Social media has become a popular way to share information and content with others. Social networking sites are the sites that host social networks. For those new to social networking, it’s good to know what types of social networking sites exist and what each one does.
forums
Probably one of the first sites to allow social interaction, forums have been around for a while. Forums are often made up of people with a similar interest. Users have conversations on a particular given topic and build relationships with each other. They provide a wealth of information on a topic and are a great way to share your knowledge.
blog
People like to write in diaries, and with the Internet they wanted to share their lives more openly. Originally called web-logs, these personal journals have come a long way. Some personal diaries still exist, while other blogs discuss a particular niche or interest.
microblogging
Similar to blogs, this is a microdiary of what is happening right now. These sites can share what is going on in a person’s life or they can be information that the person wants to share. Major news events are now being posted online via microblogs. The best known microblog is Twitter.
Share photo
Social networking sites are notorious for sharing information, in this case photos. Users upload their images to photo sharing sites. Instead of having to send individual photos to the family, send a single link. You can tag your photos with keywords related to the image and allow people to comment. Some popular photo sharing sites are Flickr and Picasa.
video sharing
YouTube is the video sharing site that almost everyone has seen. Videos are shared online, keywords are added so people can search for those terms or the title of the video. People can comment if the owner of the video allows it. Like other forms of social networking, it allows for a more personal appearance of the real user.
professional
Networking has long been touted as an asset in professional circles. Networking allows a person to connect with other people and, through those connections, to meet other professionals that person knows. Professional social networks allow that kind of opportunity online. So if you move out of his hometown, he can still stay connected with his former co-workers and others in his profession. Linked In is one of the leading professional social networking sites.
Social
After you’ve worked with people for a while, they may become your friends. Then you have friends from church, from your school, and friends you have met in a wide variety of ways. Social networking sites are all about being social, so there are sites that simply allow users to stay in touch with people they know. While MySpace was the leader, the current leader is Facebook. It is growing all over the world.
marker
The main purpose of these social networking sites is the exchange of information. If you read a web page that is interesting, informative, or inspiring, you can choose to bookmark it. By doing this you are saying that you like it. Your friends will learn what you liked and can choose to read it. Pages that many people bookmark become popular and lead others to that page as well. Digg, Delicious and StumpleUpon are very popular bookmarking websites.
other formats
There are other types of social networking sites, some are very similar to the ones mentioned here. Many sites have one main form of socializing and then use the other types as other ways for users to interact. People love to socialize and interact so this is a growing field with more and more sites.