Pros and Cons of Social Networks
- December 17th, 2008
If you’ve logged on to your computer in the last year or two, you’ve heard the term “social network”. Social networks have been evolving over the past 10 + years. Remember ICQ? And Microsoft MSN Instant Messenger? They have been around for ages, but still, very similar to the social networks available today.
Today’s social networks are bigger and better than their predecessors. The user has many more opportunities for creating connections and more details that allow them to screen their “friends”.
Social Networks are an amazing venue for promoting yourself and your blog, as well as finding sites that you may never have come across in the blogosphere on your own. I have met so many new people through this medium; I would go so far to say it’s one of the most important “free” resource available to get your name out there.
I do have one problem with Social Networking though. I think that it may be a personal problem, but when I log on to a network, I find myself preoccupied with what I see and forget the reason that I initially logged in. I can waste hours on Twitter and StumbleUpon without even getting anything done. Do you have the same problem? Time just seems to escape me when I’m using these tools.
I thought that I’d share with you the Social Networks that I belong to and what I like and dislike about each of them.
Twitter – I just joined twitter about 2 months ago. You can find me @AverageGalDotCo. At first the whole “follow” and “un-follow” idea really perplexed me. I’ve got the whole system down now, and LOVE Twitter! The thing that I really like about it is that I’m able to surf the net via others “tweets” and it’s like a live feed to their daily lives. Twitter makes blogging more personal. What I don’t like is that sometimes there are so many people logged in that I don’t have the time to read up on everyone’s “tweets”. I’ve just come to accept that I just read the first 10-15 “tweets” to get up to speed on everyone’s day and in the loop.
Facebook - I’ve belonged to facebook for about 2 years now, but really started using it daily only 8 months ago. What I love about Facebook is that you can add photos, YouTube video footage, invite others to specific events, set up and/or join groups, feed your twitter messages, add your blogs, and post notes in addition to having access to send messages to your friends and family. What I don’t like about facebook is that there seems to be a lot of “garbage” that comes along with it. Like sending someone a “green patch request” or a “top friend” or a “tropical drink” or “Joe thew a snowball at you. Click here to throw one back” … what’s the point in that?
StumbleUpon - I really love Stumble. When I’m all caught up on my work for the week, I just stumble all of the favorites of my friends and others for a couple of hours. The thing that I like best about StumbleUpon is the fact that it “remembers” what you like and what you don’t like (as long as you give it a thumbs up or down), and then gives you sites according to your responses. The thing that I don’t like about Stumble is the fact that if you’re the first person to stumble an article or site they ask you for a review. I think that sometimes this deters users from stumbling sites and/or articles if they have to take the time to write a review.
Digg – I joined Digg 4 months ago; when I first started blogging I used it frequently, but honestly I haven’t used it for about 3 months; I don’t remember what I do or don’t like about it.
Delicious - I did set up and account here, but I’ll admit it… I’ve only used it once.
MySpace – I have a myspace account, and used to use it more frequently than I do now; I’ve somewhat phased out from MySpace when I found Facebook to be much more conducive to what I wanted to use the medium for… networking and keeping in touch!
What social networks do you belong to? What frustrates you or makes you excited about them?
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My current Top Secret project has to do with social networking actually!! I’ll be sure to post here when its up, and ofcourse you can check out my blog for updates.
What frustrates me about them, is simply the fact that after a while, people can find out a LOT about you without even knowing you!!! Granted privacy settings can fix that, but I’m sure there are ways around it – definitely not liking that whole idea
I’ve just started using Twitter, it’s simple, easy, fun, useful, and there are tons of plugins for blogs and firefox that make it even easier to use, and more useful.
I think Digg is a great way to share info that’s already published on the web, and a good way to find buzz stories on various topics.
I use Delicious more as a personal bookmarking too than for it’s social features.
I love Myspace because it’s customizable and I’m a web designer, I also like the fact that it has blogs which I use to write about thing that are off topic of my hosted blog.
OMG…. I belong to all of the above and all others. I like Facebook but have not really made use of all its potential. I think —wait…. I know… that I would jon a SN101 for these. Keeping up with them is work. However, I have enjoyed all the interesting people I have made connection with around the world. I do not get Technorati or Digg. This requires more time from me. I too like SU more than others. off to explore now the wonders of the SN market
I have a post about Social Media and advocate that one should master one before doing another. Actually, that goes for all marketing. Develop a system in one, once that’s done then you can move to another. My first mastery (so to speak) is MySpace, have a daily routine that brings about 20 people a day to a site. So, it is worth doing. Now, I am working on figuring out StumbleUpon. Still learning.
@BusinessX:
I would agree. However, having so many Gurus posting and endorsing various SN sites, its difficult to only start off with one. I certainly will check out your post, thanks
Hey these social networks are good for marketing but at the same time it comes in handy for personal use as well like keeping in touch with your own group of friends.
We don’t necessary have to associate these things with our work!
I just love the Social Networks too. I am on Twitter 20 times a day. I do like StumbleUpon and I get a lot of traffic from that network. I also have Digg but am not too sure what it’s all about. I’ve dabbled in it. I use Delicious 100 times a day but only for my own bookmarking and organizing. I have a myspace account too but pretty much for personal use which I don’t have time for anymore! There are so many it can become overwhelming and I like to contribute honestly not just “use” it!
I feel your pain, I get wicked distracted on Twitter too! I use Twitter and StumbleUpon the most and really enjoy both. I signed up for all of the above but don’t really use them as much, I don’t really like Digg, Its usefull but I get so many emails, its almost as bad as spam.