Introduction:
Social Network Sites (SNS) are are a sub category of Web 2.0 (User Generated Content) websites.
It is a reader pull model (readers decide if and when to look at content which stays up indefinitely) rather than an author push model, like email which was the dominant person-to-person e-communication platform.
Social media refers to the fact that they frequently contain images and video.
Initially used for communications with family and friends, social networking has been credited with playing an integral part in the overthrowing of dictators in the Middle East, known as the Arab Spring in in 2011.
Most work on your laptop or PC but some like the Location services are designed for mobile devices (phones and tablets).
eBizMBA | Best: Blogs, eBusiness, Health, Dating, Science, ...
(xx) - U.S. Ranking amongst all web sites
[xx] - Millions of unique monthly U.S. visitors. Source: Quantcast a/o 2012-13
* The popularity of sites is constantly changing so "top 100" is used loosely here.
Share links  [ -Apple]
- You will see these icons at the bottom of web pages and apps.
They link you to a variety of sharing sites or functions to post/save the links.
e.g.
 Facebook,
 Twitter,
 Google+,
 Pinterest,
 tumblr,
 Instagram,
 YouTube,
 Reddit,
 StumbleUpon,
 Digg,
 foursquare,
 Linkedin,
 Flickr,
 Vine,
 Email,
 Print,
 Favorites/bookmark,
 Verizon-messages,
 Live Journal,
 Blogger,
 Hangouts,
 Microsoft Live,
 Google Keep,
 Google Drive,
 Gmail,
 Yahoo mail,
 Vimeo,
 Delicious,
 Evernote,
 WordPress,  Lifestream,  Menéame,  VK,
 More
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Social networking:
Top 15 | eBiz|MBA
 - Facebook [210] (3)
 - linkedin [46] (20)
  - myspace [70] (112)
 - Google+ [65]
 Tagged [4] (415)
Meet people, social gaming,
topical discussion groups
 my life [5] (2,926)
 - about.me (2,994)
 - orkut (1,344)
 - Plaxo (11K)
Instant Messaging (IM)- Chat 
  - AIM Formerly AOL Instant Messenger
 - FaceTime (Apple)
 - iMessage/Messages (Apple) †
 - Hangouts (Google) *
 - WhatsApp (no message charges)
 - Viber (no message charges)
 - BBM
 - Facebook messenger (no message charges)
 Verizon Messages
Old IMs:
* Google Talk (Win)  and Google Chat 
were replaced by Hangouts
† Apple iChat was replaced by Messages
See:
Messaging -  -SMS,  -MMS, -IM
-
Best Messaging Apps: WhatsApp vs Skype vs
BBM vs iMessage vs Hangouts | Digital Trends
-
Five apps as good as or better than iMessage
in iOS 8 - CNET
 Skype
 Tango
 GrooVe IP with 
 Yahoo Messenger
 - Windows Live Messenger formerly MSN,
moved to Skype
 IRC Internet Relay Chat
 Email
Webinar Web Conferencing services
Internet Phone Services
IM and Chat
Location-based social networks:
 Facebook places
 - foursquare (625)
 Yelp [17] (182)
See location mapping here
and Location-based service at Wikipedia
Multimedia:
Livecasting:
 - YouTube [450] (2)
Skype,
blip.tv
Music and audio sharing:
 - Pandora Radio [60] (349)
 - Yahoo Music [55]
 - Google Play [52]
 - Spotify [35]
 - MySpace Music [16]
Peer-to-Peer (P2P)
 - LastFM [14] (552)
Others
Photography and art sharing:
 - picasa [0.5] (663K)
 - flickr [10] (99)
 - Instagram [6.7] (36)
(#4 app on smart phones)
 - Imgur [18] (11)
 - pinterest [77] (7)
 - Photobucket [16] (64)
 SnapChat
 - DeviantArt
Webshots [5.8]
Shutterfly [4.2]
SmugMug [3.5]
Note: You can also share photos on
sites like Facebook, Tumblr and others
See Photo Sharing
Video sharing:
Zoom meetings
Amazon Chime
- YouTube [450]
 - vimeo [18] (50)
 - Vine
 Youku Tudou
 - Dailymotion France [27]
 - viddler
Presentation sharing:
 - SlideShare
Prezi, scribd,
Live Video Streaming:
 Periscope
 Ustream
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Blog Sites: 
These are places you can set up your personal blog (blog hosting),
not to be confused with the big blogers like
 The Huffington Post,  Engadget,  TMZ, ...
