What is social networking? Nowadays this word is so familiar in our hearing. Social networking is one product of technology in this 21st century that makes us can connect each other in virtual world, not only we are connected with people in the same country but also we are connected with whole people in the world. Social networking can be helpful thing for us to expand our network. There are so many social networking sites in this world. The number of social networking sites is more than 200 sites. We can classify the social networking into seven categories. They are social connections networking sites, multimedia sharing networking sites, professional networking sites, informational networking sites, educational networking sites, hobbies networking sites and academic networking sites.
For the first, I will explain about social connections networking sites. Social networking sites which are listed in this category have so many functions to connect us with our family, our friends and our business. I think this category is so familiar for us, because we are used to accessing the sites every day, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and MySpace. Facebook was launched in February 2004 and it was established by Mark Zuckerberg and friends. Facebook is the most popular social networking site. There was a survey from eBizMBA that states there are around 750,000,000 visitors access Facebook monthly. This fact places Facebook in number one of social networking sites rank. Facebook offers so many features that make us feel enjoyable when access it. Then, Twitter is one of the most popular social networking too. Twitter was established by Jack Dorsey on 2006. The rank of Twitter is lower than Facebook. It is reasonable, because Facebook’s users are more than Twitter’s users. It was described clearly in survey. Twitter just has 250,000,000 visitors monthly. Next social networking is Google+ (this is read Google plus). Google+ was launched in June 24, 2008. There is a special feature to organize our friends, this feature is Google Circles. We can add other users as our friend by dragging their photo profiles into Google Circles. Google+ rank is lower than Facebook and Twitter. Google+ places the 5th rank as the most popular social networking websites and has 65,000,000 visitors monthly. The last social connections networking sites that I will explain is MySpace. It was established in August 2003. MySpace gets the 4th rank with 70,500,000 visitors monthly.
The second category is Multimedia sharing networking sites have function to share videos and photos. The popular sites are YouTube, Flickr and Picasa. YouTube is a social networking to share videos and the most popular site in this category. We can upload and download videos here. YouTube was established in February 2005. YouTube has made so many people became famous people as if celebrities. So YouTube could be used as a media to be instantly famous. We still remember Moymoy palaboy from Philippines that became famous in YouTube because they uploaded their lip-sync videos. In Indonesia we know Sinta & Jojo, Udin Sedunia and Norman Kamaru. Then, Flickr is photo hosting and video hosting website. It was established on 2004. I have account in Flickr; I am used to uploading my photos here. The last site in this category is Picasa. Picasa is an image organizer and image viewer site. This site has established since 2002, but owned by Google since 2004. Here we can organize and edit our digital photos.
The third category is professional networking sites. They have function to provide opportunities for career-related growth. The popular sites are LinkedIn, Classroom 2.0, Nurse Connect and SQL Monster. The most popular site is LinkedIn. Based to survey by eBizMBA in October 15th, 2012; LinkedIn got the 3rd rank. LinkedIn is lower than Facebook and Twitter, but it is higher than MySpace and Google+. LinkedIn has 110,000,000 visitors monthly. This fact makes LinkedIn as the largest professional networking site. I do not know about Classroom 2.0, Nurse Connect and SQL Monster. They are not familiar like LinkedIn for Indonesian people. Some people in Indonesia perhaps do not know further about professional networking sites, because they are used to accessing social connections and multimedia sharing networking sites only. In other hand, Classroom 2.0 has helpful function to teachers, because this social networking is designed to help teachers connect, share and help each other. Nurse Connect is very helpful to them who have job as a nurse. The last site is SQL Monster. Perhaps this site is famous for programmers, because here we can share tips and information each other about SQL script.
Next category is informational networking sites. These sites provide much of information that we always use in our daily life. These sites are very useful for us, because by accessing these sites, we can find the answers from our problems, such as when we would apply green living method in our life or when we would build green house, a house that has friendly with the environment. We can find suggestion and information about those in these sites. The popular sites are Supergreenme.com, boards.hgtv.com and diychatroom.com. I am developing my naturalist intelligence now, so I like Supergreenme.com so much. This site is helpful for me to understand well about the environment issues. Supergreenme.com teaches me to more mindful and cares about how to keep our green world. I can exchange information with other users and get so many tips about the green environment. No everyone knows about these informational networking sites, because no everyone needs these sites. These sites are needed when we have something to ask, especially in the green environment issues. I suggest you to register as a member in Supergreenme.com. How about boards.hgtv.com and diychatroom.com? Both are very useful too. Boards.hgtv.com provides information about the home design improvement and diychatroom.com provides information how you do-it-yourself enthusiast to interact with each other.
The fifth category is educational networking sites. Many students use these sites to connect with other students, to make research and to interact with their teachers or their lecturers. Educational networking sites are very suitable for applying at school, moreover as we known that today is globalization era. This era demands us to follow every development of technology, include using of electronic learning. There are some sites that useful for us such as thestudentroom.co.uk, mathforum.org, epals.com and supergreenme.com. Supergreenme.com has double function, not only as an informational networking site but also as an educational networking site. I have become a member in this site. Really it is good. Not only we could find our solving of problems but also we could learn much about the green environment. Then thestudentroon.co.uk is a UK-based student community. Surely we can exchange the information in this site. Furthermore, mathforum.org will help us to learn mathematics and the features will make us to feel interest with mathematics. The last site is epals.com. This site is good for every student in the world, because this site is designed to build international connections to promote world peace. So these are good sites to know the differences of student culture in every country.
Next category is hobbies networking sites. These sites offer interesting things to us. These sites based to personal hobbies, so it is very enjoyable when we find communities that have same interests with us. The popular sites are ohmybloom.com, scrapbook.com and sportshouting.com. Ohmybloom.com is one of hobbies networking sites that have specifically to garden enthusiasts. It has some features such as groups, forums, blogs, video content and more. Then scrapbook.com is designed to scrapbook enthusiasts. This is interesting to them who have hobby on scrapbooking. In this site they can create profile, share information of course and more. The last is sportshouting.com. This site is very interesting for them who like sport, because they can give opinions and connect with the same interest users about sport.
The last category of social networking is academic networking sites. These sites provide space to share research and review results. The popular sites are Academia.edu and Connotea.org. We can access Academia.edu to share our research and exchange information. Academia.edu was launched in September 2008. It has 211,000 visitors monthly. Then we can access Connotea.org to find, organize and share useful information. The sites which are listed in this category have much information that very useful, especially in academic field.
We have known that social networking can be classified into seven categories. Now we know that there are so many social networking sites that we can access. Although some of them have different fields, but they have same function to make connection with each users. Nowadays we should be smart to use the social networking. Social networking can be used to expand our network and add new friends from different countries. In the reality, most of us just know about the social connections networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, but do not know about other social networking sites. I recommend to access some sites that I have mentioned above, you will find many interesting things. The social networking makes us easy to exchange and share information in the fast time. It makes everyone can connect with foreign people in this world. Furthermore, social networking can help us to find the solution from our problems.
References
Social Networking (2012) Seven Major Social Network Categories
http://socialnetworking.lovetoknow.com/What_Types_of_Social_Networks_Exist
eBizMBA (2012) Top 15 Most Popular Social Network Sites
http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/social-networking-websites (15 October 2012)
prakash education 