In the series of articles that you have seen on this site you’ve heard a lot about personal social networking. Personal social networking is a different activity then business networking. Business networking is a whole completely different monster because when you business network your presenting your business not just yourself. And it’s a viable cost of social networking. Any business that wants to survive needs o network with other businesses, it’s the way of the future.

Business networking differs from personal networking in that you are trying to get a specific business across. When your networking for your own personal gain you are networking for yourself, you are advertising and trying to sell yourself. Now that essentially what business social networking is however its different. Your networking and advertising a business. So you’re looking at getting the name of your business out there. You do this for many different reasons.

What are the reasons why one would do business networking. Business networking can help you in finding suppliers for your businesses or different prices for different things that need to be done. Business networking can especially and I mean especially find you new clientele. This should be the biggest reason is to find new clientele and customers. Hiring is done a lot through social networking as well. You can find some of the biggest and brightest name for your business through business social networking.

So now that we’ve established what is business social networking, and why a business may want to do this, let’s look at cost. The cost for networking your business on a social level can be very cheap or very expensive. First let’s talk about the expensive ways, I choose to do this so you can understand the most expensive ways first. Joining business associations are a big way of doing this. Joining something like “the webhosting association of America, etc” can cost a lot of money. The range of joining business associations can range from fifty dollars to hundreds of dollars. Now why would I do this? This adds some prestige to your business being part of a distinguished group. It also opens you up to conventions and other events that happen all through the year. I’ve made many a sale by attending conventions in this manner. There’s also another powerful way of doing this. Going to things such as the local chamber of commerce and small business associations. This costs a lot of money to do, thousands most of the time. However you get invited to special exclusive mixers and parties. This is the bread and butter of social networking, this is where you can make a lot of money because you’re dealing with people who obviously have money and many are looking for your service and hire from within. Now the cheaper ways of doing this? Going to free seminars and classes that people could be offering for your field, or by just hanging out in a coffee shop or places were professionals go. You wouldn’t believe how many cards you can hand out by doing this. So no matter how you do things, you can make money for your business simply by providing your card at special events.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Social Networking is such a huge thing these days. In person, on the internet, and now you can carry it with you. That’s right, on your phone. You now have the ability to network while say on the bus, on the job (though its trouble if your boss catches you.), you have the ability to network wherever and whenever. Think I’m lying? Fifty million people this year around the globe will be getting into social networking via the phone. By the time we get to 2011 its going to be up to one hindered and seventy four million people.

What are the reasons for this increase? Well one of the factors in this increase is the fact that now more than ever people have access to the broadband web. Fifteen years ago it was barely heard of to have a slow mo dial up connection. Now I don’t hardly know anyone myself who has anything less than DSL, with cable being the average and the super geek running with T1 lines. The fact that you can now have internet on your cell phone is also a big factor into why people are interacting via social networks through the phone.

Take for instance the company Helio. It’s a small up and coming cell phone which boasts some of the best phones in the business. Not only that they have some awesome services and an awesome web browser. In fact this web browser says it’s so fast that sometimes It beats your home networks connection. Now look at what they provide on their phones, you can access MySpace directly. Imagine that. Directly you can access MySpace, say your in the club hanging out with some of your fave friends and you want to advertise this online or make photos easier for them to get, well MySpace on Helio is to the rescue. You take the picture with that six megapixel phone and then you can upload it directly to MySpace and put it on your profile all in the club.

Looking at other companies they are not behind on this craze either. A lot of people may have heard of a company that’s getting bigger and bigger called cricket communications. Cricket phones are so big because of the fact that you can call and talk and text all day cheaper than the other services. You can do it unlimitedly and it doesn’t require any credit checks to get with them either. And so while they may not be Helio, they offer the net to their customers as well. Look at what they have… MySpace mobile, m3 communities, ad much much more. Even on a phone service that’s been touted as being cheap there are people that can connect to the webs mobile communities.

