Social Networking

Social networking has evolved into not only a tool for individuals to maintain and form social ties but also into a platform where businesses compete for market share. Social Networking can be used to increase a company’s revenue by attracting consumers and keeping them informed.  The two-way dialogue offered by sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter engage the consumer and encourage feedback.  This information can be used to better gauge how a company is performing as perceived by their client base.   From a marketing perspective, my company has made it a point to make a presence on Facebook.  We now have pages specifically for our various shows, each of which is building a steady following.  This is great marketing for a start-up like ours and it is relatively economical.  We can better understand what our audience expects to see on our broadcast TV network.

Interestingly, to quote Maureen Crawford-Hentz, as quoted by Frank Langfitt in his November 2006 article Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting, “Social networking technology is the best thing to happen to recruiting – ever.”  Potential employers often frequent these sites, where users may post random ramblings and share photos of compromising situations.  This is the nature of social networking sites.  It is now just over 4 years since Langfitt’s article was first published and the social networking landscape has grown exponentially with over 600 million active users on Facebook alone.  However, I personally find it more interesting to consider the 90 million professionals on LinkedIn.   Here, users can follow industries and receive updates tailored to there specific wants.  I have recently joined and am working on developing my profile in order to attract new opportunities for professional growth.

There exists a serious darkside to this world of online social networks.  A quote from the Knowledge@Wharton article Leaving ‘Friendprints’: How Online Social Networks Are Redefining Privacy and Personal Security rings something straight out of Orwell’s 1984:  “Few of these users realize that the information they post, when combined with new technologies for gathering and compiling data, can create a fingerprint-like pattern of behavior.”  This can be somewhat alarming when one thinks about the implications.  Without the proper use of privacy controls, user posts are made public to the entire world, including possible identity thieves. 

Online social networking has made the world a smaller place.  It has enabled users to reconnect with past friends and former acquaintances.   This in turn has created opportunities for people to further their careers, reunite with long lost family and friends, and get to know more about the people that are part of their lives.  Personally, I can thank Facebook for helping me to reunite with my half-brother after not being in touch for over twenty years.

Social networks will continue to evolve.  I foresee a future where sites like Facebook and LinkedIn will be the go-to sites for everything from our search engine needs to our daily news updates.  The machine is already rolling and it will continue to so long as people feel a need to be a part of something.  Last I checked, we all have that need.