The Value of Social Networking
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When you mention social networking to the uninitiated they see it as just a way to waste time online, but when used effectively social networking tools are an amazing way to exchange ideas and concepts in real time with a large number of people.
Twitter has the reputation of being one of the most inane social networking tools out there. Twitter asks the question, “What are you doing?” and most users will tweet about exactly what they are doing - “I am eating lunch” , “I am cleaning the cat’s litter tray”,” I am going to the bathroom”. However, a growing number of users are using Twitter as a way to distribute information to a large amount of people. Bloggers are discovering that it is a great way to announce a new posts to hundreds of potential readers. Also many people are using it as a way of reporting on industry conferences. Recent pubcamps in Sydney and Melbourne have been broadcasted in 140 character bytes to hundreds of people who could not attend by those who were in attendence, complete with their thoughts about the information being presented. It was Stilgherrian’s reporting on the Poltech conference in Canberra yesterday that made me realise how much I love being on the receiving end of this kind of information. Poltech was a conference focusing on politicians and Web 2.0. If there is a group of people out there with no idea how to harass and use the power of the internet, it is Australian politicians. Stilgherrian, with his trademark sarcasm, reported on the clash of culture between the politicians and technology. Thanks to Twirl, an Adobe air application for Twitter, I was able to receive pop ups on my screen of tweets from this event whilst I worked away. Whilst being in attendance would have been so much better, I still felt involved in the event. The one aspect that Twitter falls down on is being able to have conversations about the information you receive. You can reply to the original poster, but unless the other people who reply are on your friend’s list, you can not really talk to those who are also responding to the OP. This is where the new social networking tool Plurk really comes into play.
Plurk not only allows you to make 140 character posts like Twitter does, but it allows you to reply to those posts in one central location rather than spread throughout the timeline. You can easily reply to those who have already replied to the post, even if they are not on your friends list. This makes the discussion of ideas amazingly easy. Last night I posted on Plurk that I was watching the ABC show, “The Gruen Transfer”. One of my friends informed me that Gavin Heaton was plurking a running commentary on the show. I went and friended Gavin who was generous enough to friend me right back, so that his commentary appeared on my timeline. Each segment of the show had its own post to which the rest of us replied with our thoughts and feelings on the segment or responded to other people’s replies. It allowed us to discuss a single issue without chasing the thread of discussion through all the other noise on Plurk. It made watching “The Gruen Transfer” a much richer experience.
Where Plurk excels in discussing experiences, Friend Feed excels in discussing online content and with the introduction of rooms on Friend Feed finding online content and discussions on topics you are interested in is so much easier. Whilst you may blog about an issue on your blog, Friend Feed allows the discussion of that issue to take place off your blog. Whilst bloggers may be concerned about the fragmentation of discussions, there are many tools that now take the comments from Friend Feed and display them in the blog’s comments section. Friend Feed releases information and discussions about the information from happening in one central spot and makes it much more accessible to people who normally not go to those destinations. It is an amazing way to discover new blogs and to make connections within the niches you are interested in.
Social networking has evolved from mindless chatter to a powerful way to disseminate information. It is becoming increasingly common for news about major world events to appear on social networking sites before it is picked up by mainstream media. If you have not gotten involved in social networking, what are you waiitng for?
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