If you’re a heavy social networker, or under 18 years of age, go ahead and skip this page. Perhaps one of these articles will be more interesting.

Now that the kids and hip are gone, lets explore what Social Networks are. We’ve all heard of Facebook and Myspace. Perhaps you’ve heard of one of the numerous stalker/murder stories about people who socialized via Facebook. Or maybe that cool band you heard the other night was advertising their Myspace page?

Until recently I ignored the whole Social Networks revolution as it seemed geared towards high school and college students. Two demographics I’m far from these days. This is true, but a lot of social networking applications have features that are quite useful.

Perhaps the most useful Social Network to the older generation is Linkedin.com. This site is essentially a job seeker/networking site. Creating a profile includes filling in not only education (and schools,) but previous jobs. Any number of previous jobs can be added. Company names cause a few problems as it’s free form, although they have recently done some updates that helps reduce these issues as Company Names are one of the ways to find people you’ve worked with.

It also has the ability to search your Yahoo/Hotmail/GMail accounts, or accept exported address book uploads to find contacts you may already know who are using Linkedin. Search features allow searches by company to add more contacts, and then contacts can be invited to join Linkedin if you do not think they’ll mind the spam too much.

Of all the sites I looked at, this one has the most practical use. We all know how hard it is to get jobs these days without references or an in somehow. This site does a great job of letting you contact people who may be able to get you into the next job position. The recent addition of discussion groups adds another dimension to the site by giving a way to network online while talking about your employment industry.

Twitter is a social phenomena that I don’t quite get. The premise is simple, post a one line piece of text telling everyone what you’re doing right now. Their examples include being late to a meeting, or watching what the kids are doing. Or in this example, find gas in Atlanta. This is a great tool *IF* it’s used. I know that personally, unless I had a huge number of people watching my twitter feed that I wouldn’t use this. In a Catch-22, I wouldn’t have a huge number of people if I DIDN’T use it.

I’m not sure which is older, Myspace or Facebook, but Myspace has seemed to taken over the self created web page host of choice. A position formerly held by the venerable Geocities, Myspace allows users to add friends, get introduced to others, post pictures and music. The self-created aspect unfortunately leads to some gaudy web pages, but several people have made good money selling Myspace templates.

Myspace lends itself especially well to bands. With the ability to post MP3 files it’s a great way for the non-technically inclined to throw up a basic web page to show off their group, it’s style, and even lets fans communicate to or about the band.

The last major player in the social networking realm is Facebook. Linkedin is based off of Facebook and it shows. Facebook has the ability to add education (by school,) and find classmates. It has the same abilities to invite contacts and find other people through the “people you may know” tool which simply gives you a recommendation if two or more of your own contacts call that person a friend. The ability to group friends into lists is helpful, although once they’re in one list it’s not apparent on how to move them to another.

Where Facebook really shines is in the application area. On site applications add a bit of extra networking abilities, or topics of conversations to meet new friends with. There are a large number of what I call “junk” applications there, but some like the Goodreads Books one allows the creation of a bookshelf, and the ability to to recommend books to friends who use the same application, OR see what they are reading and recommending. Other fun applications include genealogy plug ins, music finders, travel maps with recommendations/wish lists, or blog plug ins that show the latest blog posts from all your friends.

On the surface, social networking looks useless. But I’ve rapidly found that it’s a great way to reconnect with friends, make new friends, and even network for possible job offers. It takes a bit of time to get setup, and to get a group of friends added, but the rewards of being able to reconnect and really socialize are well worth it. The rewards of getting a new and better job are even more worth the time.

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