Facebook for those over 40

I was recently asked to define and explain social media to an audience of 40-60 year old professionals. Here’s a crash course in social networking to the over 40 crowd:What exactly is social networking?

Social Networking is a major part of the larger (and still growing) field of social media. Loosely and basically defined, social media is the use of the internet, through various sites and tools, to communicate and connect with people around the world to share and discuss information. Social networking is a segment of social media that relies on profile-based sites such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn to help users “meet.”

Social networks are almost always offered free of charge, or at least one level of service is, and are supported by advertisers who recognize the huge potential audience available on these sites.

What do you do with a social networking site or profile?

The basic premise of all social networking sites is to create a community that a user can interact with, within certain parameters, in any way they like. Each site sets up their own guidelines, but each strives to allow a certain amount of user creativity and freedom; you make the site what you want it to be with how you use it and who you talk to.

All social networks begin with a profile; this is intended to go beyond a screen name, email address or handle and present a very detailed and accurate depiction of the user, through photos, basic A/S/L (age/sex/location) information to dating profile-type interests to in-depth details on personal likes and dislikes. Most sites also offer unlimited photo uploads, offering the opportunity to, literally, present every side of yourself. The important thing to remember with social networks is that they were sprung from a generation that prides itself on a lack of privacy boundaries; most users are only too happy to divulge all the juicy details online, making most profiles quite exhausting.

Each site has its own phrasing, but the overall idea is that you meet people through the sites by connecting and becoming friends. You can search for people you know in “real” life, e.g. coworkers, classmates, etc. or browse for new friends by searching for people with similar interests, e.g. same field of work, favorite movie, etc. You can the contact the person through a variety of methods provided by the site, such as an internal email-type message, a live chat or a posted message on their profile.

What’s in it for me?

The obvious benefit of building a social network is the channel of communication it opens up; you can reach a wide range of people, who all have something in common with you, and talk about anything you want. Social networking lends itself to a lot of business applications as you can discuss work issues and entertain solutions from outside sources, network with other professionals, get the scoop on new jobs opening up, create a name and presence for yourself online, pre-screen interview candidates, develop your profile to make an impressive first impression…the list is endless.

As for which network to choose, or how to use different ones, there are a lot of similarities but a few fundamental differences.

LinkedIn is very business focused and as such can appear as a more stripped-down version of the other social networks; it lacks the bells and whistles of screaming songs and bright colors of the flashy, “fun” sites and presents an overall more serious look and feel.

MySpace is the exact opposite and allows users a lot of freedom to play media, add colors and features, adapt the basic profile structure and generally make their profile look however they want, without sticking to much of template. The result is a lot of loud, colorful profiles that do not resemble one another and often feel cluttered and overwhelming. MySpace has a reputation of being slightly skewed towards teenagers, bands and spammy porn profiles, making it less than desirable for business use.

Facebook, my personal favorite, has held tight control to its profile restrictions and falls somewhere in between the two, making it the perfect place to network for business and let your personality shine through. The new redesign makes it a little harder to navigate but cleans up the screens, making each page look more alike and organized. What started as a tightly closed network of colleges and universities has expanded to let people of all ages join; they’ve even developed Facebook pages (as opposed to profiles) to let businesses in on the action. However, they are not super-business friendly so tread carefully if you are looking to represent a group and not a single entity.

Quite obviously, there’s a lot more to any of these sites, and to social media in general, than I could even begin to talk about here. People have, literally, written books on this stuff. The best way to get involved and learn how to use these sites effectively is to jump right in and try them. After all, they were founded on the idea that they are what you make of them. So start making something.

If you want to see what I’ve done on any of these sites, check out my Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter profiles.