Social Network

There are some incredible benefits that social networking sites have to offer. There are so many different uses for these sites, everything from finding lost friends to staying in touch with loved ones in the military. They make it easy to keep in contact with all of your friends, family, and even fans if you are a celebrity. Social networking can also be used for business purposes.

Anyone can get started with social networking sites and set up a profile for themselves. There are various different sites like this out there today but three top social networking sites in particular that are worth talking about. That includes the Facebook site for one. This is one of the first hugely popular sites of its kind and one that is only continuing to grow in popularity.

On Facebook you are able to get set up as a member, offer personal information about yourself and add friends to your friends list. You can make posts on your friends' walls, write messages, and you can even start groups for missing children or to have an online garage sale. Although the MySpace site was one that came around quite a while before Facebook, its popularity has weaned quite a bit. The simplicity of Facebook is one of the features that make it so popular, as MySpace is more about using decoration and personalization and which takes more time.

For one thing on MySpace you are able to create your own theme for your homepage, add on pictures to the main page and really personalize it. MySpace pages are more like personal webpages and take a lot more work to keep up with. Facebook on the other hand only takes a few seconds to log on and write back to messages or write a wall post and there is a live feed that tells you what all of your friends have done recently on their Facebook account. If they added pictures, made a new friend or did anything else you can read about it and stay updated with all those that you care about.

You can also write back and forth to your friends but the idea is that there are fewer features and more of an ease of use which many people prefer. Tweets are what the posts that members make are known as and Twitter is expected to only continue to rise in terms of popularity. Social networking sites are not just for the young, and in fact older aged people are relying on these sites to stay in touch with family and see updated pictures of their loved ones. More than anything, some people are concerned that it is taking away from us being personal and instead sticking to keeping in contact with people over the computer.

Gamer social network sites connect gamers from around the world and allow them to share achievements, to keep in touch with each other, to organize and play against each other, to follow gaming news, to discuss various gaming issues, and to do other social networking activities. However, you should note that some of these sites are cool and others are lame. Knowing the cool sites before registering will save you a lot of time and effort. You should not overdo your profile as this will seem pretentious. This is important because they get gamers who share their interests, such as video gamers for those in video gaming. With a refined search, gamers do not have to waste their time, energy, and resources connecting with gamers who will not help them.

UGAME is one of the most popular gamer social network sites and it is open for all players - from those who play flash games casually to serious competitive online gamers. In UGAME, you can upload pictures, keep up with friends, share videos and photos, support your favorite guilds, and organize games. The site balances the familiarity of social networking site with the unique qualities of the niche.

GAX Online is a gamer social networking site for Xbox, MMORPG PC, Playstation, and Wii. In GAX Online, you can keep in touch with friends and gamers, share videos and screenshots, and share your achievements. GAX Online has a simple design and it comes with a blog which discusses various issues in the gaming world.

Do not jump for the first gamer social network you come across. These sites are cheaper compared to other forms of advertising such as print media and television. Advertisers also get to deal with a niche market - those selling games and gaming accessories are more likely to make money with these sites since most of the members are gamers. Gamer social networking sites also give visibility to the gamers.

You also get to join discussions and other forums. You should include a profile photo. People have a tendency to be attracted to profiles where they can see the face of the person they are dealing with. They also get money from products such as Google AdSense. Include your age, your occupation, how often you game online, the types of games you play, and any other relevant information.

Even with these advantages, it is important to consider the disadvantages. This will help you seek remedies for the problems. WomenGamers is designed specifically for women gamers. This way, you will enjoy your networking experience more and you will learn a lot. You should have as many friends as possible to increase the chance of getting good gamers who you can compete with.

Almost immediately after man first appeared on earth, he began to band together with others for the security and fruits of teamwork that this bonding offered. In this crude and unplanned form social networking began. As time passed these groups became tribes, then villages, states and countries - all with the same aim of benefiting from their association. Along the way, people with more closely aligned interests formed guilds, brotherhoods and unions to enhance their personal aims and today they exist as Freemasons, Rotarians and other such groups.

Even until the late 20th century, these social networks were limited by the need to be in physical proximity to each other - a need that disappeared when the internet arrived. Social networking, as we understand it today, came into being at the beginning of the 1980s with the advent of the Bulletin Board Service or BBS. These BBS were operated by hobbyists who used them to promote their own interests and agendas.

