Research methods as a whole

Conclussion

There is a conflict between users of social networks and the functionalities that social networks provide. Through the research carried out on this topic it can been concluded that users on social networks has the option to enable the privacy settings on most social networks in order to ensure that their online presence is private, therefore certain areas of their space is unable to be viewed.

This can be good if an individual only wants to be detected by search engines or if he/she do not want an unauthorised view of information they put up online about them.

However there are a few issues if one's space on a social network is too private because in some social networks, some aspects of the website may not function properly or offer complete benefits. A social network user may also miss out of being added or being able to view groups that may interest him/her as these groups often require communication between group members. This can can also pose a risk of not being discovered by friends from the past as these people may want to look at photos for example, that have not been made viewable.

And so to conclude how technology plays a key part in providing all of these examples, social networks needs the ability to provide outstanding service that ensures that they always have the competitive edge. As long as companies continue to invest in their technology infrastructure they will continue to expand and most importantly keep their users interested in their site, which will lead to further investment for the company.

Competition between social networks has been vigirous over the years. With the likes of Facebook and Twitter taking the lead in the market, some private networking sites find it hard to top the market. Doing this reasearch has showed that social networks can be created at any time, and competition will grow while businesses would be forced to leave the market. For example the likes of Hi5 and Bebo used to be popular years ago, but now people are mainly focusing on Facebook and Twitter.

Moreover businesses are now creating privates social network for specific age groups which means that other social networks have to imrove their sites and services in order

to stay competitive in the social networking business.

Private vs Public Online Communities

The difference between private and public social networks is that in public social networks everyone can view your profile like Twitter. After you login, you see your own page which is different from everyone else's.There is a way to make your content private but Twitter's main purpose is to share information publicly.

Private is information that is not see by everyone for example if you look at facebook it is private in the sense that only your "friends" can look at your status updates or wall. Although there is a way to make your content public, facebook primarily encourages personal and private convesations.

References

Silverwolf70 . (2008). What is a Private Social Network?. Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIobWLezHqY. Last accessed 25November 2010

HI5 Social Network

Another social network I have found that some of you may have already heard of is the social network site, Hi5. This particular social network is one of the largest social network sites in the world behind the likes of Facebook. Its free to join, with no sign-up fee required.

Click pic to display website

This social network acts in a similar fashion to the number one leading social network Facebook, as it allows users to create a personal profile in which they can customise to suit their particular needs. In addition to this, HI5 allows its users to create avatars, upload and share music interests and play games with friends all over the world. This websites acts very much like an online community in regards to the amount of communication and interaction, with over half of the users of HI5 network being between the ages of 18 – mid 30s.

HI5 has incorporated into its website the use of virtual money that can use within the compounds of HI5 to buy virtual gifts. These virtual coins are brought with real money from as little as £1.

As with many social networks out there, there are always some advantages and disadvantages that come with them, an advantage for the use of social networks would be that they are a quick, easy and convenient way to meet/catch-up with long lost friends, as well as showing and displaying pictures as a way of showing friends and family what you have been up to. A major disadvantage of using a social network would be that a majority of social networks require you to fill in some personal information, to allow you to initially create an account, this information is often left public unless you turn this function off yourself.

Click here to view video from founder of HI5  

Advantages & Disavdantages of Private Social Networks

Hi guys, I have found the advantages and disadvantages of social networks for both businesses and people.Hope you find this useful.

Advantages

For Businesses

1. Exclusivity - Exclusivity is key to Private Social Network. A Private Social Network is exclusive to only the invited users and business community.

Customers, partners & members are aware that they belong to an exclusive private community,

and will love to be part of it! No outsiders have access to the PSN.

2. Privacy & Security - On a PSN, the organization controls & manages access to all users of the network.

There is complete privacy of the user information since the PSN is under business' management.

PSNs are completely secured. Outside users cannot simply get into a PSN.

3. Business Branding - A business is able to manage & maintain its brand on a PSN with ease.

PSNs offer many customization options - logos, banners, network names, modules, messaging,

workflow & more.

4. Deeper Relationships - PSNs allow businesses to build longer-lasting, deeper, profitable

relationships with the constituents. Importantly, the private community is engaged and is

always connected with "what's going on". Users now connect & learn more about their business

colleagues. Members share useful information & valuable feedback openly, and frequently.

This creates greater goodwill and builds considerable member & customer loyalty.

For people

1.By using a social networking site, you can do what you can and get connected

with these people to form a web of connections that can give you leverage if you play your cards right.

