A social network is made up of a group of people who connect to one another and normally have some kind of common interest. You may even be a member of a social network now such as LinkedIn, Myspace, Ning, or Facebook. There are tons of other social networks on the web, and there are many different reasons to join them. But, what about using one to promote our lapidary related businesses? I'm researching this further, and I'm interested to hear from anyone who has done this already, so feel free to jump in.
These first few social networks are actually geared towards Jewelry/gemstones or Crafters:
ArtMetal - social networking for the metal arts
http://www.artmetal.com/IndiePublic - Indiepublic is an independent art and design community.
http://www.indiepublic.com/Deviant Art - Join the largest art community in the world!
http://www.deviantart.com/We could (including myself), also reach out and network on other levels. Especially those of us that sell and have websites or shops. While talking with folks I relate to is comfortable, maybe I should consider stepping out of my comfort zone. Maybe devote just s little time towards participating in some of these social networking groups.
In my case, I could be spending even a little time mingling withing some of these social networking groups and maybe get to know some jewelry designers as a result.
For instance...
MySpace – what about looking up Comedians – if they are on stage they may be looking for something fun to wear! Almost any performer, comedy, music, etc. will friend you just to get their name out there - so maybe we should take a page from their book. You can post a photo in their comments of a piece of jewelry with your "Thanks for the Add!" note.
Badoo - 15,000,000 users : Badoo is a multi-lingual, London based, social networking website. It offers users the ability to connect with people at a local and global level, allowing them to share photos and videos, create "reportages" of their lives, and promote themselves and their work. Their "philosophy," which they have trademarked, is I am here.
Launched in May 2006 (although the URL existed as a web portal since 2003), the site now has over 12 million registered users, and is one of the top 100 visited sites on the net, according to Alexa Internet. It is also one of the top ten community websites in Europe. In September 2007, Badoo re-launched the site, promising users "upgraded features and innovative new tools."
Unlike other social networking services, Badoo does not incorporate advertising in any part of the site, thus a user's profile contains only user-generated content. It generates income through a "Rise Up" feature which allows users to pay to have their profile given more prominence on the site for a limited time. 20% of Badoo's 12.5 million users access this function once a month.
http://badoo.com/Bebo - 40,000,000 users: Bebo is a popular social networking website, founded in January 2005. It can be used in many countries including Ireland, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia. A Polish version was launched recently, which uses a different user database. There are plans for French, German and other versions. Founded by husband and wife Michael and Xochi Birch, Bebo had a major relaunch in July 2005. It was bought by AOL on March 13, 2008 for $850m (£417m).
"Bebo" is a backronym for "Blog early, blog often"
http://bebo.com/EONS - We're the online community for BOOMers! A social network for the over 50 generation, with groups to join, games and social connections.
http://www.eons.com/Facebook - 115,000,000 users: Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with other people. People can also add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profile to notify friends about themselves. The website's name refers to the paper facebooks depicting members of a campus community that some American colleges and preparatory schools give to incoming students, faculty, and staff as a way to get to know other people on campus.
http://www.facebook.com/Multiply - 9,000,000 users: is a social networking service with an emphasis on allowing users to share media - such as photos, videos and blog entries - with their "real-world" network. The website was launched in March 2004 and is privately held with backing by VantagePoint Venture Partners, Point Judith Capital, Transcosmos, and private investors. Multiply has over 9 million registered users.
On Multiply, a user's network is made up of their direct contacts, as well as others who are closely connected to them through their first-degree relationships. Additionally, users are encouraged to specify the nature of their relationship with one another, making it possible to share content with their entire network of closely-related people, or subsets thereof including friends, family, professional contacts, and so on.
http://multiply.com/MySpace - 110,000,000 users:
MySpace is a popular social networking website offering an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music and videos for teenagers and adults internationally. Its headquarters are in Beverly Hills, California, USA, where it shares an office building with its immediate owner, Fox Interactive Media; which is owned by News Corporation, which has its headquarters in New York City.
The company employs 300 staff and does not disclose revenues or profits separately from News Corporation. The 100 millionth account was created on August 6, 2006 in the Netherlands and a news story claimed 106 million accounts on September 8, 2006, and the site reportedly attracts 230,000 new registrations per day.
http://myspace.com/Ning - The unique feature of Ning is that anyone can create their own custom social network for a particular topic or need, catering to specific audiences. Currently, Ning has two primary business models. One allows users to create a network for free, in exchange for the network hosting ads that Ning supplies. The other, their "Ning for Business" option, offers users a network where they control the ad content (or lack thereof), in exchange for a monthly fee. A few other premium services such as extra storage and bandwidth and non-Ning URLs are also available for additional monthly fee.
According to TechCrunch, adoption of Ning has not been as widespread as the company had hoped. It requires a knowledge of web programming, lacks the scalability of an open API, and can only be hosted on Ning's servers. After hitting 100,000 social networks, TechCrunch revised its forecast and Ning has been called "fast-growing". Currently, Ning hosts more than 275,000 networks. There are several jewelry oriented networks on Ning!
http://ning.com/Twitter - Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send updates (otherwise known as tweets) which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.
Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. The sender can restrict delivery to those in his or her circle of friends (delivery to everyone being the default). Users can receive updates via the Twitter website, instant messaging, SMS, RSS, email or through an application such as Twitterrific or Facebook.
http://twitter.com/Xanga - 40,000,000 users: Xanga's origins can be traced back to 1999, when it began as a site for sharing book and music reviews. It now has an estimated 40 million users worldwide. As of May 24, 2008, Alexa Internet ranked Xanga as the 231st most visited site on the Internet. All Xanga members receive a "Xanga Site", a web site made up of a weblog, a photoblog, a videoblog, an audioblog, a "Pulse" (mini-blog), and a social networking profile. Members also have the option of joining or making blogrings "groups".
http://xanga.com/Yelp! - operates a social networking, user review, and local search web site of the same name, combining features from traditional Internet yellow pages sites such as Yellowpages.com, local city guide sites such as Citysearch and Metromix, and community-oriented social media sites like Facebook and Myspace. As of July 2008, over 3.4 million people access the Yelp web site each month, putting it in the top 500 of U.S. Internet web sites.
http://www.yelp.com/
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