These crude (by today's standards) sites with only text were slow and not easy to access as most people had only dial up connections at that time but the forums they offered were the first networking sites.

Around the time of the BBS, a service called CompuServe also came into being: but it was aimed at business users who could share files and access news on it. CompuServe had one great innovation - it allowed users to send electronic messages to one another - the beginnings of easily accessed email. CompuServe became very popular and soon outgrew the limited business applications and went into the public domain, providing access to thousands of forums on a range of subjects to any who had a modem and phone line. America Online (AOL) soon appeared and offered members the facility of creating their own communities and searchable member profiles - innovation that left CompuServe far behind.

Yahoo was soon to follow with a host of networking facilities but the first modern social networking site was Classmates.com - a service that continues to today. Classmates.com permitted not just easy creations of communities but offered searchable member profiles that began the process of hunting for lost friends and locating like minded people to be new ones.

The concept caught on rapidly and the next stage was subject or demographic specific networking services like AsianAvenues.com that promoted networking among people with Asian interests and origins. The next obvious step, which soon followed, was open networking sites where anyone could create a community and locate both old and new friends to invite to join. Today Twitter allows for instantaneous real time networking and its growth potential seems endless: but it is just the latest stage in the ongoing story of social networking.

Social network analysis has been known to be linked pretty closely with network theory, and so it has grown as a main methodology when it comes to using modern sociology. Biology, geography and also information science among many other kinds of scientific groups find the study of social networking to be even more important than before as time goes on.

The methodology of social network has no doubt been presented in a bad light in the past due to the complex nature of the entire development of the analysis. Social network analysis with its theoretical statement, analysis procedure, methods, software, and researches, it has now moved from metaphor to paradigm. Network analysis is believed to have discrete methods in order to gather data and to get statistical analysis which makes it even harder to gain credibility, acknowledgement and support throughout the scientific world.

Analysts do have some trouble coming to agreements in certain aspect of human relationships form one to another. Analysts study two principles in this technique which include complete networks as well as specific population information within personal communities. The main distinction between complete and egocentric analysis depends in part on how the information is gathered in the first place.

The analysis is made for groups of people such as in places like companies, churches and other kinds of societies. Used with the combination of random sampling, egocentric analysis is very easy when compared with complete analysis.

The data required for social network analysis is obtained from many places like questionnaires, experiments and all other kinds of written records. The various social relations that are depicted by social network analysis include but are not limited to actions, flows and co-occurrence. Some of the main concepts used in the analysis are dyad level, subgroup level, relation level, social network level, group level, triad level, arc level, and actor level.

Network analysis methodology is highly criticized around the world for using very little theoretical knowledge in its findings.

Due to the lack of screening the thesis statistically, the information breaks presumptions and related items which in turn has created serious problems in the past. Now, with the progression and permutation testing avialble things are much more widely accepted worldwide. However there is still a problem wit the methods used due to the inadequacy of computing resources to connect social networks as the datasets are very big, which make data process very hard.

Social networking sites are today, the number one pastime of the young generation for communication. They do so, because such sites are the easiest and quickest way to connect with friends and family, from home or anywhere. The recently introduced mobile social network is the outcome of advanced mobile phone technology and the increasing popularity of social networking sites.

The two factors that have given mobile social networking a big boost was the recent introduction of mobile internet services AND the sophisticated, new camera functions on advanced mobile phones.

The user base of social networking sites is enormous and is witnessing continuous growth because of the efforts to add sophisticated, new features to their sites. This continued growth can be attributed to the higher satisfaction levels of social network users with the simpler and faster features added by the sites. In turn, the popularity of these sites is further increasing, as a result of widespread awareness of the added features.

Additionally, the number of social networking site users is also increasing by the day because of the growing mobile internet user base. These are the precise reasons which are impacting on the mobile social network scene and thereby significantly boosting its growth and popularity.

Mobile internet accessibility is useful for building a mobile social network because it will facilitate easy access to your profile and, in the process, help you to stay connected with your group of close friends. What makes this all the more appealing is the fact that this can be conveniently done with just a single post to your status while moving around. Therefore, if you have had any earlier reservations about social networking, maybe you'll consider mobile social networking from now on.