2. it is chepaer to use because it is free.

3. allows to meet new people and communicate wit your existing friends.

Disadvantages

1.Your network will not be noticed by search engines

2.You'll have less hits and therefore less potential members

3.Your content and what you are offering remains hidden

4.Time consuming - If this is not your kind of thing, that it would just be a waste of time for you. The key to social networking is that

it is supposed to be fun, whether you are just doing it for kicks or clicking around for business purposes.

5.Scams and Harrassment-There is a potential for failure of security in both personal and business context.

Reference

Everyday-Wisdom. (2009). The Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Networking. Available: http://www.everyday-wisdom.com/social-networking.html. Last accessed 22 November 2010.

stevesw. (2008). The Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Networking. Available: http://lgtblog.com/newsletter/uncategorized/the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-social-networking/. Last accessed 22 November 2010.

Bebo

I don't think Bebo should be overlooked on this blog as one of the biggest private online community in its days. Most of us had a Bebo account as teenagers so I'm not going to blab on about how similar it is to other social networks. But for those of you that don't know or heard about Bebo

"Bebo is similar to other social networking sites. Each profile must include two specific modules, a comment section where other users can leave a message, and a list of the user's friends. Users can select from many more modules to add. By default, when an account is created the profile is private, which limits access to friends specifically added. The user may select the "Public Profile" option so as the profile will still be visible to any other members of a school they may have joined. Profiles may be personalized by a design template that is the background of the user's profile, known as a skin." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bebo)

Bebo was sold to AOL in 2008 for $850 million because the owners did not have any ideas about how to make it compete with the other social networks coming up at that time. However, its use has fluctuated even more since the sale. Now AOL has decided to sell it on, and if a sale does not happen or is not agreed then it will be shut down.

A sale was actually completed this year for an undisclosed fee, and it was rumoured that the site fetched less than $10 million which is believable which could be why AOL did not want to disclose the sale amount; to prevent embarrassment of a massive loss.

My concerns though is that this could be the last days of an innovative social network that played a big part in a lot of individuals' teenage years, and still does at present.

Is there anything the new owners can do differently to save it from going under?

UseNet

Ok, This is a short video that i came across that talks about a Microsoft Research Project by the name of NetScan. Its a very self explanatory video, which i found to be very informative and good talking points. there were many points that were raised.

Please keep in mind that this was published a couple of years back, and the project was eventually scrapped by Microsoft. But the ideas and principles i think are still relevant for online communities till this date.

New layout!!!

Loving the new blog design and layout. Big thumbs up!!!

Types of social networks

Hi guys, I’ve found out that there are many different types of social networks. I have listed them below and also discovered I posted earlier about second life and found out it is a type of social network but can also be classified as a game.

Profile-based SNS 

Profile-based services are primarily organised around members' profile pages which primarily consist of information about an individual member including their picture, interests, likes and dislikes. Bebo, Facebook and MySpace, are all good examples of this.

Content-based SNS

In these services, the user's profile remains an important way of organising connections but plays a secondary role to the posting of content. Photo-sharing site Flickr is an example of this type of service, one where groups and comments are based around pictures.

White-label SNS

Most social networking services offer some group-building functionality, which allows users to form their own mini-communities within sites. Platforms such as PeopleAggregator (www.broadbandmechanics.com) and Ning, which launched in 2004, offer members a different model, based on the creation and membership of users' own social networking sites.

Multi-User Virtual Environments

Sites such as Second Life and World of Warcraft, online virtual environments, allow users to interact with each other’s avatars – a virtual representation of the site member. Although the users have profile cards, their functional profiles are the characters they customise or build and control. Friend’s lists are usually private and not publicly shared or displayed.

Mobile SNS

Many social network sites, for example MySpace and Twitter, offer mobile phone versions of their services, allowing members to interact with their friends via their phones

Micro-blogging/Presence updates

Micro-blogging services such as Twitter and Jaiku allow you to publish short (140 characters, including spaces) messages publicly or within contact groups. They are designed to work as mobile services, but are popularly used and read on the Web as well.

Social Search

Social search engines are an important web development which utilizes the popularity of social networking services. There are various kinds of social search engine, but sites like Wink and Spokeo generate results by searching across the public profiles of multiple social network sites, allowing the creation of Web-based "dossiers" on individuals.

