It feels like there is a new social network each week and for every social network everyone you have ever met needs to send you an invitation to join. This is not a viable way of using social networks for managing your social life and especially for marketing your business. This post is a map to three of the major social networks in order to help you understand what they are good for and why you would use them. Including as well the vocabulary the sites use to describe their network.
Groups
A collection of users around a common cause. Many people add themselves to groups just for the sake of being in more groups. The strategy being that you can connect with more people. Groups are best used to communicate on issues with like minded individuals. Groups for university alumni, fraternities and sororities, business organizations, associations are great ways to share and communicate.
User
A person using a Drupal site. Users can be registered or anonymous. Users are assigned roles in order to allow specific users to participate with a site in different ways.
Network
A sphere of influence in Facebook. There are networks for cities, countries, schools and large companies. Networks are one layer in determining if you can see information on a users profile without being their friend.
Group
A tool to bring users together around a topic of interest. Groups can be funny or serious. Companies should consider Pages over groups because of the data collected.
Friend
A connection on Facebook. When someone connects with you on Facebook they become your friend.
Cause
An application that creates a type of page made by a nonprofit or their supporters that people connect to and have the ability to collect donations. Donations are processed through Facebook at a fee. Users that connect with a cause are supporters of that cause. Nonprofits should look at their specific needs when deciding if they want a cause or a page.
