What is a Social Network?

• A social networking service is a platform to build social networks or social relations among people who share interests, activities, backgrounds or real-life connections.

• A social network service consists of a representation of each user (often a profile), his or her social links, and a variety of additional services.

• Social network sites are varied and they incorporate new information and communication tools such as mobile connectivity, photo/video/sharing and blogging.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking_service

What is a Social Network?• The main types of social networking services are those that contain category

places (such as former school year or classmates), means to connect with friends (usually with self-description pages), and a recommendation system linked to trust. Popular methods now combine many of these, with American-based services such as Facebook, Google+,YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr and Twitter widely used worldwide.

• Nexopia inCanada; Badoo,[4] Bebo,[5] Vkontakte (Russia), Delphi, Draugiem.lv (mostly in Latvia), Hyves (mostly in The Netherlands), iWiW (mostly in Hungary), Nasza-Klasa, Soup (mostly in Poland), Glocals in Switzerland, Skyrock, The Sphere, StudiVZ (mostly in Germany), Tagged, Tuenti (mostly in Spain), Myspace, Xanga and XING[6] in parts of Europe;[7] Hi5 and Orkut in South America and Central America;[8] Mxit in Africa;[9] Cyworld,Mixi, Orkut, Renren, Friendster, Sina Weibo and Wretch in Asia and the Pacific Islands.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking_service

What to do…

• Pick one of the US social media giants• Read a bit about it using the links on previous slide.• Write your findings in a PowerPoint Presentation– How does it work?– How are people connected when using it?– What are the benefits?– What are the downsides?– What is your opinion

• Save it as – “Social Media” in your computer folder