Sites

If social networking sites are a way to bring the masses together, advertisers are begging for a way to prune those masses into smaller, easier targets.  Moreover, social networking sites pretty quickly and inevitably degenerate into cliques.  It’s time that social networking sites really made an effort to allow not just the free flow of data, but also the free flow of relationships.  Since its beginning, the web has often been used as a tool to meet new people, but in recent years the interaction between web-users has grown dramatically, spawning a new generation of networking sites.  Some social networking sites restrict who can use their siteWhile most social networking sites do not discriminate, and allow anybody to log on, a few sites have cropped up with a very particular sort of user in mind.  As the complexity of such sites increases, so does the potential for abuse, particularly with the increasing trend for sites to use third party plug-in applications that may or may not pose a security risk.  I’ll be very interested in seeing whether the usage of such sites stays constant or begins to decline in the next few months, because it does seem that “friendship management” is becoming the norm.  These social sites have scattered the ad revenue pie.  Social networks are increasingly inciting people to spend hours online with their sites.  The only way to characterize growth in the field is explosive; while I don't have actual numbers on how many social networking sites are out there, my informal survey shows we are talking at least hundreds, with more coming online each day.  Typically, online social networking sites ask members to enter details of their immediate and extended circles of friends, whose blogs they might follow.  Even those social networking sites with lots of money behind them are going to have difficulty because there are so many.  As social networking sites become bigger and bigger people have a harder time finding new friends or meaningful stuff to share.  Social networking sites rely on connections and communication, so theyencourage you to provide a certain amount of personalinformation.  The popularity of social networking sites on the Internet introduces the use of mediated?communication into the relationship development process.  Further, social networking sites have become popular sites for youth culture to explore themselves, relationships, and share cultural artifacts [4].  It is already common knowledge that niche sites convert best, especially when promoted using targeted traffic.

Information

By providing information about yourself and usingblogs, chat rooms, email, or instant messaging, you can communicate,either within a limited community, or with the world at large.  Think about keeping some control over the information youpost.  The Internet is the world’s biggest information exchange: many more people could see your information than you intend, including your parents, your teachers, your employer, the police — and strangers, some of whom could be dangerous.  I am not a privacy fanatic, but I am concerned that social networking services encourage people to reveal too much information too broadly, and that this will be someday be taken advantage of by identity thieves.  These sites encourage and allow people to exchange information about themselves and communicate with the world at large, using blogs, chat rooms, email, and instant messaging.  Social networking sites rely on connections and communication, so theyencourage you to provide a certain amount of personalinformation.  When deciding how much information to reveal, people maynot exercise the same amount of caution as they would when meetingsomeone in person because the internet provides a sense of anonymitythe lack of physical interaction provides a false sense ofsecuritythey tailor the information for their friends to read, forgettingthat others may see itthey want to offer insights to impress potential friends orassociates.  If your connections postinformation about you, make sure the combined information is not morethan you would be comfortable with strangers knowing.  Sites, such as MySpace, can use the social exchanges of American youth to glean marketing information about youth culture and reinforce brand images [5].  Social networking sites create a central repository of personal information.  The question becomes, how is information posted on social networking sites being used by others.  Moreover, social networking companies and advertisers need to establish policies about the proper use of personal information posted on these sites.