Note: Social Media 104 is part of the Core Curriculum for Social Media University, Global (SMUG).
Visiting Professor and honorary SMUG doctoral candidate Lee LeFever, whose material also has been indispensable in Social Media 102: Intro to RSS and Social Media 103: Intro to Wikis, again has a “Plain English” video to introduce new users to the benefits of social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. Watch it:
If you want to use social networking sites for business purposes, here are a few introductory tips about each of the top three sites:
- “MySpace is for middle schoolers.” That’s the assessment of my youngest daughter, the wise-beyond-her-years high school junior. It’s an overstatement, but it does match the demographic reality that the MySpace demographic skews young. Which is why it’s a bit disturbing to me that on MySpace I get far more porn spam “friend” requests than anything else. MySpace claims a much larger user base than Facebook, but somehow I doubt that Alla, Alyson, Anna, Clarice, Esperanza, Estella, Evelyn, Gertrude, Ivy, Jaymie, Judy, Judith, Jennifer, Karan, Keeley, Mertie, Michaela, Maritza, Norine, Nisha, Patricia, Ramona, Traci, Thelma, Vanessa, Valeria and Zada are real people. But if you are an aspiring musician or otherwise want to reach a young fan base, you may want to have MySpace in your mix. For example, my friend Scott Meis with the Donate Life Illinois initiative to increase organ donation has found MySpace a great way to reach young people with his message.
- LinkedIn is the most popular strictly professional networking site. I call it “Social Networking without the social.” I know others swear by it, and I’m happy to be a member, but I don’t see it involving its users as much as either Facebook or MySpace do. If you work for a professional services firm and are looking to do hardcore networking, LinkedIn could be great. It gives you ability to provide and ask for references and recommendations.
- Facebook, with its Ivy League college roots, strikes a nice balance between the two. It’s far less susceptible to spam than MySpace is. I’ve devoted a whole section of this blog to Facebook business uses, so for Social Media 104 students who want to read ahead for extra credit, go to the Facebook Business page.
Homework Assignments:
- Visit my MySpace page. If you want to send me a friend invite, that would be great to actually have some non-spam requests. I don’t spend much time in MySpace, though, so if we want to have a SMUG class about MySpace, we probably should have a guest instructor. Any volunteers? If you think I haven’t been fair to the biggest social networking site, I’d be glad to accept a guest post about the advantages of MySpace. If you want to create a MySpace page to get more hands-on experience, that gets you extra credit, too, but it’s optional.
- Create a LinkedIn profile. Find at least five current or former work colleagues and add them to your network.
- Join Facebook. This is a remedial assignment, as it was part of Social Media 101, but if you haven’t completed this step yet, now is a great time to do it. Then you can enroll in SMUG and Friend me.
Class Discussion
Answer the following in the comments below:
- Which social networking sites have you joined?
- Do you find one of them more useful than the others for your business purposes?
- If so, which one, and why?
- Do you belong to a social networking site not mentioned above? Which one(s)? Why do you find it helpful?
6 Comments
Thanks Lee, great post.
1. With regard to Donate Life Illinois, been using MySpace, Facebook, Blogger and YouTube. Personally I’ve tried out a few other social networking/media sites such as Veoh.com and ning.com. I just checked out Pownce.com the other day as well. I think it really depends what you’re trying to accomplish. Facebook and MySpace seem to have an immediate hold on the near future do to sheer user base.
2./3. I agree with your statements above about the nature of MySpace being flooded with spammers. It’s gotten slightly better, but it’s still pretty bad. I do like the fact that MySpace is a little more open (as compared to Facebook) to connecting with others on a one-to-one basis – key to generating community around a specific issue or cause. It’s been a HUGE resource for helping us connect with transplant patients, recipients, people who want to volunteer, etc.
Facebook tends to have limitations to that end as you can only invite friends to join your group, but I suppose there is a strong arguement there for solely harnessing third party credibility. To that end, Facebook has been absolutely key for us in connecting with college students in our campus outreach efforts. YouTube and our blog have also been great in garnering national attention around a pretty localized, niche issue.
Thanks for the really helpful and thoughtful examples, Scott. This is exactly the kind of thing I hope happens with SMUG, as people with lots of practical experience with social media help others who are just getting started. Your comments will be a great resource.
I’ve joined Facebook, LinkedIn and CollectiveX. Skipping MySpace for now for the reasons mentioned above. What I’m seeing thus far is that they are all fun but not necessarily connecting me as much as I’d like to think they will. LinkedIn to me is still more about leads while Facebook offers more community. CollectiveX is a cross between. We started a group there for a small, networking group and we’re sharing documents and meeting info. I haven’t picked a favorite yet but do think that twitter and flickr will likely not be at the top. It would be interesting to find out if people on average are really separating their loyalties (use Facebook for friends, LinkedIn for business) or if they are moving to one platform preference. And also, the average time they spend on these platforms? One question for me continues to be managing these cool and ues fun tools.
What a fantastic assignment! I stumbled across this posting while researching various information points for my readers. Simple in nature yet enough to give (the participant) a course of action to get started. It seems to me like Social networking is the rave for as far as I can see.
I’ll share that I have been using Collective X since October of 2007 and it has been phenomenal. The range of professionals joining the group are as diverse and interesting as the day is long. I’ve found many belong to a variety of groupsites or social platforms, but that the offering of Collective X is definitely to their liking.
I wish each of you the best and encourage you to take a peek at my group…you might find just what you are looking for within. Location: mondaymover.collectivex.com.
1. Which social networking sites have you joined?
- Facebook
- LinkedIn
- Twitter
- MySpace (years ago, but have discontinued use)
2. Do you find one of them more useful than the others for your business purposes? If so, which one, and why?
- Facebook at Twitter would be most useful for general customer interaction and brand management. LinkedIn would be useful for recruiting and competitive information mining.
3. Do you belong to a social networking site not mentioned above? Which one(s)? Why do you find it helpful?
- Flikr: I don’t work in a very visual business, but if I did, this might be useful. Use for a portfolio maybe.
- Various old-fashioned bulletin boards. These are still heavily used but not really discussed much anymore.
I feel like I have joined every social networking site out there, including: myspace, facebook, twitter, linked in, pinterest.
I don’t really have any business needs as I am a college student, but whenever I need something done or coordinated, I would say I would use facebook.
I am on facebook basically everyday, and use it for more than just socializing.
I keep in touch with out of state friends and family.
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