User Advantages Of Social Media Networks

In the past five years, the popularity of social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace has skyrocketed. These sites are growing at an alarming rate. Every day it seems like more and more people are joining these sites. The effect on society can even be seen in language, with “friend” now being a verb as well as a noun. All this hype begs the question: What are the benefits of social media networking?”

The benefits are manifold, as well as the benefactors. The creators and administrators of the sites see definite benefits. So do the users. Advertisers also see benefits from the sites. Each contributes to the system in its own way, and each receives its own reward.

Social networking sites remove this problem. In most social networking sites, users are prompted for, and willingly give, personal information about themselves. The idea is that by disclosing oneself on the website, one can find other people similar to oneself. Users regularly disclose information like their age, place of residence, interests, hobbies, educational background, and other key information.

Users see definite benefits in the sites as well. Users can use the sites to meet new people, reconnect with old friends, organize events, find a romantic interest, and countless other things. They benefit from the ability to rapidly exchange knowledge with neighbors and complete strangers alike. For many users of these sites, life without them is unimaginable. They make managing friendships, appointments, and activities easy and seamless.

Social media advertisers also see huge benefits from the sites. That’s because these sites take care of the hardest part of advertising for them: finding the client. They don’t have to run a radio ad for a product and hope that the right person hears it. Thanks to social networking sites, they can have their ad appear right on the page of people who fit key demographics. A company that sells saddle soap can send an ad to anyone who lists “horseback riding” under their activities or hobbies. The result is the ability to achieve previously unknown efficiency with ease.

Recently, some social networking sites have experimented with selling the email and home addresses of many of their users. Some sites have claimed that their privacy policy gives them rights to any information posted on their sites and therefore can sell the information to third parties. Whether or not this is legal or ethical remains a heated debate.

When the internet first became a household commodity, there were all sorts of outrageous promises that came with it. It would change the way we do things, change our very beings. In many ways, these promises were right, but the internet was such a big place, and information was so randomly dispersed, that for many it was easier just not to bother with it. Social networking sites organize all the people on the web, and help to bring to fruition all the internet’s promises.

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