As social media continues evolve, grow, blossom and even mature among both personal users and businesses, the lines are beginning to blur among them.

Well known social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn are now being used in the same sentence as Twitter and Flickr.  Isn’t Twitter a micro-blogging tool?  Isn’t Flickr a photo content sharing tool?

What about YouTube?  Is YouTube a social networking site?

I don’t intend to give you a concrete answer to these questions.  Who am I to define these platforms? The user community is defining them.  But I will offer some offline comparisons to consider as you ponder this question.

If you belong to a health club, you joined it (presumably) to exercise.  On the surface, that is the purpose of a health club (or gym).  If you belong to a business organization such as a chamber or local business club, each of these organizations has a defined charter.  When you join any of these organizations mentioned here as examples, the premise of your membership is to participate in their charter.

Even if you joined any of the above for pure networking, you have to play by their rules.  You can’t go to your gym and hand out fliers and a business card in street clothes.  You’ll annoy so many patrons you’ll get kicked out. 

I have developed some very good relationships at my health club that carry into my personal and professional life.  I can say the same for a local non-profit business club I belong to (TBTF).  In both cases, my intent has been sincere.  I go to my healthclub to workout.  I go to TBTF functions to get involved, give of my time and talents and meet smart people.  Because both of these examples are local to me, I occasionally overlap.  I see people at my healthclub that belong to TBTF and vice versa.

The same can be said of social networking, even though the local aspect is much less a factor.  I know people in Facebook whom I also know in LinkedIn and Twitter, and vice versa.

So, what’s the benefit to this cross platform networking online?  I submit there are many benefits.  At a minimum I can meet other smart and interesting people through both platforms, and I really enjoy meeting smart people.

Since my profession is Internet marketing, and in particular we do search engine optimization (SEO) for our clients, another benefit is exposure to the content I produce.  Such exposure can result in content being shared among the network resulting in quality links.  Some content exposure can be incidental and some can be intentional. 

As I continue to network in the online social media world, I’m amazed at how the mutual benefits of social, networking and relationship building coincide with SEO value through the propagation of content and organic link building that occurs.

What’s your experience on social networks?  Which platforms do you use the most?  Which platforms mentioned here are social networking sites and which are (fill in the blank)?

Tags: Facebook, Flickr, MySpace, search engine optimization, SEO, social media, social networking, TBTF, Twitter, YouTube

I frequently deliver a presentation on Web 2.0/Social Media Marketing. It’s a high level presentation that explains to business professionals what Web 2.0 is about. I cover RSS, blogs, podcasts, social networking, micro blogging, wikis and trends to watch. The presentation is available for download.

In my presentation I reference an article written by BusinessWeek in May 2005 which foretold the prominent rise of blogs in the corporate setting. The May 2005 cover story actually uses this phrase in reference to blogging: “Our Advice: Catch up or catch you later.”

The June 2nd issue of BusinessWeek is out and it’s a doozy! I recommend your read it!

The editors did a gem of a follow up story to the May 2005 article. Apparently, the web traffic to the May 2005 article is huge, not to mention the comments posted on their blog about it. Additionally, BW (much to their credit) felt compelled to update the story and particularly write about predictions they missed.

Remember, you should read the entire article. But, here are some excerpts:
“….Three years ago, we wrote a big story - but missed a bigger one….Blogs, it turns out, are just one of the do it yourself tools to emerge on the Internet. Vast social networks…now offer people new ways to meet and exchange information…These social connectors are changing the dynamics of companies around the world. Millions of us are now hanging out of on the Internet with customers, befriending rivals…It’s as if the walls around our companies are vanishing and old org charts are lying on their sides…Ambitious workers use these tools to land new deals and to assemble global teams for collaborative projects.”

Did you catch that last sentence??? These social tools are not just for teenagers. We (you, me and our colleagues) have figured out how to use them productively in our businesses.

The article goes on to talk about tools that have become very popular to include Wikipedia, Twitter, YouTube, iTunes and Facebook. One person is quoted as saying “the new resume is 140 characters,” referencing the paradigm for communicating on Twitter. BTW, you can follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/berniebay.

The article gives a few examples of large corporations - BT, IBM - getting real work done on inhouse social networking sites.

One point I feel is very well made (and resonates loud with me) is their first fix to the May 2005 article is to revise the title from “Blogs” Will Change Your Business to “Social Media Will Change Your Business.” Yeah! That hits the nail square on the head!!!

Another well stated point in reference to how people use social media is: “A new class of supercommunicators has emerged.” Another point nailed!

The article closes with this: “Even if the bubble burts - and we predict it will - the power of social media to transform our businesses and society will only grow.”

If you are hungry to learn more about the global impact of social media and how you should be participating, this article is a must read. Here is the link again: Business Week Blog Article

Tags: Beyond Blogs, BusinessWeek, Facebook, iTunes, social media marketing, Twitter, Web 2.0, YouTube