Social Networking: Social networking flu

It seems that everyone these days is going around with the social networking flu! Recent statistics cited in a blog by Resume Bear showed that over 400 million people actively use Facebook, which is more than the combined population of Japan, Mexico and Russia! Twitter users were stated at around 100 million with a staggering 16 billion "tweets" since its launch in 2006.

Personal Facebook or Myspace pages can be problematic; raising issues of privacy and accountability. And with record numbers of people signing up to these websites, social networking is spurring the need for internet restrictions in the workplace. However, despite these pitfalls, these websites are becoming an increasingly popular tool for finding prospective staff, and for marketing businesses and products.

Recent trends show that social benefits of such websites are giving way to professional benefits, and that the potential to utilise the internet for the success of a business is not going unnoticed.

• Is cheap and relatively easy to use
• Can be a tool for getting recognition in national or global markets
• Is a way of building the company image
• Helps businesses remain aware of competition
• Is useful for finding prospective employees

You may ask, now that I'm convinced, which social networking website should I use? Well, seeing as how there are thousands of networking websites popping up, striving toward becoming the next Facebook, there really are plenty of options to choose from!

And if you ever wonder how to get started, there is no shortage of websites providing tips for businesses to utilise social networking. A simple Google search on the terms "social networking" will pull up over 75 million results!

So perhaps it's time to jump on the bandwagon?

[Sources: About.com, BNET, Wikipedia]