Social Networking Sites: Get to Know 'Em, Get to Love 'Em

Benefits

There are many benefits to having an online profile, both on a personal and business level. Most social networking sites are FREE—although some do offer a premium membership that you have to pay for, and others require a paid membership to participate at any level. Today we're going to talk about the free ones.

Setting up an online profile allows you to connect with other members of the community through interpersonal messaging and group forums. You can connect with your former classmates, friends and keep up-to-date with all of them. You can post pictures of yourself and your family to share with the rest of the community. Many of these sites allow you to create a free blog, allowing you to self-publish news, notes, journals and diaries. And many sites also offer games and contests for you to participate in and get further involved with other members in the community.

We all know it's difficult to keep track of friends and family these days. We all grow up, move away, get our "big boy" and "big girl" jobs and careers, get married, have kids…and someday we find ourselves wishing we had kept better contact with our friends of the past. Using social networking sites is a GREAT way to keep track of your "real life" and "online" friends and see what they're up to at any given time. And that goes both ways—your friends will also be able to know what you're doing in your life too!

Dangers

If I can give you any word of advice, it's this: Proceed with caution. One of the beautiful things about the internet is the accessibility of information—but that can also be a drawback. The information you post on your profile can be accessed by anyone, anywhere. We've all seen the news stories of "online predators". These are unfortunately REAL circumstances, and we all need to remember that bad things can happen to anyone.

We'll outline some good practices in our TechDish Do's and Don't's, but the biggest thing is to be careful of the company you keep—even online. Remember that your friends and family, people you don't know, and yes, even current and potential employers have access to view the content you post on your profile.

Online Profiles and Your Children

If you have kids that are on these sites, as most kids are these days, make sure you have an open line of communication with them about how they behave, what they say, and who their friends are on these networking sites. The best way to do this, is to require your kids to give you their passwords so you can access their profile. Now, your kids might not like this—obviously their privacy is a concern to them, but when it comes to their safety, can you really afford to be careless? If you're not comfortable "eavesdropping" on your kids' profiles this way, at least set up your own profile on the same sites your kids are on and get them to add you as a friend; that way you can still get a good look at what your kids are doing.

Want In? Social Site Recommendations

Let's profile a few of these sites. These are strongly recommended by TechDish; both for their features, and their security.

Facebook

www.facebook.com

Facebook has climbed to the top of the popularity list in its 5 years of existence, getting on average 68.5 million unique visitors per day. In its early days, membership was restricted to college students, then was opened up to everyone a little more than 2 years ago. Due to this, there is an incredibly strong presence of college students—and former/current college students are the heaviest users.

Outstanding Features

• Connect with your current and past friends, or make new ones
• Post photos of yourself, your friends and family—organize them into galleries/categories and tag them so people know who is who in each photo
• Join groups based on your interests, or create your own groups and participate in discussions
• Events calendar functionality built-in—create events, send out invitations, and track RSVPs
• Tons of "Facebook Apps", fun little games and applications that you can play with or against other members

MySpace

www.myspace.com

MySpace has gotten some bad press, as it seems to carry the brunt of online predator instances. So be careful with this one, but have fun! MySpace has worked for 7 years to build the now-second-largest community of online users, and they've got some incredible features packed in that still make them unique and stand above the rest. No online friends? No worries. MySpace creator Tom Anderson is automatically your friend as soon as you set up a profile!

Unique and Powerful Features

• Connect with your current and past friends, or make new ones
• Post photos of yourself, your friends and family—organize them into galleries/categories and tag them so people know who is who in each photo
• Join groups based on your interests, or create your own groups and participate in discussions
• MySpace Video—post your own created videos, and watch the rest—there's millions of them!
• MySpace Music—possibly the BEST online collection of local, regional and national artists. Find virtually any band that exists, listen to their top tunes, and see when and where they are touring

LinkedIn

www.linkedin.com

LinkedIn has taken the #5 spot in the popularity list, but don't let that convince you it's not awesome. This community is entirely focused on career networking. So job seekers, it is strongly recommended to get this profile set up! Think of this website as an extension of your resume. Not only are you validating the contents in your resume, LinkedIn allows you to write in so much more information than a resume allows the space for.

Job Seeking, Employer Showcasing Features

• Connect with current and past colleagues—you'll be suprised to find many of your co-workers and bosses are on LinkedIn
• Track your employment history—just like on your resume, but you'll actually have space to fill in the full details
• Space reserved for you to write about your skills—make yourself even more marketable to your potential employers by writing about what you know how to do
• Collect recommendations from people in your network—they can write about you and why they recommend you, and you can do the same for them
• Start networking with potential employers before you look for a new job—you can connect with anyone, allowing you a foot in the door before a position is even advertised