Last modified April 24, 2009

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Quick guide to up-and-coming
(or up-and-already-there)
social media everyone
should know about:

Facebook is…if you don’t know then come to the office for some immersion training, but give us some warning because we’ll have to pre-arrange our faces into something like “polite.” Suffice to say it’s free access social networking in which the activities include adding friends, updating your “status” and creating a profile with pictures and/or videos.

LinkedIn is very similar to Facebook, but with a business focus. It’s online networking—connections are forged through professional associations with one another. It’s currently 3rd in ranking (behind Facebook and MySpace), more than doubling in the last year.

Ning, is meant to compete with social networks like Facebook but uniquely allows users to create their own social networks. Like the other sites, Ning is free access but it also offers a premium option, primarily to offer control regarding advertising on the pages, increase bandwidth and so on. Ning offers the ability to create a social network around a single concept or business and is proving attractive. It has just announced more than one million social networks have been created.

Bebo= “blog early, blog often,” Bebo describes itself as being about “community, self-expression and entertainment.” Its focus includes digital content and sharing. Its recent integration with AOL instant messenger gave it a sizable Beboost. Time will tell if it continues to rise.

And finally, Twitter. You didn’t think I would leave it out? Are you befuddled by the Twits who Tweet? Here’s some perspective: Twitter reached more than 13 million in March, growing the site at an unbelievable 2,565 percent…