Social Networking is about "building online communities of people who
share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring
the interests and activities of others." (Wikipedia)
People use social networking to find jobs, source candidates, find lost
loves, source materials, promote and sell products and services, and
much more … and it’s mostly free!
"Social networking is in its infancy," says David Nour, Relationship
Economics CEO and Web 2.0 guru. "We’re on the upward swing of the hype
cycle."
Lots of people are discovering the power of social networking and investing their time and energy to make it work for them.
"The real power and promise of social networking is a mass
collaboration platform, accelerating one’s ability to get things done,"
adds Nour. Enlightened individuals are shifting from "not invented
here" to "invented everywhere." It gives us the opportunity to extend
our reach beyond any geographic, functional roles or even industry
sectors to learn and grow from others.
More than a handshake and an introduction, social networking allows us
to nurture key relationships by supporting those who sustain us and
stay connected with our most trusted relationships – on or off-line.
Three key trends illustrate the bright future of Social Networking: 1)
Interoperability, 2) Visual Insight and 3) Enterprise Social
Networking.
Interoperability – You may be familiar with these household names:
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Plaxo and Naymz. What you may not know is
that Web sites like TweetDeck.com and Ping.fm will allow the user to
update multiple platforms with single inputs. It also permits the user
to capitalize on the value of these social networking platforms.
Visual Insight – Next generation Social Networking will present key
insights not just in text, but a visually appealing manner; from
transactions to transformation; from raw data to visual insights.
Finally, Enterprise Social Networking is being used to bring all the
functionalities inside a company to support the key goals and strategic
objectives of the organization.
As guru Nour points out, we are only scratching the surface of the
power of social networking. Invest in this area; it will be important
for us all!
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