Social networking and social marketing seems to still scare many business owners. I understand it can be very overwhelming when someone or a business first decides to get involved in social networking. There are so many different websites to join that your head starts to spin. Which do you start with.

Nobody has an answer on which are right for you or your business. Experts might have opinions depending on which target audience will best connect with your business. Bottom line is that you need to experiment and try many of them until you can accurately decide on which ones you should drop. You might find out that your business responds very well to Myspace but in Facebook it just can’t get any traction. This type of information will only present itself if once you have spent sometime actively engaging in the top social networking platforms. It is important to try them before you rule them out. Remember that there is no magic pill in online marketing and it requires many different efforts acting simultaneously. Much of your target audience will cross paths and use multiple social networking platforms to engage with others so it is important to be in all areas so you are visible at all times. Much of online marketing is trial and error. It is very difficult to predict what outcomes you will have as an organization or business.

Job cuts are here and they will probably be here for some time longer. 2009 will be a strange year for many people but there is hope out there. There are still many tools out there to become visible in front of employers it just requires some creativity. There are not too many people out there anymore that are not bouncing around on Facebook, Myspace or even Linkedin. If you have recently lost your job or feel like you might now is the time to take advantage of these free social networking sites. Linkedin could be a lifesaver. Linkedin allows you to update your resume and network with other like minded professionals right from the comfort of your home. often times recruiters target websites like Linkedin to find new recruits. By making connections and engaging in conversations online you can quickly make yourself visible. Linkedin provides a platform where you can showcase your strengths for everyone to see, even potential employers. Linkedin allows you to join groups and even visit offline get togethers such as networking events and happy hours where others can get to know each other. I’m not saying Linkedin is the end all be all but this tool can provide a valuable stepping stone to get in front of the right decision makers become visible. Linkedin has a variety of options for you to customize your profile. You even have the option to pay a monthly fee for additional exposure through the network. Linkedin in is not a confusing website by any means. If you have internet experience setting up a profile should be a breeze.

More and more people attempt to try to jump on the bandwagon with social networking websites thinking that if you build it they will come. Not the case, launching a social networking website these days requires more than just a good idea.

Simply building a website and letting it sit will not bring in traffic. Yes Facebook and Myspace are giants and everyone would like to be like them but its going to take a new spin and approach if you want to launch a social networking website. Targeting a Niche is getting more and more difficult as websites like Facebook allow you to launch groups with like minded individuals for networking purposes. There were many websites right around the time of Myspace and Facebook that crashed and burned and these giants were rewarded with that traffic. Ten years ago you could launch a website and traffic might have just showed up knocking on your door but with all the clutter online now you need a spear gun marketing approach to bring in good website traffic. Social networking websites are everywhere. Most of them look similar to a barren wasteland or filled with spam bots.

Just ask Mark Zuckerberg, when he was getting Facebook ramped up many don’t know that he was opening credit cards left and right just to pay the hosting fees. Guess what, he still can’t make money on it. Before you decide to cash in your savings account to build that new social networking site that you are guaranteed will generate hundreds of thousands of visitors, do some home work and make sure this is the path you really want to take.

I have been thinking about this topic for a while and I think it is really important to touch upon this issue because someday this could open up into a whole new area for doctors to analyze and study patients. I’m sure it has already begun but the addiction level some have to social networking websites is becoming a serious problem. You all know who you are and we all of at least one in our circle of friends. Those that are out with a group of friends and cannot stop checking their Facebook or Myspace page through the iPhone or Blackberry. I see it occurring more and more every where I go but it seems the ability to stay connected with others whether you barley know them and haven’t seen them in ten years or you just saw them last weekend seems to be consuming peoples lives. I personally know people that when they are out they are glued to their mobile device responding, updating friend lists and i can’t help to stare at them and wonder just how bad this sickness has spread. How bad is it effecting their lives at homes with wives, children what ever their situation maybe.

Don’t get me wrong I enjoy using social networking website like anybody else but for some people it has reached a very unhealthy point in their life. Am I the only one that notices this? Some would rather be connected digitally online than actually live in person with people they know. I mean if you are out with a group of friends and you have someone that constantly checks their Myspace every few minutes they would clearly rather be connected with their “web friends” than their real live friends. I wouldn’t write this post if I didn’t see this happening more and more. The social networking websites are not to blame because they are just the tool and it is up to us humans to show some self control. What happens when your social networking takes over your life? Some people are so obsessed with becoming social networking celebrities that they become out of touch with real life and everything around them is effected, their job, school everything important to them outside of their PDA or computer.

So this leads to another question, is this becoming a full blown condition? If so, how do you treat it? Like weening of a junkie at a heroin clinic? the ability to be so connected with total strangers has truly become a historical change in social behavior that will be someday studied with great scrutiny. Right now we are at the very nose end of it. We know meeting people out in person can sometimes be very difficult but the ability to hide behind a computer has revolutionized the social interaction landscape as we know. You can find everything from a pizza to a wife online and this alone fills many different voids for people.

Is it just me or does anybody agree or disagree with me? please let me know how you feel about this social networking disease that is slowly infiltrating our generation and generations to come.

The big wide world of the web continues to get smaller as social media sites start to combine some of their power. In the past we have seen shared profiles, now we are seeing Friendster providing support for OpenSocial and Facebook applications.

You can now port applications from Facebook for example, into you Friendster profile. Furthermore, Friendster has open policy on monetizing their profiles and the applications. Friendster is the largest social networking site in Asia with 60 (out of 80) million users.

While on the topic of Facebook, they have announced that Dublin will become their international headquarters. From Dublin, they will run all of their international operations and provide support to users in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

Furthermore, Facebook employees will soon be able to sell their shares in the organization. From November 1, Facebook employees can sell up to 20% or $900,00

The company has a right of first refusal over employees’ shares, meaning that it has the right to match any price offered by a buyer; most companies have tighter restrictions.