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  • Date: Monday, August 25, 2008 Time: 10:53 am Category: Social Media, The Internet Tagged Facebook, social networking, social utility Discussion: 5 Comments

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Email is becoming a way of the past for maintaining and building relationships.  Social networks and utilities are better tools for establishing relationships and better ways of communication and avoiding spam.  Digital millennials are utilizing social networking to communicate with those of common interest and avoiding undesired messages.  There are many user-friendly social networks such as MySpace and LinkedIn.  There are also popular services that are developing more towards social networking such as iGoogle and MyYahoo.

Two years ago, a close friend of mine relocated across the states to Portland, Oregon. I began to speculate about her new life. What were her new activities and digs? What new music and art galleries had she discovered?  She came across as too busy and occupied to email or call.  Finally, I received an email encouraging me to sign up with Facebook so we could keep in touch.  I was reluctant because I didn’t like the thought of strangers eyeballing my page.  I went ahead and registered anyway and began to experiment. Then, I proceeded to experiment and discovered the Privacy controls.  Just because it is a social utility, not everyone can see my page by default.  I can set it so that only my “friends” can see my profile. Additionally, I can create lists to group different kinds of friends and limit what those lists can or cannot see in my profile.

I was impressed by all I could do on the site and how it made it easy to stay up-to-date with friends’ activities.  I was able to find people as well as share thoughts and information.  Friends can post messages on my Wall, a Facebook feature for communicating thoughts and making comments.  I can also read my friends’ Walls to see what others had to say.  In my News Feed, I receive my friends’ recent actions (e.g. who became friends with whom, what applications they added to their Facebook profiles). Facebook users can do anything from posting self-created games or quizzes to adding upcoming Events.  Developers can create Facebook applications.  I’m able to share my del.icio.us bookmarks.  Others can see my Goodreads book list as well as view my photos.  You can also “Tag” photos with keywords or connect them to other Facebook friends, etc.

I found that although users can customize their page, Facebook only allows the use of text for profiles.  This is why Facebook has such a clean and uncluttered appearance.  It has well-designed icons, layout and applications (as opposed to other networks- like MySpace).  I found that Facebook is a good tool for professional relationships and marketing despite the fact that it is an informal social utility. Individuals are able to connect and become a “fan” of organizations, groups, institutions, etc. related to their interests through Facebook Pages.

I don’t necessarily limit myself to Facebook and I’ll discuss other social networking sites future posts.  So, if you feel like sending your friends a “piece of flair” or gifting them a mystery snow globe, it’s time to Facebook.  So even though I continue to use email- I even have three different email accounts- I’ve found Facebook to be an interesting, rewarding way to connect with others.

Learn more by visiting:

http://blog.facebook.com/
http://www.resource.com/thoughtleadership/gen_y.aspx
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/36371