May 0907
Don’t Like Facebook? Try Another Social Network!
May 7th, 2009
If Google and Twitter seem to be getting all the press, but they’re not your cup of tea, don’t despair! There is a social network out there for nearly every interest group and demographic. Here are some I’ve tried out recently:
- FoodBuzz is a social network for people who like food. You can create a profile and share your recipes, restaurant reviews and photos. In addition, FoodBuzz aggregates content from food blogs and allows food brands to create a presence and interact with users. Here’s a link to my jmpineda profile, although I’m new so it’s still sparse.
- TeeBeeDee is a social network for “grown-ups” aka mostly the 40+ crowd. You can invite your friends, join and create groups, and participate in discussions. As expected, the top topics are: Work, Sex Over 40, Relationships, and Health.
- Bebo is AOL’s social network. It allows you to aggregate streams from other social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc. I really like how you can create an interactive timeline of your life through LifeStory.
- If you want to create your own social network, there’s Ning. Ning lets you create your own social space, invite people, and customize what people can do through the hundreds of applications. Associations might use Ning to create a closed network just for members where you control the brand experience and ways that members can interact.
How about you? What social networks are you on? Which best suits you and your interests? Which one is your favorite?
May 8th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
I always get a kick when the old and new meld together in a way that makes so much sense. For knitters, Ravelry.com takes what had become a solitary hobby in the modern era and turns it back into what it was for my grandmother—a communal one.
At the core of Ravelry is your “notebook”— a place where you can track projects, yarn you own, patterns you want to try, etc. Ravelry is powerful because it runs on a very complete database that seems to have tracked down every last pattern and yarn. You can browse patterns (and find scores of free/downloadables ones), what yarns others have used to make the projects, how much yarn they needed, and how it turned out. On the flip side, if you find a yarn you love, you can see what others have done with it. The fun of it is that you can see what everyone is making.
The community section is vibrant—with groups ranging from the knitterly (patterns, yarns, etc.) to the political (“Knitters for Obama” raised a ton of money) to the technological (“kindle knitters”). Users can “favorite” projects they like, exchange personal messages or communicate on the boards. There are frequent swaps and sales of yarn and the community self-polices using volunteer moderators and editors.
The site is aesthetically pleasing and user friendly—and it knows knitters. It has a genuine “voice” that takes knitting seriously—but not too seriously. It has only been around 2 years, but most knitters I know barely remember life before Ravelry.
May 9th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
Just read this great article on social networks for moms!
http://mashable.com/2009/05/09/social-media-new-moms/
Number one on list is CafeMom, which is one of the premiere social networks for mothers. http://www.cafemom.com/