This is the future of networking. Imagine networking on the phone and web at the same time your networking in person, this is an amazing ability! So look forward to the new era of networking, it’s in the palm of your hand.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Myspace

It’s easy to see that Myspace is the largest of all the social
networking sites. It contains four-fifths of the total population of people who
use Social Networking Sites. The nice thing about Myspace is its
customizability. The site can be worked with a good amount of HTML to look
however you want it to look. Also, because of its popularity, hundreds
of sites have sprung up to help you with your own Myspace page,
designing it to adding games or other programs. The downside to Myspace is also
its upside. Because the site is so popular with many friends you can
interact with, it has also been targeted by small companies that will
spam and send junk email to your account to try and sell their products.
Spam is a growing problem which is slowly causing people to switch to
other sites.

Facebook

Facebook is probably the most popular networking site when it comes to
College students. You may not be able to customize your own Facebook
page as much as Myspace can but Facebook has a unique feature that allows
you to add applications to your profile which serve as mini-webpages
or software programs. These can range anywhere from your Best Friends
application to playing Poker with other players on Facebook. Most of
these applications are developed by Facebook members and most anything goes
with these programs as long as their are no illegal implications with
them. Facebook is slowly growing and is excellent with preventing spam.
The problems with Facebook can be seen with the look of the site
itself as their is virtually no customizability with your own profile page.

Bebo

This site is very similar to other sites like Myspace and was
originally launched back in 2005 but never achieved the popularity of Myspace.
It is much better with dealing with spam than Myspace because it only
has 1.8% of the market share of Social Marketing Web sites. Bebo does
have a unique feature with Bebo Bands. People can create a profile for
their own band that showcases your new music and has featured artists such
as Paris Hilton and Kylie Minogue. And whereas Myspace has a friends
list, Bebo offers a fan section for those who enjoy your music. The
problems that arose with Bebo were that people found one in three people on
Bebo was under 18 years of age that showed detailed information about
the kids. It is also difficult to find friends on the site that may go
to your school or work.

Blackplanet

Blackplanet was one of the first Social Networking sites and boasts a
population of 16 million and primarily concentrates on Black Diaspora
(or those who originate from Africa and have spread throughout the
world). On the site, one can find African Americans to other blacks around
the world. The site is open to everyone of course but has the highest
concentration of blacks (as it isn’t just African Americans) of any of the
social networking sites. Blackplanet is currently run by Omar Winslow
who is an Internet analyst who frequently appears on TV. The downside
to Blackplanet is its lack of diversity on the site but at the same time
that’s the good part of it, as well. The site is a bit simplistic but
can be changed to adapt your style.

Xanga

Another site that started almost ten years ago, Xanga is primarily used
by teenagers. It differs from the other sites because it hosts not
only profiles but places to host videoblogs, weblogs, and Podcasts. It has
around 60 million users as of right now. You may have seen many videos
and ads displaying Xanga. Xanga has an extensive marketing campaign
that has been a bit shady at times but overall has been successful. Xanga
is nice because anyone in the world can use it as it has the ability
to be displayed in many different languages such as Chinese, Korean, and
Japanese. One of Xanga’s problems is that if you want to join their
premium service (which pretty much allows you to host more data) you have
to pay a monthly fee to use it.

iMeem

iMeem has grown enormously since 2006. Its primary purpose was to be a
typical blogging/hosting social site but eventually was soon just known
for its music hosting, a type of Napster if you will. Users could
upload their own music to the site as well as their own videos for others
to enjoy. After a month or so it attracted millions of more users. Just
like Youtube, others could upload their songs and have others leave
comments. It wasn’t meant for copyrighted materials but eventually their
was an explosion of illegally uploaded music on the site. Now all the
songs uploaded (unless owned by the uploader) are 30 second samples of
the song that can be purchased through iTunes as an option. Imeem still
goes strong with its videos though and should at least be looked at, not
to mention its blogs.

Yahoo 360

360 is still in its beta testing but is going strong. It helps that the
largest search engine in the world is running it. 360 runs just the
same way as Orkut or Myspace would run but whats really nice about 360 is
how it integrates and works with the other Yahoo applications and
programs. With 360 you can talk on your Yahoo Messenger directly on your
360 Page. It also works very well with LAUNCH (a program of Yahoo’s that
works as a radio tuner). 360 is very customizable and is very low on
spam because of its popularity. Something to definitely look into, 360 is
very likeable. The only bad part about it is it doesn’t have a very
high population but is great for those that use Yahoo a lot.

