Social Networking: Get in the Huddle, Get in the Game
By Orhan McMillan

Summary & Highlights

Changing users' online experience from static to live, social networking in not just a young person's game. Web-based software designed to build communities online for people to interact individually, social networking is the new arena for the business world.

Within a social network there are many ways individuals can interact with one another. These include online chats, messaging, email, video, voice chats, file sharing, blogging, and discussion groups. Individuals find ways of connecting by first creating profile pages that contain brief, relevant descriptions of themselves, and then using the site's directories to locate other individuals with similar interests or backgrounds. Recommendation systems allow individuals to connect only with those people they agree to let into their network by requiring both parties to agree to a connection before the link is made.

The popularity of social networks has grown tremendously in the twentieth century. Now, millions of people of all ages use a social network of some form daily. There are over 200 social networks in use world-wide, making most networks global. In America, MySpace and FaceBook are the most popular. Hi5 is popular in South America and Europe, while Orkut is the site used most in Asia and Central America.

There are two types of social networks:

1. ISN-- a closed, private internal system usually within a single company
2. ESN-- an external system such as MySpace open to anyone

Social networks have been around since the nineties. The earliest networks linked individual computers. Many librarians and researchers will remember LISTSERV and Usenet. The first network websites appeared in the mid-nineties, when Classmates.com kicked off in 1995. Sixdegrees.com followed in 1997, offering the whole package on one site-- profile pages, directories, and means of interacting.

Following the model of these early networks, social networking sites like MySpace.com and FaceBook.com raced to become the most popular sites on the net. By 2005, MySpace boasted more viewers than Google. Both networks offer one package networking, allowing individuals to create profile pages, search the network using a variety of directories, and connect with other individuals (and control those connections) within the network .

Protection and privacy have become challenging aspects of the social networking game. Networking sites must constantly monitor their systems while developing new ways of allowing individuals of all ages to interact freely while protecting all of those individuals. Threats include data theft, predators, and viruses. Networking sites frequently team up with law enforcement to contain and prevent these threats.

Tips & Goals

Social networking is a great match-up for businesses. Low costs allow big connections for even the smallest companies and individuals. Advertising opportunities are available on all the major networking sites though banner ads and text ads so your business reaches the global market.

Trust is the biggest benefit offered business by the social networks, though. These networks provide real individuals a verifiable spot to connect with other real individuals, an old fashioned ball park out in cyberspace, where folks can meet face to face without leaving home. With the consumers as the publishers, the individual trusts the contact. These days, people trust each other more than they trust experts or companies, and social networking protects that trust. Guarding one-on-one interaction between individuals with ever-evolving privacy controls.

Business uses of social networking abound.

• Manage customer relations by creating staff profiles and custom service teams for clients, matching needs with appropriate service anywhere, anytime.
  
• Become the "Whole Product" by providing customers with links to related professionals you trust, and have these professionals do the same, building both your client bases. (This means you bakery link brides to caterers, reception halls, florists, and photographers you love.)
  
• Establish a business-to-business marketplace, such as FaceBook Marketplace. This allows businesses to network with other professionals of similar or related fields, and makes it easier for individual professionals to advance in the game.
  
• Join or develop a professional network, such as SERMO, the healthcare industry's network of licensed physicians. Professional networks offer peer-to-peer communication anytime, anywhere, which creates informative and interactive meeting places for professionals around the world.

Social networking is the business arena of the future. Quality control and the respect paid to the individual guarantee social networking will continue to score big with consumers for a long time. Don't laze on the bench, jump in the game. Talk with your web designer about ways you can get in the action and improve your profit outlook for next season today.

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