My Take on Social Networking

I do a lot of Social Networking and I enjoy it. Most people would think I was totally nuts for collecting up "friends" from all over the world, most of whom I have nothing in common. But I enjoy it, so I keep the global activity to myself.

Most social networkers I meet are trying to interest me in buying something, which is cool. I have no hang-ups with that. But..., social networking is not the place to sell an item, whether it is a physical product or an MLM program. Nobody's buying!

I've joined hundreds of MLM programs that are free. Most of the ones I've joined want me to go out and recruit my friends to the program and create a large downline, to sell their product. Some of them are gimmicks to gouge money out of my pockets after I've joined for free. But I'm a tight-wad, so it hasn't succeeded that way. Usually..., alway, I think, I bookmark the site and leave - never to return. Well..., rarely to return anyway.

But Social Networking is important, not for selling and buying products and services but for making "friends". Making contacts and enjoying each others lives..., that is what social networking means to me.

I came across this video of Perry Belcher, who describes what social networking means to him. It many ways it is kind of like the way I look at social networking. Mr Belcher describes social networking as a party to be enjoyed. No one goes to a social party to sell or buy products or services. People go to a party to enjoy themselves. They go to be entertained. They go to make friends. They don't want to be bombarded by ads and pan-handlers.

Social and Business Networking by Perry Belcher

Now I already had the idea of what social networking was. But what I didn't know was how blogging became involved in the social networking scene. I always thought that a blog was used to sell the product or service. But that is not how Perry Belcher explains blogging. This is an interesting concept for me. If the social network is the party, then the blog is the home of the social networker.

We don't sell products and services from our home foyer. When a person comes to our home, the first thing they see as they enter the door is not shelves lined with products. And the first thing they hear is not the services we have to offer. No, what a person sees is family pictures and photos of activities which interest us personally.

A blog, as an extention of social networking, becomes a place of getting to know the friends met at the party, Social Networking. Here, the blogger can introduce the visitor or friend to the business in which he or she is involed with. This is much the same as a new friend asking what you do for a living. At this point, the Social Networker can introduce the visitor/friend to the product or service. Now this makes sense to me, because it the blog becomes an extension of the social networker and not an extension of social networking!

I have thousands of "friends" in the social networking scene. I also have many webblogs. I author a crafts blog, a Magdalen Islands blog and social website, a horse blog, a Brion Island blog and others. This weblog, Gimme A Dream, is sort of my catch all. This weblog is my home, the one that is most like me. The one that is varied in the many interests I old dear to me. This is the website that I mostly send social networkers to. (Mostly because many of the social networking sites I belong to are specialized niche interests such as beading and horses).