What do those 3 websites have in common?
If the answer does not stare back at you, well, I think it’s either you haven’t been surfing the Internet for long enough. Or perhaps you have been ignorant about the countless emails that you probably have received from your friends in your inbox.
Well, for your benefit, all 3 sites are similar because they are social networking sites.
What prompted me to blog about this post? That’s coz I just received yet another invitation to join ANOTHER social networking site. I’m frankly quite tired of doing so, because the same friend that invited me, is in another social networking site that I am in too. So, what’s the point? I certainly don’t have so much time to manage the many profiles that I have at the different social networking sites! gosh.
But come to think about it, what’s the beauty of such social networking sites or what makes it work so successfully and virally in fact in the online cyberspace? It’s rather simple. The ease of letting the world know who you are just by joining, creating a profile, finding friends, adding friends and building up your own network!
It’s uses the idea of viral marketing because when a person joins the a social networking site, he/she would want his/her friends to join and hence, would send out invitations to get them to join. In order words, refer them through emails. If it becomes massive, almost everyone everywhere would have an account with the social networking site and well, the entire world is connected.
Did you know that the first social networking website was Classmates.com?
Social networking is a great online tool for people to stay connected to one another and also to find old, long lost friends or to make new ones. It’s interesting how it is able to let you find people of common interests, common educational background (for instance, school or college) and also beliefs and values.
Did you know that Friendster was created in 2002?
Well, Friendster has got to be the first social networking site that i joined since October 2003 and I’m still keeping it active as it holds all the contacts that I know from Primary school to university. Well, one reason why people adore social networking sites is because it gives the user control – control over what profile details to enter, what pictures to put up, which videos to share, who to add as a friend etc etc. It’s stepping into Web 2.0 where ‘the user holds the power’.
By the way, do you know that Google has a social network called Orkut, launched in 2004?
That was a fact that I didn’t know and I must say that it really lost out to the big players such as MySpace and Friendster. I might be wrong. Do correct me ya?
So what goes on in a social networking site?
1. Founders of the site send out messages inviting members of their own personal networks to join the site.
2. The process is repeated by the individual members!
3. Growth of number of members on the site and links in the network.
4. Members utilise the features available on the site. Common ones include, the friend updates, viewable profiles, adding friends and inviting friends, blog, file sharing etc.
5. Communities/ Groups within the social networking site increases when people come together in niche groups such as travel, art and gaming.
Through this simple process, everyone gets connected to everyone and you get to meet and chat with new people! It’s a great way to get to know people as well as find old friends whom you probably have lost contact over the years. So, interested to find out more about social networking sites? Just visit one today!
Interested to find out what is social networking all about, just visit my profile at Friendster!
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