| Social Networking - Blessing or Curse? |
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| Conversion Report |
| Written by Oluwaseun Pelemo |
| Monday, 01 September 2008 13:14 |
 In the past two to three years since the gradual emergence of web 2.0, collaborative and interactive web services have begun to take over the internet. Even online stores created to sell products have not been left behind in this new trend. Every establishment is trying to incorporate interactivity into their websites whether through blogs, games or wikis in order to improve the experience of the regular visitor. Indeed, social networking has been by far the most engaging and popular among all the services that the web 2.0 craze has brought. Social networking as understood by everybody is a service that allows users to share different kinds of content and connect with each other. Shared content could include music, pictures, videos, writings, quotes, shopping information or a hybrid of some or all of them. Social networking is also known for its ability to connect people together whether they had known each other in the past or not. Social networking is becoming a bigger issue everyday as more people join and waste a lot of time on the internet. Social networking is known for its ability to be addictive because of its collaborative nature which people enjoy a lot. People spend time uploading pictures, videos and other content. They also spend time looking at other people's content, commenting on them and fraternizing with them through these networks. In the business world, more corporate organizations are looking at social networks as a potential money maker because of its customer referral abilities. A good example is Facebook which this author is going to refer to in the rest of this article because of its emerging popularity. Facebook boasts of over 100 million users from various parts of the world. Using the author as a case study, he joined in September 2006 with the major aim of connecting with friends from high school and primary school. After joining Facebook, the author discovered that he began checking Facebook like he was checking his e-mail. His workflow immediately he got to work or his room was to check his mail, then his Facebook account. He actually had a lot of situations where the latter came first. The major thing that kept him hooked to Facebook was the fact that he could see what all his friends were up to and he could upload his own content to show his friends what he had been up to. After doing some research, he found out that he was not the only one who was having problems getting off the Facebook hook. The simple explanation is that Facebook provides us with all the personal information such as relationship status, gossip and all other things which interest us as human beings. Those are the things that make Facebook an addictive social network. Facebook is not the only social network with this addictive ability. Youtube and Imeem which are video and music social networks respectively among others have become an addiction to their users. The effects are countless but a few include poor productivity in working places and misplaced priorities in situations where users have other important engagements to attend to. Those two alone are bad enough to totally write off social networking as a terrible effect to our society. However, does that mean there are no positive effects? Social networking is known to have its good effects too and whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages is still a controversy. However, social networking has some important advantages that are worth considering. Social networking has made it easier for people to find each other. Most of the time, all the author needed was to type the name of an individual or long lost friend he was looking for and he was provided with a link to their Facebook profile. Facebook has become a tool that not only provides people with the ability to connect together but also gives people the ability to be a part of each other's lives and knowing what is happening at almost every point in time in a friend's life as long as they disclose it. In application to the Nigerian institutions, social networking is becoming a fad among professionals. Various people in different phases and professions in corporate Nigeria have began to use Facebook for both its social and professional benefits. Facebook is now used to publicize Nigerian brands, events and companies. A few Nigerian creative trades such as musicians, movie makers, photographers and their likes have begun to use Facebook as a vehicle to gain exposure and let people have an air of the services they render. PR and marketing professionals in Nigeria are getting more pro-active about using the internet to serve their clients and researching into various methods that can be used to accomplish their marketing and advertisement goals through social networks. The diverse audience on social networks makes it easy to reach out to a large set of people if publicity is done right. This opens doors to possibilities in terms of communication. There are many other important advantages of social networks on the internet but for the professional, those are the most important. Have you explored the opportunities available through social networks yet or you are still basking in its social functionality? Look at possible ways to improve the exposure of your business or the progress of your career. Newer news items:
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