Online Social Networking

Online social networking is a modern phenomenon that has become widespread with recent developments in Internet and Web technology. Online social networks are also often referred to as "virtual communities", which is an extension of the traditional definition of a community. Unlike a traditional community, the virtual one can comprise people living in different geographical locations.

There are a lot of different social networking sites, each with its own format. Usually, they allow people to make contributions and comment on the contributions of others. Such interaction can be achieved via any one of the forum thread, blog or club (group) formats and, in many cases, users are allowed to exchange private messages with each other.

There are different types of the social networking sites. A traditional forum (bulletin board) can be considered the simplest form of social networking site and, of course, it is a virtual community. There are many other, more sophisticated social networking formats.

Sites like Facebook, Myspace and LiveJournal concentrate mostly on providing their members with a convenient environment to express themselves - through personal blogs - make friends, contribute content to be read by others and otherwise communicate. Other sites (e.g. YouTube) put the emphasis on sharing different kinds of content (in the case of YouTube it is video streams), though it is also possible to comment on the content contributed by others.

Social bookmarking sites (e.g. Digg, Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon) are in a different class. On these sites, you can bookmark an interesting article or a picture (movie/audio) you came across in a blog or other online resource and share it with others. Bookmarks that receive the largest number of votes from other members go to the top. Comments are allowed, too, to exchange opinions on the bookmarked resources.

Business networking sites, which are chiefly designed to help people establish contacts with potential customers, while still maintaining all the basic principles of an online community, stand alone. The most prominent business networking sites are LinkedIn, Xing and Ecademy amongst others. While typical social networking sites are usually free to join, when you join a business networking service, you'll most likely have to pay for the privilege of having access to advanced features and the more you pay, the more privileges you get. For example, Ecademy has three levels of membership: basic, Power Networker (Orange Star) and BlackStar. The first one is free, but this means you won't be able to do much proactively on the platform, other than just browse the site and reply to certain kinds of messages. The BlackStar membership opens up access to accelerated networking and more business opportunities, but it is very expensive, so the majority of paying members go for the Power Networker option, which lets them enjoy the most important features of the site like initiating contacts, running your own clubs, posting blogs & Marketplace adverts, etc.

While catering to most people's expectations, like the "sense of community" or the "sense of efficacy", which can motivate users to join virtual communities and contribute to them on a regular basis, the virtual communities do have their drawbacks. Many regular contributors develop so-called "Internet Addiction Disorder", which is considered a 21st century problem and, for some, it's just as dangerous as drug addiction or alcoholism.

Another problem associated with social networking is spam. Once the social networking sites started appearing online, people quickly recognised their usefulness for business development. While there are a lot of ways to promote your business in online communities ethically and honestly (which usually means "indirectly"), people wanting quick results often resort to blatant spam, abusing both public and private features of the community websites to hard-sell their services to other members, mass-email the members of groups or "drop" (insert) links to their websites. The link-drops have another purpose apart from attracting people's attention: an attempt at gaining authority in the major search engines.

In spite of all the problems, social networking is here to stay. It blends perfectly with the concept of Web 2.0, and the networking sites are growing in number and increasing their membership and income at tremendous rates. Many commentators believe that the importance of business networking in the continual process of promoting businesses and finding work will grow with time.