Social Networking in 10 Minutes (or less)
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I love, love, love social networking sites. I remember way back when I started online, there wasn’t a lot of interaction on most websites. There were chatrooms and forums, of course, those have been around forever, and if you liked a website you visited, you could leave a note in their guestbook, but for most websites, that was the primary interaction.
I still remember (and miss) the first social network I was involved with. It was a site called 6 Degrees, which was based on the theory that there are only 6 degrees of separation between any two people. Unfortunately, social networking was an idea ahead of it’s time, and 6 Degrees eventually faded into a memory.
Now, of course, social networks are all over the place, with more appearing daily (or so it seems). I still love the idea of social networking, and have to check out every one that I come across, but sometimes I feel a little lost when I’m staring at a new site and wondering how to really get the most out of it or even how to use it at all. After getting an e-mail from Mahalo yesterday informing me that someone was following me, and looking at my blank page on there, I wished that someone would come along and write some short, quick guides on how to use various social sites.
That’s when the little voice inside my head decided to chime in. “Why don’t you do it?”
I don’t always listen to that little voice, but it does have good ideas sometimes, and as busy as the holidays have been, I haven’t really written much of anything lately, so this would be something fun to get back into writing mode. So what the heck, I’ll do it. 
So, I’ll start off by writing about the sites that I know and use. If there are ones that you’d like to see a guide to, post or send me the link and I’ll try to include it. If you know someone who would be a great author for a guide to a site, let me know.
So what do y’all think? Does it sound fun? Are there any social sites you’d suggest? Looking forward to hearing your input.
Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008 @ 2:18 pm 
Beginner, Social Networking
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January 2nd, 2008 at 9:07 am
Gary, I hope to cover them too. I’ve used Digg and Sphinn some and the others a tiny bit, but not enough to feel like I really know how to use them to their potential. Twitter has rapidly become one of my favorites, and I agree about Reddit.
January 2nd, 2008 at 3:55 pm
YES! Please do this. Like you, I’m an introvert, much more “comfortable” posting information driven posts for my blog than personal content and I don’t have a clue what is expected of me regarding comments. It hurts if I have none; but if I do, I’m in a panic wondering if I just let them sit there, respond to each one - GOSH! I need RULES. Am I being rude if I don’t respond? Over-agressive if I do? ARGHHHH! And that’s just my reaction to blog comments - imagine what a dither a network can cause for me? Who are these folks? What do they expect? Whimper - and whine. I”m just not a natural at this! So might you please give some pointers on the social side of blogging and networking - sooner not later. My blog is piling up with social minefields.
Devonia’s last blog post..And the Winner is….Elaine!
January 3rd, 2008 at 6:28 am
I think that that’s a great idea Teeg!
What I’d like to see is a comparison if you like, of how different sites work.
You’ve written before about how Stumbleupon is more than just a bookmarking site, and how people who are used to one site then try and use a new site the same way.
I think that a series of articles like this should help a lot of people, and I wish you well with it!
Allan
Allan’s last blog post..Senator Conroy Demonises Opponents With Odious Comments
January 3rd, 2008 at 6:13 pm
Interesting idea. Anything that helps to get over the learning curve is great.
January 4th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Devonia, my husband and my mother are both extroverts and I’ve actually (somewhat in jest) offered both of them the job of keeping up with correspondence for me and letting me do the writing. So far I haven’t had any takers though.
I totally understand your dithering…I feel the same way…and then there’s the worry about whether I wrote too much or too little, how much about myself I really should be sharing, and all the other communications worries we introverts have. But I’m working on the first article this morning (was working on another yesterday, and had a reminder that I was skipping an important area that should come first. Hopefully I’ll have it finished by this afternoon (since I’m writing around a 4 yr old, my time schedules sometimes are a little odd).
Allan, I hadn’t even though of that, but I’ll try to add it in. Good idea!
TzuVelli, That’s what I was thinking. Since I’m going to be learning to use many of the sites as I write, it will be easy to know some of the issues that newbies have with each one. That’s one of the hard parts about StumbleUpon for me, I’ve been using it for so long, it’s almost second nature, and I don’t think about things like how to add pictures or friends until someone asks me how to do it.
January 4th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Well, there you go. Your comments were my first lesson — allow several comments to accumulate and then respond, individually not collectively, to each in one comment post, in the order of the initial comments. Not too much, not too little ( Now that is a knack I’ll have to work to achieve)- just like Baby Bear’s soup. Thanks!
January 7th, 2008 at 4:34 am
I like the social networks where there is some other reason for networking than just the people, in other words more object-centric than people-centric. Yes it’s the conversation that is important but I think it works better when there’s an initial reason for being on the site, like to share photgraphs or exchange ideas and anecdotes about a particular topic rather than just “me” “me” “me” and “me and my friends”. So why not start with a guide to Flickr, or youTube as social networking sites with more of a purpose. Stumbleupon I suppose is all about website URLS but that can get a bit to “meta” for me sometimes. Perhaps I should explore the categories more.
January 10th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Devonia, I’m glad that helped! Another thing I’ve found that helps is Twitter. Now don’t laugh, Twitter makes you have to type everything in 140 letters or less. It really makes you think about what you’re trying to say and how to say exactly what you mean without running out of space.
Theatre breaks, my goal is to write a review of most of the social sites out there. There are way too many that I’m a member of but never use, so I’d at least like to take a good look at them, see how to use them best, and then decide whether I want to be active on them or not, and figured others might like a quick review of various sites too. I’ll definitely add Flickr and youTube to the list, and will keep my eyes open for other niche networking sites too.
StumbleUpon, in my opinion, depends on how you use it. You can make it fit almost any niche you want by adjusting your interests and only choosing friends who share those interests. Also, if you’re a member, you can request to create a group/forum for a category you’re interested in.
January 11th, 2008 at 12:36 am
Not exactly ’social networking’ but definitely social media. I love using Reddit and Sphinn (mostly web developer community). Another is Twitter which I am getting accustomed to. Reddit was basically a techie/programming site but has much more turned into a political sphere, well more like Ron Paul love fest.
Gary R. Hess’s last blog post..It Doesn’t Hurt to Ask - Getting to Know Your Visitors