Classmates

If you’ve ever been on the web before, you’ve seen an add about
Classmates.com. This site is extremely different from the others as its
primary purpose is to find Classmates that once attended one of your schools.
As implied, the audience for this program leans more towards the older
spectrum. People that want to find what happened to their classmates
back in the 80s or 90s or even earlier will like this site. It’s a
worthless site for people born in the late 80s and past as those users
mainly use Myspace and Facebook to see what’s happening to their old high
school chums. So unless you’re thirty or older this site probably won’t
be worth your time, but if you happen to be older than it’s a great
site.

hi5

This site’s population consists mostly of those from Central America
and a good population of Asia. Most American users flock towards Myspace
and Facebook but for those who don’t know English as well lean towards
hi5. Hi5 is another type of site that is extremely customizable and
user friendly featuring the same ideas and programs such as Myspace. It
does have a unique aspect that differs from other programs with its
degrees of friends. There are three degrees in all. There is first degree
(which contains all of your immediate friends) second degree (which shows
the friends of your friends) and third (which shows the friends of
your friends of your friends). This program really helps finding friends
that you can’t find just by searching for their names.

Tagged

Tagged.com is simply a Myspace clone. It does exactly the same thing
but seems to have a bit more intrusive adds than Myspace. It’s population
ranges from all over the world but doesn’t have a specific country
that separates it from the others. Actually, the only thing that separates
it from other social networking sites is that its search engine is a
bit more advanced than others using meta tags on everything. It does
feature a youtube type video showing program integrated in the actual site
that is used fairly often. With a low population and uninteresting
adds, its easy to see why it’s so low on the popularity list.

LiveJournal

If you’re into blogging, then this is the site for you. Originally
named for Emos, LiveJournal has turned into the perfect site for getting
things off your chest. It does offer a friend adding program and another
that lets others just watch your blog. Pictures can also be added to
your blog in many different formats. But overall its a blogging
application. You also have the option of not having someone see your profile and
what you post and then it turns into an online Diary or Journal for
your use. Only about 1.8 million of the accounts are actually active as
of right now but the demographics of the site are primarily female
standing at two-thirds of the population. Strangely enough, most users are
American and Russian.

Gaiaonline

If you’re into Animé then you’re going to enjoy Gaia Online. In a
nutshell, Gaia Online is an Anime themed forum based web site. Users
(usually gamers). On this site however, people don’t own a page they can
customize but instead own an avatar that they can customize. But here’s
another catch. In order to change your avatar you must use Gaia Gold which
can be obtained through activities and flash games that the web site
offers. So if you’re really into gaming this could be the site for you.
It really stresses status as people just by looking at your avatar can
see how dedicated you are to the site and how much free time you have
on your hands. This site is kind of on the edges of Social Networking
but is trying to integrate it so as to much up to the giant Myspace.

Friendster

Believe it or not, Myspace wasn’t the top Social Networking Site on the
Internet since the start. Friendster, up until 2004, was the giant but
was soon surpassed by Myspace. Friendster offers the choice of
broadcasting any video from any video hosting site (except for Myspace Video)
which makes it very likeable especially if you’re a user of Revver.com.
Friendster also has an older population of people with most people
above 25 years of age. One of Friendster’s unique programs is its Circle
of Friends which shows and collects data about the relationships you
have with your listed friends and their information. So pretty much, if
you find a random person on their site, it can show you how you are
related to that person (e.g. This guy is my grandpa’s cousin’s best friend)
even if you have no idea who they are. Very cool feature on the site.

Orkut

Orkut is Google’s answer to Myspace and does it fairly well.
Originally, Google wanted it to take away competition from Myspace but it had a
different affect. Orkut attracted a high population of Brazilians and
then later a high concentrations of Indians (from India). It grew very
quickly in Iran as well but was soon outlawed by the government. Just
recently, the site announced that the whole interface of Orkut will be
redone to something totally different, so check out what it looks like
right now. There have been some legal implications involved with the site
that include hate groups being formed and also users distributing Child
Porn and drugs with the site, but they have been dealt with swiftly.
And if you don’t like those things, just avoid them and Orkut is a very
enjoyable experience.

