New Media in Social Networking

Social Networking Service


A social networking service is a platform to build social networks or social relations among people who, for example, share interests, activities, backgrounds, or real-life connections. A social network service consists of a representation of each user (often a profile), his/her social links, and a variety of additional services. Most social network services are web-based and provide means for users to interact over the Internet, such as e-mail and instant messaging. Online community services are sometimes considered as a social network service, though in a broader sense, social network service usually means an individual-centered service whereas online community services are group-centered. Social networking sites allow users to share ideas, pictures, posts, activities, events, and interests with people in their network.

The main types of social networking services are those that contain category places (such as former school year or classmates), means to connect with friends (usually with self-description pages), and a recommendation system linked to trust. Popular methods now combine many of these, with American-based services such as Facebook, Google+, Tumblr and Twitter widely used worldwide; Nexopia in Canada; Badoo, Bebo, VKontakte, Delphi (online service) (also called Delphi Forums), Draugiem.lv (mostly in Latvia), Hi5, Hyves (mostly in The Netherlands), iWiW (mostly in Hungary), Nasza-Klasa, Soup (mostly in Poland), Glocals in Switzerland, Skyrock, The Sphere, StudiVZ (mostly in Germany), Tagged, Tuenti (mostly in Spain), and XING in parts of Europe; Hi5 and Orkut in South America and Central America; Mxit in Africa; and Cyworld, Mixi, Orkut, renren, weibo and Wretch in Asia and the Pacific Islands.

There have been attempts to standardize these services to avoid the need to duplicate entries of friends and interests (see the FOAF standard and the Open Source Initiative). A 2011 survey found that 47% of American adults use a social networking service.

Types of social networks


1. Social Connections

Keeping in touch with friends and family members is one of the greatest benefits of social networking. Here is a list of the most widely-used websites for building social connections online.

Facebook: Arguably the most popular social media utility, Facebook provides a way for users to build connections and share information with people and organizations they choose to interact with online.

Twitter: Share your thoughts and keep up with others via this real-time information network.

Google +: This relatively new entrant to the social connection marketplace is designed to allow users to build circles of contacts that they are able to interact with and that is integrated with other Google products

MySpace: Though it initially began as a general social media site, MySpace has evolved to focus on social entertainment, providing a venue for social connections related to movies, music games and more.

2. Multimedia Sharing

Social networking makes it easy to share video and photography content online. Here are some of the most popular sites for multimedia sharing.

YouTube: Social media platform that allows users to share and view video content

Flickr: This site provides a powerful option for managing digital photographs online, as well as for sharing them with others.

Picasa: Similar to Flickr, Picasa provides a way to organize and share photos. It is a Google product and so offers integrated tagging and sharing with Google+.

3. Professional

Professional social networks are designed to provide opportunities for career-related growth. Some of these types of networks provide a general forum for professionals to connect, while others are focused on specific occupations or interests. A few examples of professional social networks are listed below.

LinkedIn: As of November of 2011, LinkedIn had more than 135 million members, making it the largest online professional network. Participants have an opportunity to build relationships by making connections and joining relevant groups.

Classroom 2.0: Social network specifically designed to help teachers connect, share and help each other with profession-specific matters.

Nurse Connect: Online community designed to help individuals in the nursing profession connect and communicate with each other.

4. Informational

Informational communities are made up of people seeking answers to everyday problems. For example, when you are thinking about starting a home improvement project or want to learn how to go green at home, you may perform a web search and discover countless blogs, websites, and forums filled with people who are looking for the same kind of information. A few examples include:

Super Green Me: Online community where individuals interested in adopting green living practices can interact

HGTV Discussion Forums: Connect with individuals interested in home design improvement via the HGTV message boards

Do-It-Yourself Community: Social media resource to allow do-it-yourself enthusiasts to interact with each other

5. Educational

Educational networks are where many students go in order to collaborate with other students on academic projects, to conduct research for school, or to interact with professors and teachers via blogs and classroom forums. Educational social networks are becoming extremely popular within the educational system today. Some examples of such educational social networks are listed below.

The Student Room: UK-based student community featuring a moderated message board and useful resources related to school

The Math Forum: A large educational network designed to connect students with an interest in math, this site provides interaction opportunities for students by age group.

ePALS School Blog: This international social network for K-12 students is designed to build international connections to promote world peace.

6. Hobbies

One of the most popular reasons many people use the Internet is to conduct research on their favorite projects or topics of interest related to personal hobbies. When people find a website based on their favorite hobby, they discover a whole community of people from around the world who share the same passion for those interests. This is what lies at the heart of what makes social networks work, and this is why social networks that are focused on hobbies are some of the most popular. A few examples of hobby-focused social networking sites include:

Oh My Bloom: Social media site specifically for gardening enthusiasts. It features groups, forums, blogs, video content and more.

My Place at Scrapbook.com: Designed specifically for scrapbooking enthusiasts, users can create profiles, share information, post updates and more.

Sport Shouting: An online destination for sports fans to voice their opinions and connect with other enthusiasts.

7. Academic

Academic researchers who want to share their research and review results achieved by colleagues may find academic-specific social networking to be quite valuable. A few of the most popular online communities for academics are:

Academia.edu: Users of this academic social network can share their own research, as well as follow research submitted by others.

Connotea Collaborative Research: Online resource for scientists, researchers and clinical practitioners to find, organize and share useful information.

History
The potential for computer networking to facilitate newly improved forms of computer-mediated social interaction was suggested early on. Efforts to support social networks via computer-mediated communication were made in many early online services, including Usenet, ARPANET, LISTSERV, and bulletin board services (BBS). Many prototypical features of social networking sites were also present in online services such as America Online, Prodigy, CompuServe, ChatNet, and The WELL. Early social networking on the World Wide Web began in the form of generalized online communities such as Theglobe.com (1995), Geocities (1994) and Tripod.com (1995). Many of these early communities focused on bringing people together to interact with each other through chat rooms, and encouraged users to share personal information and ideas via personal webpages by providing easy-to-use publishing tools and free or inexpensive webspace. Some communities - such as Classmates.com - took a different approach by simply having people link to each other via email addresses. In the late 1990s, user profiles became a central feature of social networking sites, allowing users to compile lists of "friends" and search for other users with similar interests. New social networking methods were developed by the end of the 1990s, and many sites began to develop more advanced features for users to find and manage friends. This newer generation of social networking sites began to flourish with the emergence of SixDegrees.com in 1997, followed by Makeoutclub in 2000, Hub Culture and Friendster in 2002, and soon became part of the Internet mainstream. Friendster was followed by MySpace and LinkedIn a year later, and eventually Bebo. Attesting to the rapid increase in social networking sites' popularity, by 2005, it was reported that MySpace was getting more page views than Google. Facebook, launched in 2004, became the largest social networking site in the world in early 2009. Tumblr and many others have also come up recently.