Social Networking Sites

Social Networking sites are becoming an integral part of our everyday lives.  With millions of followers, websites such as:   Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, LinkedIn, GoogleBuzz 

and many others have a large impact on media and how individuals are able to interact on the Internet.  For anyone unfamiliar with what a social networking site is you probably would be ostracized by millions of your peers for not being current with hot new trends in media.  These sites are set up differently and all have there own identity but can be simple explained.  A social networking site is a website that enables any individual with an email account to set up a personal homepage.  Once a homepage is created you are free to connect with other people and link to there homepage, this is typically done trough "friending" someone.  

The big questions are: why are people using these sites?  How are individuals, news outlets, corporations, and non profit organizations using these sites?  What impact does this have on media consumption?  All these are interesting questions surrounding the phenomenon of social networking sites and there impact.  Each site is setup in a different way and offers different features for users but why are people using these sites? 

Individuals are using these networking sites for a variety of reasons.  Many find these sites useful to stay connected with people that they are separated from by distance, typically family members, classmates, and co workers that live in other towns, states, or countries.  These social networking sites have a strong appeal for allowing an individual to create a personalized web page with info about themselves such as pics, blogs, and status updates for there friends and family to view allowing for people to stay connected.  

Another interesting aspect of these social networking sites is how news media, corporations, and non profit organizations are beginning to find very useful ways to interact with people.  These sites allow for news stories to be posted and shared among people as well as a direct interaction with media journalists.  A journalists can set up a homepage the same way an individual and post blogs about various news stories.  The unique advantage to using a social networking site is the ability for a large audience to view the media as well as interact by posting comments of there own. The New York Times has a homepage that gives news story updates and invites people to provide there input and comment on there stories.  This provides a dimension to news media that is not possible with newspapers, or television news it becomes an interactive way rather than media just being  a one way media it has the ability to be a two way media.  In a very similar way corporations can advertise job openings and market products to consumers.  With large networks and the ability for people to pass along information easily and for free the web sites become powerful marketing tools. 

Non profit organizations are able to tap in to this marketing as well which help bring awareness to their organization and information about how individuals can contribute to the organization.  Organizations like the American Red Cross are able to set up home pages that can feature very current updates on various activities in a much easier and faster way than a normal website can. 

The new and innovative aspect of these sites is not only how we are able to interact with our media and people in our networks but how seamlessly these sites can incorporate different media forms.  Social networking sites can be filled with video, print, music, movies, and radio.  An example of how many medias can be interwoven through a social networking site is how radio sports talk host Jim Rome uses Facebook to bring multi media platforms together in one place. Jim Rome hosts a radio sports talks show as well as a TV show on ESPN.  He has recently created a Facebook fan page.  On this page he gives updates on the topics that will be discussed on his radio and TV show as well as posts videos related to the topics that are discussed.  This Facebook page brings together TV, Radio, Video, and other media forms all together in one place available for people to view, share, and interact with. 

The example of Jim Rome reinforces the idea of the long tail theory of the Internet as well.  Not even radio is excluded from being available to thousands or millions of people, quite literally there everything is available to us on the net.  Corporations benefit from being able to market to people they may not have been able to reach, and consumers have more options to chose from and this can be all brought together on one social networking sites.  The best part of it all is that there are different networking sites to chose from as well, giving more options to individuals as to which sites provide them with what they want. 

 In addition to networking these sites also lend a hand in people finding a forum for sharing ideas, and self expression. An individual can post videos, blogs, music, pictures, art or whatever they chose to share on these networking sites.  This is also why Creative Commons is an important licensing tool for internet users looking to collaborate through these sites with others. (see previous post about CC licensing)  The possibilities are endless and are available in a variety of forms.  Anyone can connect to these websites from a computer, phone, or internet tablet and the tools are free for all to use.