Eva-Maria: Social Networking Sites 101

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After extensive research, my findings have shown that no one, in fact, on the internet, has any sort of idea about the number of people visiting social sites every single day.

I have come across conclusions on Facebook being visited over 1,500,000 times daily, in another statistic, Hi5 somehow ended up as 4th most visited site (sorry...the last time I checked, Hi5 was a kid's TV program here in New Zealand) with 20,000 people visiting the site daily (doesn't seem like a believable statistic to qualify for top 5 most visited social sites).

Anyway, my rambling comes to the following three points I'd like to bring up:

#1. Why are Social Sites Important?

#2. What is it about social sites that makes people join?

#3. Should we even bother with them?

#1: Why are Social Sites important?

Firstly, no matter how bad the statistics are at agreeing on the fact that a VERY LARGE NUMBER of people go on social sites every single day all over the world, it has been described as a gold mine by many business 'gurus'. Bottom line: there is no other sort of sites that have this many visitors daily. Visitors that keep both multiplying, and coming back ALMOST EVERY SINGLE DAY. It is a way to be seen, be heard, be part of groups, clubs, messages, blogs, and connect with people such as little Johnny you saw in the playground when you were 8.

Real life example: My Facebook swears my ex-boyfriend (who I went out with for a week when I was 14) is in fact my 'friend', and whenever I want to, I can always engage in a virtual game of Poker through a request he sent me about 6 months ago...so I can always take him up on that, without a) actually speaking to him, and b) without actually seeing him for the past 5 years.

So there you have it:

• You can literally count your popularity by the amount of 'friends' you add

• Find long-lost friends

• Socialize

• Show off your recent pictures

• Use it for business networking - business is all about relationships between people, and social networking is a casual, semi-professional way to socialize with potential clients, partners, and whatnot. This is the real reason why some people who know how to build their relationships online swear that social networking has doubled and tripled their business. So don't think social sites are purely a waste of time!

#2: So, what is it about social sites that makes people join?

Because everyone else is. If your friends are talking about joining some group on Facebook, you'd look a bit silly if you were the only one that didn't have a Facebook, so I guess you'd make a mental note to sign up that evening. Well, I mean that's how I got addicted to MySpace when I was 16...

#3: Should we even bother with them?

Yes!

For one thing, it's the latest hype, and many people you know or are related to probably have them.
For another thing, it is the perfect way to get to teenagers.

Teenagers use all these social sites - they socialize on there for hours and hours, and it is the perfect way to be part of their world and understand it a little bit better - if you Twitter once, you'll get addicted!...Maybe...

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Biggest Social Sites Tip: Don't stalk teens online!

Make a social network page for yourself because you want to/need to, not because you want to stalk a teenager you know.

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WORLD'S HOTTEST SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES RIGHT NOW

Facebook
Famous for finding long-lost friends online. Has very recently become the 'it' thing for er...adults (that's anyone over 20 for me)

MySpace
Became famous for its music and the option to put up music of your band, singing, and what not. I used to love it because you can fully personalize it - you can just have a photo of you and a comment box on your 'profile' and that's it...so it makes you a bit more knowledgeable about HTML codes.

Bebo
EVERY single one of my friends has Bebo. And even big companies like Telecom have followed the trend - advertising Bebo as a cell phone application to boost sales, competitions on their Bebo page. If you're a business looking for something that will hit it big with teens, I would hands down say you NEED to be on Bebo (and give Luv once in a while! :) ).

Twitter
Has taken the world by storm, because of all the celebrities using it. I didn't see what the big deal is, and have only recently become a bit of an addict. Basically you can update the entire world (or at least your 'followers') about what you're doing at this precise moment. Handy.

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Happy Social Networking and Un-Stalking! :)

Eva-Maria
<3
www.trustyourfuture.com

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Published 2nd Sep 2009

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