Second Life

hi guys, ive seen that we have been looking a lot of social network but ive found something different. i have looked

at Second life. i found a website called second life virtual world. Its like a social network but in Second Life, you can reside in a place that is as unique and special as you are.

it gives the opportunity to live in a friendly neighborhood or buy that private virtual island you've always dreamed of. Perhaps you'll become a landlord, or just host a party for your friends.Second Life is a virtual world developed by Linden Lab launched on June 23, 2003, and is accessible on the Internet.

A free client program called the Viewer enables its users, called Residents, to interact with each other through avatars.Residents can explore, meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, and create and trade virtual property and services with one another, or travel throughout the world (which residents refer to as "the grid"). Second Life is for people aged 18 and over, while Teen Second Life is for people aged 13 to 17.

There is no charge for creating a Second Life account or for making use of the world for any period of time. A Premium membership (US$9.95/mo., US$22.50 quarterly, or US$72/yr.) extends access to an increased level of technical support, and also pays an automatic stipend of L$300/week into the member's avatar account (down from an original stipend of L$500, which is still paid to older accounts. However, the vast majority of casual users of SL do not upgrade beyond the free "basic" account.

Reference

Linden Research. (2003). Second Life. Available: http://secondlife.com/. Last accessed 16 November 2010.

multiply

hi guys, I found this private social network called multiply. its like facebook with extra features. You can sell and also buy products.It also has the functions like facebook as in you can add pictures, talk to people online, add videos and even blog post. The good thing about is that its free. I find this one interesting because you can sell and buy staff. Ive never seen a social networking site that sells staff.most of them only advertise

Reference

Peter Pezaris. (2003). Multipy. Available: http://multiply.com/. Last accessed 14 November 2010.

KickApps

Hey guys,

Whilst browsing the internet, I have come across a social network under the name of kickapps. 

 

This social and media network focuses on the aspects of social media to grow an audience, generate deeper levels of engagement. This particular social is used by businesses as a way to grow new revenue streams.

Many business have now seen social media as a way to expand their market and gain more of an insight and obtain stickier relationships (customer loyalty) with customers. A number of Kickapps clients include HBO, NBC Universal, National Geographic, Guinness World Records, Johnson & Johnson, Proctor & Gamble, Intel, the Special Olympics and numerous professional sports teams around the world to name but a few.

However the company of a free trial of 30days, so I am assuming that after this period a payment would have to be made. This is the only downside that I can see with this social network otherwise, otherwise I think this is a good social network with a lot to offer.

The Online Business Community

OK Guys Another site that i think must feature in this blog, is LinkedIn also known as the world's largest professional network. I understand that this is not classed as a private community, but i think that the features and benefits that it packs should not go without notice.

In the short introduction video below, we are shown how linked in can improve any businesses by providing helpful contacts to help solve any problem - for this aspect i would class LinkedIn as a 'Community' in the sense that it is a group of users coming together to help each other accomplish specific aims.





LinkedIn not only allows its user to network on a very large scale, its also allows its users to promote themselves in what ever profession they may be in. One service that they provide is their job discovery portal which allows users to discover jobs inside connections when their looking for a job or new business opportunity. Which has proved to very popular amongst their customers.

CommuniSpace

Hey Guys, i have just been reading around the topic of Online communities, and there seems to be a new use for businesses to benefit through the use of online communities. There has been a rise in Businesses using Private Online Communities to Engage Customers.

One of the examples is Kraft, which used the Online Communities when it was brainstorming about new kinds of dieting and healthy products. Through discussions, surveys, and questions, Kraft learned that customers didn’t feel they needed to deprive themselves or diet — what they really wanted was the ability to control how much they ate. Kraft obliged with 100 Calorie Packs, a line of small, one-person bags of Oreos and Ritz crackers. The results were stunning: Last year that product line racked up $100 million in sales.

One of the Organisations that i found that speciliase in providing businesses with this powerful tool was CommuniSpace.

There is also a two minute introduction video which i found very educating (See Link Below). And so to conclude, this isn't merly a social community, but utilises social communities to benefit businesses.

Why CommuniSpace?

"Facebook" For The Over 60'S

This online community is targeted at people "born between 1946 and 1964". It's almost like facebook, but for the "over 60's" as they say. You can privatise your profile as much as you want, or share things with the public. You can also join groups that interest you or create yours, play games, share photos and so on.

I can see this website being or becoming popular for older people. It looks easy to use, less sophistication and options (for an old person) unlike facebook. The fact that they can see that the majority of people registered on the website are of similar age with them will make them feel more comfortable about using the site, and will therefore make the website quite addictive.

What do you guys think? IT'S NOT A DATING WEBSITE!!!