOT Having A Blog?

LinkedIn is sometimes described as a "social networking service for adults". It's a very useful tool for quickly informing people about your professional experiences, skills and interests. You also can use LinkedIn to conveniently network with others who have similar backgrounds and interests. Compare LinkedIn to Facebook, below, which tends to be about more informal topics, such as personal background, interests, family, hobbies, friends, etc.
LinkedIn
LinkedIn (Wikipedia)
Why LinkedIn is the One Social Network I Couldn't Work Without
LinkedIn - Social Networking for Professionals
LinkedIn Social Network Keeps Growing During Recession
The Missing Link (myspace for adults)
LinkedIn Criticism
Networking With LinkedIn - Tips To Improve Your Visibility And Credibility

Facebook

People can join Facebook to share information about themselves or their organization. Information about themselves tends to be rather informal -- more so than LinkedIn. Organizations increasingly use Facebook as a public relations tool, to inform the public about the organization.
Facebook
Facebook (Wikipedia)
Using Facebook to Improve Your Business
Criticism of Facebook

MySpace

MySpace is a social networking site for people to share information especially about themselves. Users of social networking often compare Facebook and MySpace and have strong feelings about which one is best.
MySpace
MySpace (Wikipedia)
Do You MySpace
MySpace Criticism

Twitter

Twitter is a social networking site that allows the author to quickly share messages, or tweets, of up to 140 characters and with huge numbers of people. While 140 characters might seem quite limiting, an increasing number of people and organizations use Twitter to share opinions and even to advertise products and services. Some news organizations use Twitter to quickly broadcast up-to-the-minute news items.
Twitter
Twitter (Wikipedia)
Twitter Basic Primer
Why the Twitter Haters are Wrong
Tweet Yourself To Success With Twitter
Seven Ways To Tweet Your Followers On Twitter

YouTube

YouTube provides a forum in which people can show videos about a broad range of subjects, including about themselves and their organizations. The videos usually include audio/sound, so YouTube is a very quick, convenient, low-cost way to broadcast information about yourself and your organization. It's viewed by millions of people.
YouTube (Wikipedia)
Mashable (about social networking tools)
Marketing Your Business On YouTube

General Resources

List of social networking sites
25 Social Networking Sites for Librarians
Mashable

For the Category of Career Development:

Recommended Books

General Information

The following books are recommended because of their highly practical nature and often because they include a wide range of information about this Library topic. To get more information about each book, just hover your cursor over the image of the book. A "bubble" of information will be displayed. You can click on the title of the book in that bubble to get more information, too.