Social Networking
Social Networking: Most Popular Sites
Social Networking sites aren't just for high school & college students anymore! We have seen an explosion in the popularity of sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and twitter. These sites are used to build and maintain relationships. Some platforms are designed to target business professionals, others offer a platform for geared towards personal friendships, music/bands or common interest networking.
There are many sites that facilitate social networking, however, I'm just going to touch on the most popular ones in Part 1 of my Social Networking series.
Facebook began in 2004 by 4 Harvard students as a college social networking site and now has over 400 million active users! This has become the most popular site for social networking across all demographics. Individual users can also create "Fan Pages" for their businesses.
Twitter is a social networking and micro blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access.
Link with people you know and trust in business. Connect with current and former co-workers. Create a profile with your resume, biography and affiliations. Write and receive recommendations from other professionals. Link back to your blog, website and other profiles.
Plaxo
Plaxo is similar to LinkedIn with many of the same features. Also connects your Outlook, yahoo, gmail, and aol address books into one interface. Upgraded Pulse accounts link users profiles from other social networking, photo and review sites.
Yelp
Yelp creates a local online community by combining local peer reviews and social networking. Site visitors can read reviews on businesses, restaurants contributed by registered users. Over 31 million people access Yelp's website each month, putting it in the top 150 of U.S. Internet web sites.
MeetUp
Meetup is a portal for members to find and join common interest groups: politics, hobbies, movies, games, etc. Users can enter their topics of interest and their zip code and the website helps them find groups, arrange a time and place to meet up.
Click here to see a nearly complete list of Social Networking Sites
This article is just a start for those wanting to dip their toes into social networking. My next posts will include sites I believe real estate agents should be aware of: Trulia, Zillow and Active Rain, along with some do's & don'ts tips for online activities when participating in social networks as an individual and as a professional.
