The Right Social Networking Website

By Author: Mel Bryson
Total Articles: 223
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For many people, their professional social networking isn't something that begins and ends in person; they extend this into the online reality via a professional networking website. Many also find that in some cases a social networking website also serves to connect them with others in their industry. As more and more goes online, as it will certainly continue to do, it will be important to have a presence online. Not being online would be like not being in the phone book in the year 1970...you wouldn't be found by anyone who didn't already know about your services. Of course, being online also helps to keep you up to date in your industry. There's nothing like learning about the newest technology in an online forum, months before you begin seeing it in any industry publications. So, how do you find the right social networking site?

To begin with, you want to find a trustworthy site. How do you know if a site is trustworthy? Well, unfortunately they don't come with little stamps that tell you that, and as far as I know, there isn't any such stamp out there to begin with. You can start by making sure there is ...
... information about the company itself. You may also want to check out where they are located, and where their servers are located. In the United States, there are laws that protect your personal information, but this isn't the case everywhere in the world, and you certainly don't want your info being transmitted elsewhere.

Look into the site's reputation. Read reviews to see what kinds of experiences other people have had with the site. It is usually best to look for reviews that are published outside the site in question, as the reviews published on the main page of the site themselves are actually a little something called advertising and promotion. It is also extremely helpful to use your common sense. If you are being charged money simply to access the site, question why. Social networking sites, on the whole, do not cost money. If money does change hands, look for it to be services gained. For example, free user account may have unlimited pictures and a limited number of videos they can upload. By upgrading the account for a fee, the account holder would then have a larger number of videos allowed.

Be sure to explore the different options for network sites, and if you find several that you think could benefit you, then join them all. A little extra visibility never hurt anyone.