Have You Been Poked?

The lecture this week was on social networking and I sound really sad but it was actually very interesting.   

Social networking has evolved into a must have for the majority of the population and there can’t be many people out there that haven’t heard of it.  Websites now allow users to create a profile which is either public (everyone can see it) or private and they can search for users with similar interests, add them as friends or just have a sneak peak at their profile information.  

Social networks are transparent as you can see your friends and their friends depending on the privacy settings and regulations of the site.  They have rules that users must abide by and the content is not just text as you can have photos and videos.

My uncle who’s in his 80’s (it doesn’t matter if you lie about your date of birth, your wrinkles give it away) is on Facebook and what’s more he posts regularly.  Hey I’m after a holiday, maybe I should start replying!  Facebook is arguably the social network that most people know of, even if they’re not a member, and the history of Facebook, for those of you that don’t know, was even made into a film.   

Facebook has roughly 600 million users and one of the reasons it became so popular is because it was something that only students at Harvard University in America could join.  America has lots of societies and frat houses and Facebook became the thing to join because people thought they were missing out on something that their friends were using.  If everyone else is using it no one wants to be left out.  So, as more people spoke about Facebook more people wanted to join and it’s now pretty much essential to have a Facebook page.

 

It's possible that another factor that helped to increase Facebook’s popularity is that you can access it and update it from your mobile phone.  Modern mobile phones are sold with Facebook already installed.  So convenient!  Now there's no reason not to reply to my favourite uncle.  

Social networks in the past such as Myspace, which at one time was popular in the UK, were based on a common interest of the users such as music and nowadays sites are influenced by where in the world the users are.  For instance Facebook is the social network of choice in the UK with about 23 million users  but Douban, which has roughly 500 million users worldwide, is the no 1 choice in China. 

 

So what are all these users doing on their social networks?  They’re connecting to other users through friends, family, location, education, interests like sports, music, animals, playing games (go POGO!), the list is endless!  

It’s all about how you relate to other people but how many of us have social network friends but don’t have conversations with them in real life?  I’ve got friends who talk to me all the time on Facebook but when I see them on the street we barely say 2 words.  Weird ????  

Social networks could be used for keeping up with friends or family that you might not see on a regular basis but now it’s used more and more to talk to the people you see every day.   I’ve got a friend who talks to her boyfriend on Facebook when they're in bed and what’s more he answers her!  You know who you are.....

There are so many ways to communicate within Facebook that does anyone use any other way now?  We all use the chat.  We all use the email instead of our personal email.  We all wink.  We all poke.  We all share pictures and videos.  Some of us play games.  Some of us join or create groups.  Some of us are obsessed with updating our status but all of us post messages.  We post on our wall so everyone can see it or post on someone else’s wall and we all use this way to communicate instead of talking on the phone or, in Claire’s case, in person.  Whoops!  

How many of you log in to Facebook at every opportunity or start to panic about what you’re missing if you have to switch off your phone or there's no internet access on your PC?   

Social networking is becoming a much bigger part of everyday life.  Businesses are using this need for social interaction to increase product/service awareness or get free marketing information and since we all have friends, who have friends, who have friends, there’s no limit to the amount of people businesses can reach.

Businesses are starting to switch on to the fact that it’s the part of the population with a disposable income, the old gits (anyone over 29 to all you young things) that are using social networks.   

The age profile for Facebook users is highest in the 35 to 54 year old bracket which is the people who have more money saved, earn more so spend more and 77% of all Facebook users are over 25 years old so it clearly appeals to the more mature market. 

More businesses are creating their own pages on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.  Businesses are adding links to social networks on their websites.  They’re using RSS feeds to link to their blogs on social networking sites and getting users to become fans or ‘like’ them in order to advertise their products or services.  For those of you that don't know if you click on the 'like' button it is displayed to all your friends that you've endorsed the product or service and whenever the company posts on their wall it's displayed on your wall.  So if for instance the company posts about a new product, hopefully chocolate based, not only do you get to know about it but all your friends do too.  It's very easy to see why this is useful for businesses. 

Find me on Facebook

Practical soul that I am I decided to create a Facebook page for a local business to learn for myself how easy it is to set up this facility and what the costs involved are.  How easy was it I hear you cry?  And what did it cost?  Well it was very easy to join but you do need some technical ability to set up a business page and the bonus was that it was free!  Advertising would cost me just 68 pence a day which is a bargain, although at the time of going to press I only have  4 ‘likes’ which makes it a bit expensive but companies the size of Marks and Spencers would manage to pay this no problem, unlike me! 

Marks & Spencers have a particularly good social network presence and use this to get feedback from customers and reach new customers.  Marks & Spencers post regularly and when customers comment on these posts, they’ll be seen by the customer’s friends, reaching a much larger audience.  Customers may well use posts to recommend items to friends or identify new offers either in stores or online.   

Businesses are social environments so should be making the most of social networking tools.  To learn more about this I joined LinkedIn which is a social network aimed at the business community and is used for professional networking.  

It's not so much used for advertising your business, although you can at a cost, as much as helping you get in touch with people who can help you take your business further or climb the career ladder.  

LinkedIn has approximately 6 million users in the UK, that's a lot of corporate schmoozing!

The idea is that you list your employment history, capabilities, goods or services and connect with people you know, even if they're not members, and this gives you direct connections (the people you know) and the connections of your direct connections are the 2nd degree connections and their connections are the 3rd degree connections and so on.  Still with me?  The idea is that you get to meet the right people easily through people you know who will benefit you.  Quite calculating isn't it?  But if anyone can get me in touch with Sir Alan Sugar I'm all for it!
 
LinkedIn lets you find employment, new employees or identify business opportunities as employers advertise positions or search for candidates and potential employees can upload their cv or as they call it a resume.  Suits you sir!

Members can follow particular companies and bookmark jobs that appeal to them.   I’ve bookmarked a few but I'm holding out for Sir Alan to come and headhunt me.  Headhunting is common so there’s a good chance he'll find me one day.  COME AND GET ME!!!

People looking for employment can target organisations they want to work for and use their ‘connections’ to introduce themselves.   You can research companies and check their statistics including things like how many people they employ, where they operate from and more importantly who their employees are or have been.   Members have photos and you can view photos to help you see what a potential employer looks like before meeting them in the flesh.  It's a bit like being a cyber stalker.  Or so I've been told. 

A feature I thought was quite innovative was on your profile you can list books you’re reading, although I don’t really want to advertise that I’m reading ‘Midnight Desires’ to prospective employers especially since once they read my blog they'll never employ me!

There's a discussion board which lets members post questions or respond to questions, which only members have access to, and you can see who placed the post and any responders.  With pictures!   

Another feature is Polls although there didn’t seem to be many people answering maybe because since they're all business people they felt that this was too much like market research which could be done on Facebook.    

Members of LinkedIn can join groups by educational backgrounds, industry, profession or other relevant topic.  I'll leave you guessing as to what I went for but if you do decide to join LinkedIn you may want to check out the professional stalkers.