Posted on Wednesday, 17th December 2008 by Bill Bean
C.S. Lewis said,
“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, ‘What! You too? I thought I was the only one”
Nicki asked me, via Twitter, what I considered to be the criteria for a site or an application to be social networking. Unfortunately, that question came too late in the day so I deferred until now.
From the ever and oft quoted Wikipedia:
A social network service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others.
Social networking is making friends. While it can certainly be exploited for business leads, friendship or a social relationship, as opposed to business relationship, is the primary target.
That’s not to say that there is no business value to being friendly or developing what some would call casual friendships. While I don’t like the idea of selling to friends, they could certainly be a source of referrals. And it is typically more profitable to be likeable.
Current social network tools are driven by economics. At least that is my cynical take on the matter. People are not developing these tools out of the simple goodness of their heart. There is the thought of profit involved.
So, Nicki, my simple criteria for calling something a social networking site or application is…does it help people be friends?
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Posted in Social Media | Comments (2)
December 21st, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Just came upon you, Bill. If this post is an example of your jaw-dropping common sense, I believe I’ll stick around.
December 22nd, 2008 at 1:46 pm
[...] My brother Bill thinks that the purpose of or criteria for a social networking site or application is that it helps people be friends. What better way to make friends than by enjoying the same activities together. [...]