Live Spaces

This Social Site is owned and operated by Microsoft. This site receives
a high amount of traffic ranging around 100,000,000 hits per month.
The unique thing about Spaces is that it offers a program called gadgets.
What these are pretty much are small programs that can be added to
your site for more customizability like games or flash programs that show
pictures or play music. Technologic wise, Live Spaces is the most
advanced and can be used even without having any friends or others looking
at your site. The problem arrises with this site when you don’t use
Internet Explorer, most people do use this so there isn’t a problem for
those who use Mozilla Firefox, they repeatedly receive problems running
Live Spaces as it’s a browser that wasn’t made by Microsoft.

Hoverspot

This site is interesting in that it’s nothing more than a cheaply done
myspace clone. It has received many users mainly do to the fact of
advertising rather than by word of mouth. It offers no redeeming qualities
or unique programs that could make it likeable. If you want to talk to
friends it could also be difficult to find some or any at all. The
interface is a bit difficult to get used to and tries to cram ads down your
throat whenever it can. Overall, not a very good web site and one that
should try and be avoided at all costs. Best to just stick with
Myspace if you’re thinking about doing this one.

BuzzNet

Buzznet is very similar to a typical social networking site, but how it
differs is rather than having the web page just about you, it focuses
more on a group or activity such as juggling, movies, or Fan Clubs for
Celebrities. The site is fairly new being created in 2005 and gained
notoriety for its Photo sharing which rivals that of Flickr. It also has
another program that’s very similar to Digg’s system where you can find
and share news articles or videos for others to view and that others
can vote for. But instead of voting, they refer to it as Buzzing. So if
you Buzz something a lot, it’s worth looking at. Buzznet has a little
bit of everything and really should be looked at if you work well in a
group.

Sconex

Sconex was specifically made for Teenagers, mostly high school
students, to interact with each other. It has many things similar to Facebook
in that one can post their class schedules and teachers or even make
blogs about what they did in Science class earlier that day. It’s very
user friendly and supports itself entirely with Adsense and a select other
advertising programs. The concern rises with the sexually explicit
photos that some High Schoolers post on their own pages. Parents are
concerned at these findings although they are no different than what is
posted on any other site.

MiGente

MiGente is made mostly for the Latin Community around the world and
boasts 2.5 million members. It’s a smaller site that usually only has
about 4,000 various people online at any given time but has been enjoyed
immensely by its members. It pretty much looks exactly like BlackPlanet
does mainly because it is owned and operated by the same people. So if
you have ever had any experience with BlackPlanet you’ll know what to
expect with MiGente. They have also just recently launched a music
sharing program to broadcast your own Latin based music.

myYearBook

There really isn’t anything too special about myYearBook but it is very
easy to use and easy to get started and is used mainly for kids aged
12-17. Recently, myYearBook signed a deal with CliffNotes to provide
free Cliff Notes on the site to those who are currently reading the High
School curriculum. It does have over a million users though and is
starting to pick up steam. The layout of the site seems to attract the
younger audiences with its bright colors and cutesy atmosphere.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Whether you are on a tight budget for one reason or another or you’re a college student and can barely afford the dorm room that you’re living in, there are some definite laptops that are not expensive at all and are designed to fit anyone’s budget. Additionally, al of these laptops have something unique attached to them and all of them are definitely worth every penny that you’re paying for them. If you are a college student or someone just looking for a cheap deal then these are the laptop computers that you should definitely check out:

1. Apple Macbook

Even though it only has a screen that’s 13 inches wide you are definitely purchasing an awesome computer that’s packed with full power of computer processing technology. For starters, Apple included a 2.0 Gigahertz Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 processor that would make anyone want this Macbook. It comes with a built-in video web camera so that you won’t have to worry about that added expense when you go looking for one. Additionally, Macbook users can enjoy the ability of the laptop to deliver either the OS X system or Windows Vista and XP. Along with those operating systems you’ll even be able to find a full Gigabyte of RAM, 80 Gigabytes of hard drive, as well as two USB ports. This laptop is definitely worth the $1100 that it usually retails for!