Another reason, why mobile phones have made a significant impact on the social networking scene in recent years, is the big increase in the volume of media content and picture postings on the sites. Even though the increased picture and media content traffic on social networking sites has been greatly increased with the use of digital cameras, mobile phones have also played a major role, and still do so. If you have mobile internet accessibility, you can upload pictures to the internet swiftly and efficiently with a mobile phone camera, just as you would with a digital camera. Thanks to the advanced features of the inbuilt cameras of top brands of mobile phones, you can have the happiest mobile social network experiences of your life.

Entrepreneurs who do not go with the latest trend and expand their business network often get overrun by competition. Entrepreneurs who refuse to innovate and reinvent their business strategies often do not survive the competition.If you are an entrepreneur and you want to keep your business up and running, you should never let your guards down.You should also see to it that you expand your business connections and client base.

Expanding your social business network online is very convenient and easy to do. A lot of people are already wired these days so if you use the internet to your advantage, you may be able to generate more clients and business contacts.In fact, you might be able to promote your business online for free.There are a lot of free social networking sites that you can use to promote your products and services.The best part of it is that some of these sites offer free and easy to use marketing tools that you can use to promote your business.

Now, before you start thinking that business social networking sites are worry free tools in promoting your business, bear in mind that not all networking sites as what they claim to be.In other words, not all networking sites are good for your business so do not just join any of these sites.To protect yourself from possible fraud, check out the reputation of the networking site first before you join.Choose at least five business social network that suits your taste and your needs then check out their sites.

Social networking works both ways so you need to interact with your fellow members.To make some online friends, respond to some of the interesting discussions on the site.To gain the trust and confident of your fellow members, keep your tone friendly and your discussions informative.To do this, you need to visit the networking site at least three times a week, post some messages and interact with your online friends.

Is it safe to trade personal information with other members of the online social network?As a general rule, you should never divulge any personal information to strangers online. As much as possible, do not give out any personal information when doing business or making friends online.To be safe, do not give out any personal information online unless you personally know the person who you exchange information with.

Dedicated online dating sites have long been the savior of those who were unwilling or unable to meet potential dates in any other way - whatever be the reason. These sites do a good job and have brought together millions of people who would otherwise have been alone. But the advent and rapid growth of social networking sites has posed a challenge to the traditional online dating ones. Sites like Facebook, MySpace and the others have millions of members all looking to expand their social networks and establish links to like minded people who share the same interests and opinions.

The fact that these social networking sites have such huge memberships often leads people into thinking that dating on a social network site gives one the best chances of finding a date. Unfortunately, it is the very size and diversity of the sites that that creates problems for those whose main goal is to find a date.

People join these sites for all kinds of reasons and the most common is to either make new friends or find lost ones. Even if members say they are interested in dating, it may not be their priority and it could be just a way to expand their profiles. As a matter of fact, even those who join with dating as their main aim often find that they are able to establish other levels and types of relationships and dating often becomes a low priority, despite what their profiles may say.

That is why a person joining a social networking site with the sole object of dating comes across some serious problems. With the huge membership base of all types of people, even with the best search tools, finding the right kind of people is often difficult. And when contact is established, it may often be that the other person is looking for just friendship and nothing more.

Dedicated online dating sites have members who are there for only one reason - to find a date and nothing else. That does not mean that everyone on a dating site will find a date - besides the question of personal chemistry there is also the need to stay clear of doubtful profiles and those who may be predators - but at least the people on the site will all have the same aim. That is why the dating sites still scores over dating on a social network.

Many dating sites offer the best of both worlds by allowing links to social networks so that people are able to find out more about potential dates.

The benefits of having your own social network site come from the huge numbers that use such sites. You need a substantial budget and to invest a lot of time and energy to the creation of the site. The benefits of building such a site are mostly monetary, but you will also be able to expose yourself to a large audience for whichever purpose and to pass your agenda to be public. Decide on the source of the money you will be making - advertising and programs such as Google AdSense are the best sources because charging members will only drive them away.

The greatest advantage of having your own social networking site is that it will make you a lot of money by offering branding opportunities to individuals and companies. Companies and individuals, guided by the realization that there are many people who visit social networking sites, are shifting from traditional forms of advertising such as television and print media.

