Networking sites

[chickenfeet]

There seem to be a huge number of social or business networking sites. I wonder who uses which, so a poll...

[Poll #958831]

Comments

[badasstronaut.livejournal.com]

LinkedIn isn't that relevant to me; I made a profile to see what it did. Myspace is dreadful, but you pretty much can't not have one anymore. FriendsReunited is also more or less compulsory. Of all of them, Facebook looks to have a lot of potential, but it's so jolly hard to track people down via it. I know I must know loads of people who have a profile there, but I can't find them.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

No "none of the above"; is this because your particular interest here is to find out what the people using such sites are doing, rather than how many people are using them?

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I guess not ticking any of the boxes equates to "none of the above".

I'm curious about relative popularity and what kind of person is using which site. I figured 'what for' would probably emerge in comments.

[unblinkered.livejournal.com]

Random searching threw up a few old friends on Friends Reunited, so I joined. To date, none have been the type I'm particularly keen on reacquainting myself with, though. I was sent an invite to LinkedIn by friends who use it for networking, but I don't find it caters to my needs much. Ditto Friendster.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Friends Reunited came up trumps for me on one occasion. I found an old schoolfriend who was working in biotech in California. He pointed me at a couple of very useful contacts.

[lemur-catta.livejournal.com]

LJ is the only one I blog in and visit regularly.
Tribe is mostly where my burner friends are(or were) plus on of my California friends.The common interest related groups there are better than most.
I started a Blogspot account to read my brother and Dad but they stopped using it. I still go there to read and post in two California friends blogs. I don't count it as a social or networking site though.
I ended up on Facebook when lured there by one of my dancer friends and it turned out all the burners were already there too. I've been finding the news flash style updates on everyone amusing but the interest based groups seem quite restricted on a 'member of this school,org,etc.' basis so nothing I'd be likely to join so far.
My Pillow Fight League character has a MySpace account becaue the League Commissioner asked us all to make one.I don't have one as myself and never would.

[intertext.livejournal.com]

Elgg and Ning are both ones that I joined in professional capacity - Elgg is primarily for educators, and I've considered using it for teaching. Ning is quite interesting and has some potential - it's fairly new, though. People don't necessarily think of Flickr as a "social" networking site because it's for photography, but I find it as social, if not more, than LJ. I have way more "friends" on Flickr than here (maybe I'm a better photographer that I am a writer, ha ha). My students are all on MySpace and Facebook - a good reason to stay the hell away. They are too flashy and gossipy for my taste.

[rowanf.livejournal.com]

I have to agree. I really enjoy the communities I belong to on Flickr. It didn't occur to me to list it in other though.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

I'm a member by default of these things; I never use them.

[psychochicken.livejournal.com]

I joined LinkedIn when I thought I wanted to be part of business. Turns out I didn't so it's been gathering dust since. Might want to dust it off and morph it into something that might get me some illo work later though.

[gillo]

I did pay for a year of Friends Reunited, but after that I'd contacted pretty much everyone I wanted to and didn't really see the point.

I'm fairly unhappy that the press have been using that site to try to contact schoolmates of the girl who was murdered in Japan last week - they offered cash for anecdotes too. As far as I know no-one bit. But still.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Scum sucking rodents will use whatever channel they can. If only we could keep them in the sewers where they belong.

[gillo]

Couldn't agree more.

You prompted me to go and look at Friends Reunited - virtually no new entries in the last three years.

I remembered that I signed up for the Durham Alumni Online site too - again, few entries of any point. I'm in touch directly or indirectly with far more people I knew - there are only four or five really familiar names in the entire list. These sites only work if you put time and effort into them.

[jen-c-w.livejournal.com]

I don't really used linkedin much - I have a profile, but don't find it overly user-friendly. If I was looking for work I might be a bit more bothered I guess.
myspazz is fun and quite a lot of my friends are on there.
And facebook - facebook is just my life now. x