SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES

Social networking site like Facebook, Twitter, My Space or LinkedIn are fairly different from each other, however – Facebook is particularly good at promoting events, while Twitter is  particularly good for connecting with like-minded organizations and the media and LinkedIn provides an interesting way to network with potential new supporters.

On Facebook you can set up a profile, and post updates, links, conversations, events, photos, videos, petitions. Someone who “like” your page, comment on your picture see updates without needing to navigate to your page.

Where as Twitter lets you send out a stream of short messages called “tweets”—for instance, updates about what you’re doing. People can choose to “follow” your tweets, and if they particularly like one they can “retweet” it. To me its like a radio station—you’re broadcasting into the ether, and it’s hard to know who. Twitter is particularly good for connecting with like-minded organizations and the media, asking questions, and providing very frequent updates.

Also LinkedIn is an interesting site that falls somewhere between social networking. Each person sets up a  profile which is similar to a resume, and can then link to other people that they know.  Targeted at professionals interested in professional networking, it’s likely to be of particular interest to groups whose mission is to support people in their jobs or who have a focus on professional networking.

MySpace is similar to Facebook. In 2008, the two were running neck to neck in terms of usage numbers. Since then, however, Facebook has seen a huge boom in popularity, and MySpace a substantial decline. However, MySpace has a large emphasis on music and musicians. It’s worth checking.