Implementing the latest mobile devices like Android, iOS, and Windows into a corporate environment is…
Social Media and the Bubble in Networks
What this means for you, personally and in business
Social Media networks are fast becoming the most popular way to share and deliver information across a million viewers, instantly, efficiently, and effectively. People and Businesses are figuring out that this is a lot bigger than what we initially thought it out to be. Social Media giants like Facebook and Twitter are adapting to how we use their service and constantly try to provide us with tools that extend their service to suite our needs: Personally and in Business.
For us personally our social media networks have become to greatest way to keep in touch or even find people from your past. Before social media networks we really didn’t have a way to retain all those links we created across the world, especially if you’ve moved around a lot in your life. Now we can log on to Facebook and make new friends, find old ones, and share information with everyone you know in an instant. It really has changed how we communicate with one another.
In business on the other hand, social media networks are a whole new playing field. Social media networks have adapted to accommodate business, allowing a business to create profiles and share information about themselves within that community. It also gives people in the real world an easy way to reference, and find more information about something you see out in public. The symbols and logos associated with our most beloved social media networks stand out as much as the famed golden double arches that McDonald’s uses, making it easy for us to identify with an advertisement when we seem them. Facebook and Twitter have essentially offered us with the cheapest and most effective marketing strategies that any business could ask for; bringing the customer to you.
Which are the important ones
Google+ (Google Plus)
Google+ was introduced on September 20th, 2011 followed by an initial field-testing done by the Google team. Google+ introduced a slew of features that would set themselves apart from the rest of the social media giants like Facebook and MySpace. The ability for users to create Circles was one of the most popular features; allowing people to be grouped into categories, like family and friends, so that sharing to specific groups of people could be easier. Hangoutswas also a new idea introduced by Google+ that let users create video chat hangouts with each other in real-time.
Pinterest was launched in 2010 and since then has been trying to bring users a unique and creative way to share and manage information one finds on wild browsing the web. If you like something, you just pin it, and the associated link with all pertinent information is presented on your profile by way of an image. These pins can be categorized into themes, or categories, like hobbies, places, literature.
Facebook is one of the first social media networks that started it all. It was introduced in 2004 as a quick and safe way to share photos and information about your personal life with friends and loved ones. It was original used as a private social network for Harvard students but rapidly expanded after its initial launce. As of December 2011 Facebook had over 845 Million user and is considered one of the most popular and used social networks to date.
LinkedIn, launched in 2003, is a social network specifically designed for people of business. People, who want to present their business profile on the web, obtain credibility by networking with other people of significance. LinkedIn is essentially a Facebook for grownups and is mainly used for professional networking; offering you wonderful ways to present yourself and to keep a handy copy of your resume and work experience visible to anyone who’s interested!
Twitter a social networking service, but is oriented more towards text-based updates from its users. Considered a form of “microblogging”, Twitter allows its user a maximum of 140 characters to be used for each update. It was launched in July 2006 as quick way for people to post significant updates, in a short, get-to-the-point sort of manner. It is a wonderful way for business and websites to promote their products and to most relevant updates (Why a website is down, etc.).
Yelp aims at combining social networking with user reviews and your local business. It was founded in 2004 as a way for users to effectively provide reviews about a business, giving customers and people local to your area a voice, letting you know how these business are doing. It is more well-known as a restaurant review site and app but can provide reviews and info for businesses beyond restaurants. Yelp will let you search for a pet store, list all the pet stores in your area, tell you the distance to all of them from your current location, provide contact info about the business, provides reviews from other people using Yelp and lets you write your own reviews.
Honorable Mentions
Diaspora was launched in 2010 as a free, nonprofit, user owned community that requires the use of the free Dispora software. It is not owned by any one person, which deems it safe from any corporate imposition. Each individual hosts their own network of “nodes” which are just webservers hosted by each user.
GetGlue is a social networking website specially for mobile devices like iPhone and Android, where users have to virtually “check-in” in to a specific movie, TV show you’re watching or even a song you might listening, or interest you might be partaking in.
New Kids on the Block
Path considers itself to be a smart journal that helps you share your life and interests with the ones you love. It provides info like: your current whereabouts, the music you are listening to, the people you’re with, and so on… It also lets users interact with other social networks like twitter and Facebook allowing you to quickly share things with everyone, across a wide array of social networks.
Highlight is social networking application for mobile phones. Highlight works like this: If someone is standing next to you, their profile will appear on your phone. You can see their info, photos, and interests and essentially it helps you collect that information so you don’t forget it! If you have friends nearby the application will notify you and if someone new comes in your life it’ll share info on them.
Glancee is a mobile application that lets you discover and connect with people in your surrounding area. It truly brings the aspect of social life and making friends into play by allowing us to meet people with similar interest and letting us re-live that feeling of actually meeting someone new and interesting! It uses the GPS in your mobile device to identify people in your area who are also using the application.
Pinwheel aims to bring everything we know and love about social networking all into one, easy to use, and intuitive platform. Pinwheel gets the best parts from our most popular social media sites like Facebook and Twitter and presents them in a wonderfully new way. It presents users with a map that shows all social media activity happening in real time, on a location, in the map.
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