MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin – Double U – Tee - H

     

Communicating in 140 characters or less!

I’ve never really stopped to think about the various social networking sites and tools until my son and I had a conversation that left me feeling quite blond and puzzled. Not hard, I know, but still… humor me here.

I’m just not sure how to describe the various social networks – so I’ve decided to call on friends and readers to sound off on just how they would describe each.

First I’ll share with you what I told my son and then you can correct me if you think I’m wrong…

When he asked me if I had a Facebook, I told him yes. Naturally he asked, what the heck is Facebook and how is it different from MySpace?

Then the ever popular question these days – “What the heck is Twitter?”

Why Bebo?

and finally “Which one’s do you belong to mom?”

So I explained…

I have a MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter and a few others and that is where I must draw the line. I just can’t go beyond that and still have time to maintain my income.

My simplified explanation of these as follows:

    * MySpace is a socializing website for teens, young adults, stars and music
    * Facebook is sort of the same only for young adults and tracking down your old school classmates and college friends without having to join Classmates.com for $29 plus a year.
    * Linkedin is for professional adults and for networking with people in business and sometimes it’s helped people land really awesome jobs.
    * Twitter – everyone is doing Twitter. Twitter is like text messaging meets the internet. It’s a way to text all your friends at once and have them text you back.

Now it’s your turn – how would you describe each to your teenager who might be growing more curious about this whole idea of networking?