Use What for Doing What in Social Media!?

I have been asked the following questions several times. Why should I be on Facebook? What is good is Twitter. Should I have a LinkedIn account? All these services can be confusing. Remember these site are simply tools for connecting and sharing information. So how I may use them will differ from the rest of the pack. However, I am attempting to give a general idea of what these sites can offer and how I would recomend my clients to use them.

Facebook: This social media site has become number 1 for connecting with people personally. Facebook friends are typically people you know in real life in a more personal sense. Family, friends, old co-workers you shared good times with, and perhaps a few old high school buddies. The variety and scope of information shared here is totally limitless. People have not yet adapted to the proper edicate of information sharing. A post on Facebook should be treated as something more public than an e-mail to a good friend. I do NOT recomend you use this site for buisness networking unless you are quite fond of the individuals on a more personal level.

Twitter: This site is for quickly sharing information in a more open and public manner than facebook. Many people you follow and that will follow you will not know who you are. Perhaps you have similar interests, maybe you just responded to something they posted that was "cool" and interesting. I do not recomend sharing personal information on this site. Great for following company CEO's!

LinkedIn: This site has evolved a lot over the years. It began as a way to network professionally with individuals and companies. This still holds true today. It is very useful in research comunities for finding experts. The site allows you to list skills and work related information. It is starting to evolve into the furture of the online job search. Instead of applying for jobs the model for LinkedIn is to put your resume information into your profile and tag yourself as "looking" for a job. I recomend this to anyone starting a company to get familar with LinkedIn. The site is really not for sharing information with everyone but more for sharing info with groups that share interest. You might have the occasional, "We hit a million for the year and its only March!"

Hope this cleared up some of the confusion. Remember there are many ways to utilize these tools and I have really only scratched the surface. Also the sites are adding new features almost every month. Start focusing on the one you think will prove the most useful for meeting your needs.