The Social Network: A Social Media tug-of-war

The battle for your friends attention is won or lost on the fields of your own personal social media channels. Whether or not you use all of them (which most of you do by now), the fact still remains that the attention of your friends is much more important then it once was. It forces us to be creative in order to be noticed.

http://www.uk2.net/blog/

Does it blow anyone else's minds that this networking battlefield has only been around for the last decade? Now these different social networking channels have become an important tool for our social lives, for business marketing, and for many of the recent technological developments popping up in the last few years. Social media has even been a significant influence in the construction of our recent cultural developments.

With all this being said, what kind of influence does social media have in your life? Which social media outlet is winning in your networking tug-of-war and which ones are losing? In the society we live in today, it's important to stay connected and involved and some social networks do that better then others.

Let me list for you the 4 most important ones to be a part of and why. Its impossible to list ALL of the social media sites and so I've stuck with the more popular ones.

1. Facebook
Still the biggest kid in school, over 1.15 billion users to date. Facebook is your place to go for information from friends and now from influencers who you care about. Don't just use it for the occasional "stalk a friend" purposes, now you can connect with brands, services, and causes that you care about. Look up products and locations before you purchase or visit, chances are they have a Facebook page with deals and reviews.

2. Twitter
Now that Twitter has entered the "big boy" club after becoming a public company last year, it has become one of the largest networks to date. 550 million users deep, Twitter is a mini-blogger style interface that allows anyone to express themselves publicly throughout the day. With its easy to use hashtag following tools, it's easy to keep up to date with the latest trends.

3. Google +
The "new kid" at school with rich parents, Google + has made its way into the social media main stream with close to 1 billion users (over half of those being active users). Because Google owns it, Google + is important for anyone to be linked with. Many projected statistics suggest Google + will pass Facebook in popularity by 2015. Anything Google is bound for greatness, if you don't believe me then just google it...





4. LinkedIn
Dominating the business oriented side of social media, LinkedIn has secured a nice spot in our social network with 300 million users. LinkedIn is a great platform to meet potential employers or employees, connecting business opportunities world wide. Not only is it good for those looking for a job, but it has now become a tool for businesses to create brand loyalty.




Runner ups to keep an eye out for major growth in the next year or two is Pinterest and Instagram. Any visual-based social media network has become more and more popular, setting the latest standard in user participation.

Social media has become such a dominate part of our lives and in the marketing of businesses that we now have programs that manage our social media pages all on one site! One of my favorites is Hootsuite, who have recently shared this video which I found fitting for this post.

In the comments below, let me know if you use another social networking site that I haven't listed (which i'm sure you do) and why you use it. I'm always interested in expanding my reach as I am sure others are as well!