2. Dell Inspiron 1420

Many of the computers that Dell produced under the Inspiron name have been great, but the Dell Inspiron 1420 has even many more features than the Macbook computer described above. The Inspiron 1420 naturally comes with Windows Vista operating system because it’s the latest OS that Microsoft has produced. But this laptop is chock full of awesome features and great systems in place. Whether you’re going to have fun filling up the 120 Gigabytes of system hard drive or playing around with the 2 Gigabytes of RAM, there are plenty of things to do with this computer. It also includes a DVD burner for those hard-core computer technology geeks and even contains a 14-inch laptop screen. This laptop also is priced usually around $1100, but it’s definitely worth it!

3. HP Pavilion dv2500t

This is the most expensive of the 3 choices, but it certainly has no less options and upgrades. The HP Pavilion dv2500t not only includes just as much as the previous two laptops, but it also includes a wireless card that is actually an 802.11n card. Not only is that super-fast, but college students will certainly be able to enjoy it while taking notes from their college professors. This HP Pavilion laptop also includes a 1.3 Megapixel video webcam built-in so you’ll have that great technology also. As mentioned, this laptop is more expensive at around $1350, but chances are that you’ll see why once you’ve purchased it!

So don’t worry about spending $2,000 or more on a single laptop computer because there are plenty of laptops that are worth your while and are under budget. Whether you are a Dell fan, want an Apple Macbook, or want to try out the HP Pavilion, all three of these laptop computer come with not only a bunch of great features, but also awesome potential!

Popularity: 2% [?]

You may have heard rumors that Sony has stopped production of its Playstation 3 altogether, but that simply is not true. Sony has become a greater interactive video game producer since the introduction of their Playstation Three. Even though the sales of the game console have been behind the Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii, it is still a popular video game system that millions of people love! The whole video game industry has made great strides in recent years, but Sony has announced that they are phasing out the 60 Gigabyte Playstation 3 sometime after August of 2007.

Of course, Sony won’t leave the video game industry without another video game console. Indeed, they will be releasing a more expensive $599 model of the Playstation 3 that is packed with 20 more Gigabytes then the previous version. This announcement from Sony, though, has caught some criticisms as well as praise from the entertainment industry. For starters, those who love the Playstation 3 are not thrilled that they are releasing the new version at $599, but Sony representatives have said something different about the issue. An analyst in the video game industry, Michael Pachter, assured the industry that Sony will more than likely drop the price of the newer Playstation 3 after the older models’- the 60 Gigabyte Playstation 3 models’- inventory goes down. But considering that the amount of the $499 Playstation Threes on the market number in the millions, chances are that Sony won’t be lowering the price of the 80 Gigabyte Playstation 3 for a few months after it’s released.

With the exception of the bigger hard drive, though, the newer version of Sony’s Playstation 3 that will be released in August will come bundled with MotorStorm, which is their off-road racing video game. Also, the Playstation 3 will feature a high-tech Blu-ray DVD player with the system as did the original version of the Playstation 3 console. This is one of the many features that many of the video game experts and gaming individuals love about the Playstation 3. Unfortunately, though, Sony’s video game system has been rated behind the other two leading video game consoles, which are Microsoft’s Xbox 360, as well as Nintendo’s Wii.

But even though the sales of the Playstation 3 are down from the other two leading video game console systems, this is perhaps the reason why Sony is producing a larger hard-drive video game system. However, the next feature that Sony should include is something that resembles more of the technology that the Wii or Xbox 360 has. All things considered, though, the Playstation 3 was a big hit with gamers everywhere and there is no sign in the near future that the sales will slow down.

Even though Sony is stopping the production of the cheaper Playstation 3, they are simply introducing a better video game console to the market. These systems not only will gain in popularity, but chances are that gamers everywhere will flock to the new Playstation Three!

Popularity: 2% [?]