A Social Network I Use
There are literally hundreds of social networks out there each with their own niche and target audience. Rarely do I find one that I am actually interested in using - I have profiles at LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, and who knows how many others but I couldn’t tell you the last time I logged into any of them (my wife uses the MySpace account religiously, to keep up with friends back home).
This practice of having a profile everywhere but rarely using it does not seem to exist only within my own little world - most people I have discussed with have done the same thing (made a profile everywhere but use very few). This is somewhat disconcerting, especially as I work on a social network for a client and a personal project of mine geared towards poker players. Luckily, both of these projects have other motivations and goals behind them - not just the social networking aspects of the service.
Anyways…
I recently signed up for Last.fm because I have difficult time remember the names of bands and songs I like. This service is absolutely awesome! I spent a few hours last week setting up foobar2000 exactly how I want, getting registered on last.fm, and now music recommendations hit my inbox once a week based directly off of what I have been listening to.
I know I’m not using the service to it’s full potential, though. I’m not very concerned with writing a blog about the music I listen to or finding concert tickets (not to many concerts on Dirty Tampa, lol). But, as a music recommendation engine - last.fm is top-notch!
I’ve setup a group for CodeIgniter developers - if you are already a last.fm member feel free to join. If you are not a last.fm member but, like me, you’re listening to music if you are awake, I highly recommend joining. Finally, feel free to check out my profile and be amazed at my taste in music - everything from KoRn and Godsmack, to Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, to Three 6 Mafia and Lil Wayne.
If it’s not country, I enjoy it and there are a few country songs I’ll even listen to as well (it must become more prominent with age).
Hi Michael,
Vertical or niche sites are truly the wag in the social media space. As you suggest, people tend to align with like-mined folks…bowlers to poker players. Seems that context, technology and community are the perfect trio when it comes to relevancy in decididing where to network online and create a presence.
I created fohboh (front of the house | back of the house) in January for the global restaurant industry. We are like a B2B LinkenIn-with content. The memebrs are from 75 countries and share a passion for the trillion dollar foodservice industry.
Niche sites are where age is transcended by context.
Cheers!
Considering that there are now so many social networks catering to such a wide range of niches, my biggest problem is finding ones relevant to me and related to my specific interests or product niches. Google seems to be inefficient and returns alot of irrelevant results. A good resource that I use to find them is this search engine for social networking sites.