Social Networks; Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter.

With the numerous social networking platforms to choose from these days it is getting harder to decipher what to join, what not to join, and what platform to use for what purpose.  Having surrounded myself in social media for the past few months I can say I have heard many names being thrown around, but there are definitely 3 that I hear constantly; Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.  Everyone I have met has at least one account from the three if not all of them.

So let’s start with one that I think everyone has heard of: Facebook.  The social network was created for college students to keep in touch with each other and their faculty.  It has now erupted into a friend finding, photo sharing, status updating, wall posting ….. and the list goes on, platform for everyone and anyone.  Once you find your friends you can add them to your friend list and if they accept you, you have then opened this little window of your lives to each other.  My Facebook account has been active for over 3 years now.  Having lived all over the world it has been the greatest tool for me to find long lost friends that I left even before e-mail was around, and also for them to find me.  It gives me the ability to see and share pictures and updates with them in the easiest way possible, it’s so easy and interesting that it can get addictive!  I am sure all Facebook users have spent prolonged periods of time digging into the lives of their friends without even realizing how much time has gone by.  Facebook was great until I realised people were starting to know a lot more about me than I thought was necessary.  Having a brother in-law addicted to his account, that I also happen to hang out with all the time (because he really is the best bro in-law ever!), I found every moment I spent with him was soon broadcasted to all of his and my friends.  I would then hear that I went places or did certain things and forgot to invite, or tell other people about.  This is when I decided to limit everyones profile on my account, something Facebook makes easy to do to!!! 

Coming up right behind Facebook is LinkedIn.  My LinkedIn account hasn’t been active for very long but since I started, I definitely see a benefit in it (thus I have made sure it is a 100% complete, success as of my last recomendation yesterday Woot! Woot!).  In my eyes, LinkedIn is a professional version of Facebook, and is your resume online.  LinkedIn allows you to put everything you would put on your resume online.  You can then connect to groups or individuals just as you would on Facebook, and if they accept you they become part of your network.  This network is extremely important because these are the people that can provide recommendations for you through the site.  Its a great asset to have handy, especially for people like myself currently on the job market.  You never know who you will meet, LinkedIn allows you to be able to give your resume, including recommendations, to anyone on demand!  What more could you ask for? 

Last, but not least I bring you Twitter.  My Twitter account is one of my newest ventures and I have to say this has been the most complicated platform for me to get a grasp of.  Twitter basically allows it’s users to write a status, which they call “tweeting” in 140 text characters or less.  You create lists of people that you follow, and people will follow you.  There is no authorization needed to follow anyone, and they don’t need to be your friend or colleague either, it could just be strangers following strangers.  “Great, well who cares?” was my reaction when I started tweeting.  You can update your status on msn, on facebook, on iGoogle, why add another one to your list?  Well there is a method to this madness, twitter allows you to follow the people in the world that share an interest with you, that you could otherwise never reach at such a social level.  For example I follow people at certain PR firms that I would like to be a part of  in the future, to see what they are interested in, or what they talk about, and which usually relates to what’s hot in the PR field.  It allows me to stay up to date with what they are talking about so if I do happen to get the chance to interview at one of their firms, I will already be ahead of my game rather than cramming everything in the night before an interview.

In a nut shell these platforms aren’t as confusing as they may seem, once you figure out what your goal is, it is easy to judge which one will provide you the best value.  Personally I am using all of them for their individual benefits, as well as using them together to build my social media presence.