Week 7 - Social Networking

I'll talk about Facebook first because I have been a member for some time and love it. I have linked up with family and friends all over the world, and have made new friends through Facebook. I regularly chat to a lady in Port Elizabeth who has the same birthday as me - pretty random, but we get on well. I play Scrabble, Sudoku, Word Twist and other games with friends and strangers. I have friends in China, Malaysia, Canada, the USA, Cayman Islands, UK, Australia, Spain, Serbia and South Africa. I'm always happy to add new friends, so I tried a few library names and found one of the community library managers, and have now asked her to be a friend.
Now I'll have a look at Myspace and Bebo and see how they rate compared to Facebook.
I've had a look at Myspace and decided not to join - it looks like a network for younger people, and I think I'm happier on Facebook, but I'm sure it's just as much fun as FB. Bebo looks pretty similar to FB in the way Auckland Libraries have set up their site. I use FB for fun, but my daughter, who works for a large company, uses it for work networking. It's a requirement that employees set up a FB account. So these social networking sites are obviously something we need to know about. If, as librarians, we want to see what the youngsters are doing and to get their attention, then we need to be on social networking sites. The Hennepin County Library site on FaceBook is fantastic and I think it would be a good idea for Manukau Libraries to use social networking sites to communicate with customers and potential customers.