Programmers charge according to the work done and this is between $80 for small adjustments to the software to $500 for large developments. Do thorough research before picking a programmer to avoid getting scammed or getting shoddy work. One of the most widely used software for social network site development is Ning, which is Chinese for peace. This platform makes fully functional social network sites that are visually appealing from scratch. It offers a very professional product and even incorporates the ‘out-of-the-box' service characteristic of Me.com, GoingOn, and PeopleAggregator. Today, an impressive 76,000 hosted social networks have been created using Ning.

When building the primary content of the site, it is important you get people to participate. Companies and individuals can develop their own social network sites to promote their products and to interact with the public by getting feedback on the products. With such a website, a company can pass company news and it can put a personal face on the company.

If people are able to interact with you and to contribute towards the development of different products, they will feel like part of one big family and this will create customer loyalty. When success after building your own social network, you need to attract an online community, but this is not easy and it requires patience. This way, they will feel like they have a stake at the site and you will be assured of their loyalty. Start searching for advertisers by posting on the site and by contacting potential advertisers and enlist with programs such as Google AdSense.

Due to the changes in technology and the many advances being seen, many businesses have changed the way they operate. One of the most dominant technological advances so far is the internet. This is attributed to the fact that a person is able to connect with the world and make an impact without having to be there physically. Until recently, social networking sites were mainly used for just that, social networking.

However, due to their growing popularity and the number of audience they attract, this has changed for many of them. Many businesses have realized that they can use these sites to send messages to their intended target audience and inform them of their products. Not only is it effective, this method of advertising is much cheaper, making it a preferred method as compared to other traditional ways.

For people who want to use social networking sites as their marketing tools, there are many options available for them. Of these available options, banner and display ads, creating groups and creating product or company profiles are the most common. Display ads are placed on any part of a web page and they use up very little space, yet they serve the purpose that they are intended to serve.

Users who create groups where interested members can join have also seen this as very effective. Creating groups is a free service offered by many social sites and this gives members an option of joining and learning about the company or product before they spend any money on it. When many people join this group, it goes to show that there is a market out there and people actually want to learn about the product. Other than that, members who join the group will have a chance to comment about the product or criticize it and hence enable the producers to improve. This interaction also gives the company a chance to see just how their product might be accepted before launching it.

Creating company, service or product profiles is also another popular social networking tool that people use. This advertising option is mainly used by people who want the public to learn about them as opposed to advertising. Most social network users do not use the sites to look for products and therefore the approach should be very casual and friendly. There may not be a large market in these sites but it is a great source of advertising and getting the word out.

When man first appeared on earth, one of the first things he did was to network. The earliest men networked and bonded into tribes to their mutual benefit and the security it offered them. As civilization developed and became more complex, so did the complexity of these networks and soon there were specialized fraternities, guilds and associations of people with common interests and aims. This evolved until, by the late 20th century, networking for social and business reasons became an established part of life.

The definition of social networking and the way it is done took on a new shape with the advent of the internet. Today we think of social networking as a positive and necessary activity needed to develop and expand our lives, both personally and on a business level.

The internet meant that we did not have to be able to physically meet a person to establish contact with them or to continue the relationship - everything can be done online and relationships can develop and flourish there. Social networking sites today permit people to search for and link up with others who have the same interests and goals without ever leaving their homes.

The ease with which millions of people all over the world can be accessed has brought the theory of Six Degrees of Separation into prominence. The theory says that with an almost unlimited number of people who can be contacted, just contacting one person who can put you in touch with another should be able to lead you to anyone, anywhere within six stages.

This new definition of social networking moves the concept from establishing a circle of like minded people to being able to contact any person in the world - at least in theory. However, for most people the practical definition of social networking is something more limited.

The common use of social networks is to help people make contacts with others whose friendship is beneficial to them but whom they would not be able to meet, except online. A person who becomes a member of a social network will, in most cases, ask his or her friends to also join the network. Those friends, after joining, will repeat the same process with their other friends until a linked group of people who would not have known each other in any other way is formed - a group that will continue to grow in an organic manner. In other words, the definition of a social network today is that of a set of people with linked interests and objectives who may not necessarily ever meet in person, but are able to work together and help each other in achieving their individual and group goals.