Social Networking

By Author: Micheal Roberts
Total Articles: 29
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A social network is a social structure made up of individuals (or organizations) called "nodes", which are tied (connected) by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.
Social network analysis views social relationships in terms of network theory consisting of nodes and ties (also called edges, links, or connections). Nodes are the individual actors within the networks, and ties are the relationships between the actors. The resulting graph-based structures are often very complex. There can be many kinds of ties between the nodes. Research in a number of academic fields has shown that social networks operate on many levels, from families up to the level of nations, and play a critical ...
... role in determining the way problems are solved, organizations are run, and the degree to which individuals succeed in achieving their goals.
In its simplest form, a social network is a map of specified ties, such as friendship, between the nodes being studied. The nodes to which an individual is thus connected are the social contacts of that individual. The network can also be used to measure social capital - the value that an individual gets from the social network. These concepts are often displayed in a social network diagram, where nodes are the points and ties are the lines.
On the internet, social networking is the process and practice of individuals, businesses and other types of organizations to interact with each other through common web sites and specialized areas within those websites for the purpose of sharing, gaining, propagating and discussing all manner of information.
The first significant Social Network online was AOL which offered countless chat rooms, discussion groups, news groups et al whereby individuals shared common space and common interests to share or promote ideas, experiences, insights as well as simply to talk and connect with others, if for no other reason to make a new friend or just have someone to talk with.
In recent years, social networking online has literally exploded along with the growth of the internet and new internet technologies and capacities. MySpace hit the scene and was a smash providing people to the opportunity to create their own pages, invite friends, post content in the form of music, photos and virtually anything digital. This is my first recollection of truly viral online phenomenon; creative individuals with great music or other content had their creativity shared exponentially by more and more people. The best ones even made it to traditional media for being internet wonders. YouTube has seen even wider acceptance and usage over the past few years providing anyone the opportunity to post home-made videos. One out of every 4 searches on the internet today is a YouTube search seeking multimedia content for countless topics and interests.
Facebook, and more recently, Twitter have exploded on the scene providing two very popular portals with distinctly different approaches.
Facebook is more of a personal networking site as it promotes reconnecting with old high school, college, post graduate and former corporate friends and associates. Many have extended their networks to include commercial interests as well. Blogs, in and of itself, a form of social networking, is often linked throughRSS (Really Simple Syndication) on
Facebook pages so those within one's personal network can view the blogposts on the home page of the Facebook user.
Twitter is not considered as personal as Facebook in my estimation. Twitter is a microblogging site that limits all single posts to a limit of 140 characters.Twitter's open interface has paved the way for countless tools and utilities that allow users to build large networks of followers. Building a large loyal network of followers can be very powerful if you are able to provide your followers with worthwhile comment and content that is unique, helpful, entertaining and engaging. For example, you can Tweet about a new blogposts or article or song that you've written and link to it. If your content is great, you will find that more and more Tweeps will follow you.
Crystal Planet Solutions, a web development and web design company, provide Social Networking.