Social Networks - Are you using them?

[Frostie]

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I've never really been one with these so-called social network things, simply because rather than adding a friend to a website and communicating by a little message, I'd prefer to txt, phone, email or MSN with the person. Having said this, I do make use of Linked-In but thats more of a business networking thing I guess.

However I see that Nad thinks Facebook is 1 reason why posting on this forum appears to have taken a dip and I simply wondered how big, and how important people make of these social networks within the affiliate industry.

[morleymouse]

I use facebook, but have made a strict rule to not mix work and social (if there is such a line anymore). So I use facebook for mates, keeping in touch with people from school etc and use this forum for keeping in touch with the industry, msn, phone text etc for all!

With regards to the industry, I dont think facebooks going to change a thing communication wise. An MSN username, phone number or forum contact is always going to be kind I recon. As long as your reachable I dont think a fancy way to 'poke' someone is going to make a difference.

But as for oportunities within a social network they are huge. When you read NMA or look at any public hitwise resport they base them on total UK traffic, and say google is 40%. MSN/Yahoo might have 10% but then you have the social networking sites, Bebo, Myspace, Facebook, they all have a hell of a lot of traffic, and depending on your target market, a huge potential revenue stream. Hm, I feel a blog post coming on!

[Flightmapping]

I joined FB for the social side, but I've already had people using it for business messages too - even if they have my email.

We've already got a Flightmapping users' group going too, with over 50 members so far, mainly from the affiliate world (not yet linked back much from FM.com):

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2351507165

It is really interesting what people put up there, and I think there is always going to be a fine line between what you want to say on a site like that, and what you want to put on your own website.

I just work on the basis that if I'm going to give any opinions, I have to be able to back them up in any arena. If I can't do that, I won't comment. But that doesn't really shut me up much.

[kcheung]

I use facebook for both social and work...it kind of ended up that way, but I see it as a chance for everyone work and socially to see my personality and interests...

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=502582602

[JamesEvansSEO]

Hi,

Social Interactions are as important as business interaction, but in order to show a human side in a business situation we needed to find a proper social networking solution; now we knoe that showing a human side could increase businesses and an individual market value.

Most people think that it is not a good idea to mix work and the 'social' side of our lifes, In our Industry I think that it is important to mix both.

In my case I use Facebook a lot, and without even trying, I'm getting a lot of new friends, I'm meeting a lot of people from the industry, getting in touch with old friends and of course getting more business opportunities.

See on Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=751435920

[Ronald Marva]

Social networking has been proving be a great tool in my campaign to recruit affiliates for my programs. Its not a targeted approach for me but I am getting in touch with actual people who usually lead me to the right contacts and direction.

[Gavinio]

I use facebook, but have made a strict rule to not mix work and social (if there is such a line anymore). So I use facebook for mates, keeping in touch with people from school etc and use this forum for keeping in touch with the industry, msn, phone text etc for all!

Me too - sorry for those people I've declined!

There is a bit of crossover, of course, but I'm trying to resist having all my business contacts seeing photos of me and my mates out boozing etc.

Also, to be honest, as soon as you're flagged as anything to do with affiliates in MySpace you get thousands of requests and adverts for e-books, I didn't want the same thing to happen in Facebook.

[Azam.net]

"make use of in your affiliate marketing arena" - not sure if much productive work happens at Facebook, including with my own time there. Therefore I've resolved to cut down on my usage... but it's hard to wean myself off - it's so addictive.

My Facebook

[Scratch2Casher]

Another interesting aspect (affiliate marketing, in a way) of the netoworking sites are the US presidential candidates use of these sites. They are all taking it very seriously, but with a much different approach than their offline campaigns. I think one of the facebook founders is running Barrack Obama's online campaign.

[jack.taylor]

Hi,

I think that its not really 'mixing work with play' but it adds that personal touch to your mates and around them. Further, not only can you speak to people without your company's badge but also get honest feedback or personal choices, on friendly terms.
FaceBook has evolved over time and definitely contributes to the value of forums,MSN,etc yet does not replace any of the former.

Cheers!

[sgpratley]

I'm as addicted to facebook as anyone else on here, don't try to talk business to me there though!

Linkedin is pretty good for finding people who know people, like I managed to find a user for a CMS system I was investigating a few days ago. Found someone in the company, found someone to make an introduction and off I went.

Myspace is killing itself IMHO, it was build for bands to promote themselves so it's inherently spam friendly. Not tried Bebo though which is apparently more popular in the UK.

[Frostie]

Yeah LinkedIn I find is a lot more business related than play related.

I must take a look at facebook then, but I have to join before I even see anyones page? Whats that all about?

[john924]

I voted for other, which is only because I don't really use any of them, but do actually get some traffic from Stumbleupon and del.icio.us, which is the reason for the other vote.

[FionaR]

I must take a look at facebook then, but I have to join before I even see anyones page? Whats that all about?

I think this is what really differentiates Facebook from the likes of MySpace, Bebo etc - although there is an opportunity to block everyone who is not listed on your friends list from viewing your page, it is no where near as secure as Facebook seems to be, and therefore you get no where near the same amount of spam.

On FB you have to join as well as actually be someone's friend before being able to view their page - but I'm sure if you join you will get lots of requests and you can nose around everyone's page

Not that I am into this whole social networking thing at all.....

[gunneradt]

Ive always avoided the myspace type of stuff (leave that to my kids)

I had heard lotsabout facebook and must admit I really liked it (so much I joined)

gunner