Social Networking

Social Networking

Matthew ButchMatthew Butch

Goals

• Cover the history of social networking

• Detail the benefits and concerns of social networking

• Explain the uses of social networking in various environments

Defintion

• Social networking: The most commonly held definition is “Internet- or mobile-device-based social spaces designed to facilitate communication, collaboration and content sharing across networks of contacts

• Examples:

• Facebook

• MySpace

• LinkedIn

Uses

• Personal

• Business

• Educational

Uses: Personal

• Making and developing friendships/contacts

• Finding content and information

• Collaborating with other people

• Authoring and sharing content

• Posting life updates

Uses: Business

• Create brand awareness

• Online reputation management

• Recruit customers and employees

• Learn about new technologies and competitors

Uses: Educational

• Collaboration and participation between students, parents, and teachers

• Professional development

• Continuous learning

History: Beginnings

• Bulletin Board Systems- first social networks

• Allowed people to dial in to talk and share files

History: Beginnings

• Geocities and Tripod came later

• Allowed users to upload webpages and chat in rooms

History: Rise

• SixDegrees (1997) started the rise of the social networking sites

• Very primitive: only allowed friending and messaging

• Shut down in 2000

History: Rise

• Friendster (2002) improved upon SixDegrees

• Introduced more profile information as well as pictures

• Popular in Asia

History: Rise

• Myspace (2002) founded by employees of another company with Friendster accounts

• Saw potential and built upon it

• Allowed customization of hopepage

• Became #1 social networking site

History: Rise

• Facebook (2004), originally college only

• Created by college students to find other students in their classes

• Opened to all in 2006

• now #1 social networking site, based on visits

Description

• Social networking services based on user accounts

• allow the users to add information about themselves

• name and location

• interests and hobbies

• professional and educational background

• allow communication with other users

• Communication and sharing can be between user and

• everybody

• friends of friends

• friends

• certain friends

Advantages and Benefits

• Easy communication between individuals

• Collaboration between like minded individuals

• Discovering new individuals and information

• Sharing information between individuals

• Participation and feedback from all parties

Considerations (design, development,

implementation)

• Privacy is a paramount concern.

• Choosing a service that fits the design.

• Adding accounts can be troublesome.

Leading Tools

• Facebook

• LinkedIn

• MySpace

• Ning

Questions?Questions?