Social Networking 101

This paper gives a broad overview of the development of social networking and how marketers can leverage the platform. A social network is characterised by a social structure of individuals or groups of individuals tied together by sets of specific interdependency types. These groups include values, visions, friends, colleagues, weblinks and blog entries. Most of the time, these social networks act as customer relationship management tools for small businesses and entrepreneurs selling their products and/or services. Social networking services entertained the creativity and innovations of their member users, and such sites can be seen to have developed new technologies that were capable of linking bigger and better technologies into wider social networks.