Summer 2010 | Volume 108 | Number 656
Social Club
You may know about all the latest online social networking tools, but do you know how each can best help you? Read on!
by Zach Dundas
The stereotypes of older Internet users – that they're baffled by "the Google" and befuddled by their tech-savvy offspring – largely stopped being true long ago.
In reality, baby boomers and older adults are not only online, they're flocking to social networks like Facebook and Twitter. According to iStrategyLabs, adults over 55 are the fastest-growing group on Facebook. Meanwhile, another survey by comScore shows that it's not teenagers but adults who most use Twitter, a service which limits users to 140-character posts called "tweets."
"People whose kids are going off to college or moving for jobs are discovering that social networks are the best way to keep in touch," says Sarita Yardi, a Georgia Tech researcher on social network use. Social networks may have started as a way for young people to chat with friends, but they now serve as essential tools for family life, commerce and entertainment.
So the question is no longer to tweet or not to tweet, but which free social network you should use. Here, we examine four of the most popular – and, yes, useful – social networks on the Web.
What: Users are able to share photos, videos and updates with their Facebooking family and friends. The site also offers games and pages for specific products and organizations.
Getting Started: After you sign up for free, Facebook can scan your email contacts to find others you may know (termed "friends"). You also can do your own searches to find people and ask them to become your friend. You decide whom you're really "friends" with, and you can control who sees your information through Facebook's privacy settings.
Why: With an estimated 400 million users worldwide, Facebook can be a key way to stay in touch with far-flung family members and friends.
What: Users can post messages no longer than 140 characters; these posts are known as "tweets."
Getting Started: After you generate contacts with other Twitter users on the free service, you can start sharing your thoughts. Anyone can see your tweets, unless you adjust your personal privacy settings to allow only the people you've approved as your "followers" to do so. You can easily search for people, companies and organizations you want to follow.
Why: Twitter allows you to track friends and family, and lets you send them private messages, too. It also offers the opportunity to follow updates from people you don't know: athletes, actors, celebrities, musicians or writers you enjoy. Because almost all major media organizations – and many local ones – now offer Twitter feeds linked to their coverage, the service is a handy way to stay informed.
Many companies now use Twitter to share information and discounts with followers. Recently, for example, Twitter followers of the airline JetBlue could learn about flight delays in New York and a $109 special fare from Chicago to Long Beach, California. Meanwhile, Kraft Foods offered its followers pork chop recipes and answered questions about changes to its product line.
What: A social network designed specifically for professional connections.
Getting Started: New members create profiles that outline their work histories and expertise. You connect your profile to those of other users – in this case, people you've worked with or other people in the same line of work. The emphasis is typically on work experience and job searches rather than the day-to-day peeks into daily life offered by Facebook.
Why: LinkedIn offers many of the same networking functions as Facebook, without the games, casual photos and other frivolity. Users post résumés and search the site's job listings. Some even research potential employers (and their hiring managers) before job interviews. For older professionals, LinkedIn can help re-establish professional connections made pre-Internet. Many users research topics by posting to the site's popular question-and-answer section.
What: While not strictly a social network, this free voice and video chat service is the most social of them all.
Getting Started: After downloading the free Skype software and completing a simple setup, you can place video calls to people whose Skype names you know.
Why: Families who find themselves separated by distance can use Skype to establish face-to-face connections and the emotional ties that go with them. Instead of trying to prompt a reluctant 4-year-old to chat with Grandma and Grandpa on the phone, parents can set up Skype to let grandparents watch kids open birthday and Christmas presents live. If you have a somewhat new Internet-connected computer, the video camera is either already built in or can be purchased relatively cheaply.
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