Friendster and LinkedIn

Online social networks have become ubiquitous in the past few years. What forms of value do users get from these services and who is most likely to sign up on LinkedIn versus other sites?

Social networking sites provide users/members with the ability to create an online network of friends and/or colleagues. Users take advantage of this network in different ways. Some individuals like to be narcissistic and tell EVERYONE what they are doing all the time and post endless photos of themselves. Others use it to post pictures they can share with friends and keep in touch. In some examples people can find long lost friends and family. A friend's husband recently got in touch with his 20 year old son whom he had never met via Facebook and they are planning an actual meeting. So their new-found virtual relationship is actually leading to a son meeting a father he has never known. Other simple stories occur such as reuniting with childhood friends.

MySpace and Facebook and the "has been" Friendster are positioned for social networking. Other networking sites, like LinkedIn are positioned more for the career persons. Career persons can use LinkedIn to reconnect with old colleagues and they have a instantly updated address book to stay in touch with these colleagues. LinkedIn can also be used for business opportunities, either to "advertise" your service (basically make it known what you do), post a job position and look for job opportunities. LinkedIn in focuses on ones career attributes rather than personal attributes. It is basically a lot less fun that the social networking sites, but serves its purpose, creating a network of business professionals.