Social Networking

Social networking sites have become very popular in recent years. Most were started with just individuals as users with a possible agenda of meeting new people or keeping in touch with friends. Many members of social networks use the site to find former classmates, old friends they’ve lost contact with or even meet some new ones! Others also found it as a good way to market themselves. For example in the article Moguls of New Media, Christine Dolce who had nearly 1 million friends on MySpace. On her page, she built her to attract the young generation by putting up celebrity photos, music and somewhat provocative of pictures of herself. Now being the most connected person on MySpace, she has her own manager, beginning her own jeans company and won promo deals for Axe and Zippo lighters. Individuals can also look for career opportunities in LinkedIn.com.

However, it’s not just individuals making use of social networking sites; businesses are getting into it too. They may not be using sites like MySpace or Friendster. They have their social networking sites just for their company. Take Nissan for example: Nissan made a site, N-Square, for its employees around the world. The purpose was to help spread and communicate ideas quickly while avoiding bureaucracy (Hall, 2007).
Rufus Jay talked about Mars using Facebook to sell products in a different way in his article “Real Facebook shop in virtual world breathes life into Mars”. In Facebook, I can send one a virtual gift to anyone of my friends on my list. Mars’ uses that concept to be able to send someone an actual product to people; recipients are sent a message in which they enter their mobile number and they can redeem the gift at participating stores. Whether this is successful or not, it is definitely a new, innovative way to market products.

And, there is a “darkside” to social networking sites. “Leaving ‘FriendPrints’: How Online Social Networks Are Redefining Privacy and Personal Security” addressed one of negative side of those sites. The information the people give out on site such as name and birth date can open doors for identity theft. Because users seem to like having a huge circle of ‘friends,’ it is hard to tell who can be trusted and who can’t. Going back to the Nissan article regarding their social networking site, the issue of employees using the site more as virtual lunch room rather than its purpose of spreading ideas is a downside to this. It defeats the purpose of having the site if people would not use it for the benefit of the company. We have heard of suicides blamed on social networking site. The one that sticks out in my mind is the young teenage girl who committed suicide because of a boy in MySpace who was really a mother who made a fake profile. It seems that people can always find a way to misuse these sites. However, I don’t think this is any different from the physical world. People will still gossip, can find someway to steal identity or make someone feel horrible. With new media, it’s just a new and faster way to do it.

I think the concept of social networking sites will continue to grow and more sites will be born catering to specific groups. Their popularity will lead more businesses to use them in their strategy. The Facebook application that Mars launched is a creative way to market their products. Given that it’s new, it’ll have flaws; however, with time more there will be improvements to the idea.