Pinterest is the next thing in social bookmarking. Rather than using standard text and text-based descriptions for bookmarks, and organizing them into folders or categories, Pinterest allows you to visually bookmark pages of interest – and select a corresponding image from that page (or one you specify via URL or upload) to represent that bookmark. Oh, and bookmarks aren’t called bookmarks — they’re called pins. And pins are categorized on boards, rather than in folders or categories.
I love Pinterest. Visually, the layout is gorgeous. The never-ending scroll on pages makes it easy to just browse and browse and browse. You can search pins, boards, do specific word searches, or just browse what other people are pinning. From a social networking standpoint, Pinterest is a lot of fun and easy to use, and makes it easy to keep up with your friends’ interests. And from an SEO standpoint, Pinterest is definitely a worthwhile marketing and optimization tool.
Right now Pinterest is invite-only, but go ahead and request an invite — I got mine within a matter of days!
Facebook
Facebook is the king of social networks, rivaling only with Twitter due to Twitter’s ability to easily mass-promote and connect with others.
FriendFeed
FriendFeed is a simplistic social network that lets you bring feeds from a variety of sources, including Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and your RSS feed, into one central location. Additionally, FriendFeed can post updates to other social networks, including Facebook and Twitter.
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a social network site designed more as a resume-style site, but there’s definitely the basic social networking aspect involved. You can use LinkedIn both as a way to network with professionals, and to participate in typical social networking.
MySpace
An oldie but a goody, MySpace is one of the original social networks, and while it’s now very music and independent artist oriented, it’s still worth participating in.
Ping.fm
Ping.fm is not so much a social network as it is a type of forwarding service that will take updates you send to it and forward them to a variety of social networks and even IM clients and sites, such as Yahoo. I personally use Ping.fm, and I love it.
Twitter
Twitter is worth using, period. Need I say more?
Google Plus is all of the rage now that it has been launched for the public, but I must admit that I can’t quite wrap my head around it! I’m trying, but failing miserably. Then again, I’m so used to using Facebook and yes good old MySpace that I haven’t been able to “think outside the box” and conform myself to Google Plus.
One nice thing about the setup is that to send a Google Plus invite, you simply add a person’s email address to your circle. By doing so, that person will be notified that they have been added to a circle of yours, and they will be given the opportunity to sign up for themselves. Cool, huh?
What I love about Twitter is just how much potential it has! Connecting with my own 1400+ followers with any given tweet, plus having the capability to reach millions of other users who may stumble across my messages is just an amazing feeling. Thanks to Twitter, I have accomplished the following:
- received customer service
- helped out with CSS and HTML issues
- borrowed a few bucks
- lent a few bucks
- won an iPod Touch (!!!)
- got book recommendations
- got birthday and Christmas gift recommendations
What has Twitter done for you?
Do you have the right to censor your blog or forum if people are posting unflattering remarks about you or someone else? Apple thinks they can. They’re deleting conversation threads over its iPhone 4′s reception issue. Apple is showing how they really don’t care about what you have to say, it’s more about what they want potential customers to see, hear and read.
Ever start an application on Facebook and wonder what they need to access in order to give you access to the app? Well, now you’ll know since Facebook is required to tell you which parts of your profile it needs in order to send you on your way. I feel better when I know what will be accessed.
In no particular order, here are a list of my favorite social networking sites:
Flickr
I know that Flickr isn’t a “typical” social networking site, as it’s designed for photo sharing, but you can meet a lot of people on the site! And if you include your website URL in your Flickr profile, you’ll be sure to get some hits to your site. Have I mentioned Flickr is just great for photo sharing? I’m on Flickr as kiss-my-kitty.
Twitter
Twitter is the crem de le crem of social networking sites. You can share what’s going on in your life, ask a question, participate in a Twitter party, or just socialize! Think of Twitter as micro-blogging and a semi-live chatroom rolled into one. I’m on Twitter as @kissmykitty.
Last.fm
Last.fm is another site that isn’t your typical social networking site, but it’s still a very active and social site to be on! Last.fm is all about music — what you’re listening to, what you’re loving, what you can discover, etc. Last.fm offers a handy scrobbler which works in conjunction with iTunes, Windows Media Player or Winamp to update your Last.fm profile with whatever you’re listening to. I’m on Last.fm as kiss-my-kitty.
Facebook
Ah, Facebook. Who doesn’t love Facebook? It’s the ultimate social networking site, though ironically enough I use it more to catch up with family members and friends. I’m on Facebook as kiss-my-kitty.
Twitter is a self-described micro-blogging service that definitely falls under the category of social networks, even if it approaches the whole social networking aspect a little differently than other types of social networks. While Facebook and MySpace are all about building massive profiles and connecting with others based on various interests, education, work, groups, etc., Twitter is all about microblogging — specifically, telling the world what you’re doing at any given moment. Just as you’d use Facebook to connect with high school friends, you’d use Twitter to tell people that you’re currently shopping for women’s sunglasses.
Twitter allows users to include one URL in their profiles; this URL is viewable whenever anyone views your profile (located at twitter.com/your_username_here). But you can also customize the background image and colors of your profile, meaning you could create a custom background image that lists any other blog, business or portfolio URLs that you’d like to get out there.
It’s easy to find people to follow on Twitter. And by using hashtags (#hashtag), you can easily get your updates listed under certain hashtag search results. Let’s say you’re discussing Obama. “Tag” it by adding #obama at the end of your update (called a tweet), and that update will be included in any search someone does for the hashtag #obama!
Twitter easily puts your message out there for millions of people to view. Individuals and companies all over the world are quickly seeing and harnessing the power of Twitter, and you should too!
If you plan on establishing yourself on the internet, the first thing you should do is come up with a name for yourself. And I don’t mean your real name. Well, you can use your real name, but unless it’s something really unique, like Embellished Golden Rose, chances are it’s already in use all over the internet. It’s fine to let people know who you are, but you should choose an alias that is unique. Use your nickname, your name plus your year of birth, or a phrase or a term that represents you. There are many options out there, and if you want you can throw in “the”, “a”, or hyphens or underscores to ensure that your name is unique.
Once you do have that name picked out, make sure to register various social networking accounts using it as a username. Check out sites like 43 Things, 43 Places, 43 People, Facebook, Flickr, MySpace, Twitter, Youtube, etc. Before you know it, searching for your alias on Google or Yahoo will bring up all of your registered profiles!
