Social Networking sites are all different in some respects, but they all have some things in common.

Common Social Network Characteristics

1. As the name implies, they are “social”, and revolve around a community of users who are all actively participating in some way (rather than just passively reading).
2. The users are usually “sharing” something with each other.
3. The users are often giving their opinions of something, either through ratings or approval/disapproval systems.
4. The “shared items” are generally displayed more prominently based upon their ratings and/or popularity, which is based upon how the users rated them.

What gets shared is usually the biggest differentiator amongst the sites.

Examples of Things That Get Shared

1. Bookmarks. Users share bookmarks (most often tagged) with other users. Bookmarking a site implies the user likes the site. Tagging the site gives meaning and context to the bookmark. For example, a discount shoe site might be bookmarked and tagged with the following tags: “shoes, shoe, sale, discount, cheap, footwear, bargain”. When a user wants to find shoes at a bargain price, he or she could search the social bookmark site for pages that other users have liked and have tagged with some of those words. Like any good social site, the more people who bookmark a particular page and the more similar tags that page gets, the more likely it will be presented to a user when that user is searching for that tag. (Please note that the term “bookmark” here does not mean the actual bookmarks you have in your browser, but the concept is the same. When you bookmark a page on a social bookmarking site, the bookmark usually does NOT get saved in your browser).
2. News/Articles/Stories/Posts. Users share news items they find interesting with other users. You can swap out the word news with almost anything (articles, stories, posts) and it will still function the same way. We’ll stick to news for the moment in the example. Let’s say you read a breaking news item on CNN.com that a famous celebrity got mad at a paparazzi, shooting all four of his tires in front of crowds of people. If you read that news item, you might jump on your favorite celebrity social news site to tell everyone about it. You’d usually do so by giving an interesting title to your piece (so people will want to see more), a short description, and a link to the original news article. After users read the story, they would then give your submission a Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down. If you wasted their time by sending them to a lame story, you’d probably get a lot of negative votes. If you helped them find informative, interesting things, you’d probably get a lot of positive votes. If you were the owner of a web page that received many positive votes, your page would, in turn, receive a lot of traffic.
3. Reviews. Users share their reviews of things…local restaurants, favorite books, etc. Enough said.
4. Themselves. Users share themselves, their likes and dislikes, as well as the rhythm of their lives via places like Facebook.

I’m sure there are lots of other examples of things being shared via social sites, but that should be enough to help you understand what social networking is all about. Now get out there and network!

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2007. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: approval/disapproval systems, CNN, discount shoe site, favorite social news site, good social site, politician, SMO, social bookmark site, social bookmarking site, social bookmarks, social networking, social networks, social news, the CNN news, Willie Nelson
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