 - blogspot or blogger [64] (12)
 - WordPress.com [18] (26)
 - LiveJournal [5] (76)
 - TypePad [10](105)
 - Xanga (768)
 - RSS - Subscribe to a blog (see below)
Content Management Systems (CMS) used to set up blogs
 - Drupal
- Wordpress.org
 - MovableType.org
 - joomla.org
See Blogs
Microblogging:
  - twitter [93] (6)
 - tumblr [44] (24)
 - foursquare (625)
 - posterous
 - Weibo (Chinese)
Group-Texting:
 Groupme
 WeChat
 Voxer
Tango
Events:
 - Meetup [8] (739)
 - Doodle Scheduling
Yelp [17] (182)
Eventful, The Hotlist,
JamKazam, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts, Facetime, WebEX, ZOOM, slack.
Fundraising:
 - KickStarter - Fund a creative project (317)
 - indiegogo - Fund anything (35k)
 - Causes - Donations (744)
 - GoFundMe - Donations (2K)
 - CrowdRise - Donations for your cause (16K)
 - ycombinator
Top Sites For Fundraising listed at
s Forbes | Mashable
Social Bookmarking / news :
 - digg [2] (1,701)
 - reddit [22] (50)
 - Mashable [3] (206)
 - slashdot News for nerds [1.7] (1,254)
 - newsvine -[0.2] (14,800) news & bookmarks
 - flipboard [1.8] (1,142)
 - Listal [0.6] (3,502)
 - Diigo
See news page
Cloud document and note
syncing and sharing:
 - Google Drive
 - Google Docs
 - dropbox (224)
 evernote (1,186)
  - Apple iCloud
-Syncs music, pictures, calendar, etc. between
iPhone, iPad, iMac, MacBook, (Was MobileMe)
 Microsoft OneDrive
 Box
 Pocket
 Google-keep
7 best cloud storage services 2015
Groupware - Group collaboration software:
aka Task Management & Cloud Collaboration
Not generally considered social networking, I guess because there's a
more formal structure and groups are usually smaller 12-100 people. They are
typically set up for clubs, organizations and special interest groups.
They usually have an email list (or list server), calendar and document sharing.
 - Yahoo Groups
 - Wiggio
 - Ning 
Box
GroupSpaces
See also Cloud document and note syncing
Project Management:
 Asana
 Trello
 JIRA
 Basecamp
See The Best Project Mgmt Software & Apps
See also:
Usenet Groups (NetNews)
Besides Yahoo groups what other site has groups? - Yahoo! Answers
Work in Groups - EContent Magazine
Group collaboration software
Webinars - Internet Conferencing:
These range from simple multi-user chats on Skype to on-line presentations where
power point presentations are observed by all participants, to group
collaboration where multiple people can update a document in the cloud.
See Webinar Web Conferencing services
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Information Aggregators/Personal web portal:
 - Netvibes
 My Yahoo!
 iGoogle
Miscelaneous:
 - Windows Live™ Spaces was transitioned to WordPress.com in 2010
 - Fanpop - Fan clubs for everything. - (1,326)
 - IFTTT - If This Then That - Automates functions e.g. If rain forecast send email.
 Hi5 In 2008 it was as one of the top social networks,
In 2010 it was bought by tagged.
 You will often see the RSS (Really Simple Syndication) icon associated with SNS.
RSS is not a SNS, but many blogs are set up with RSS feeds so you get updates automatically.
See Using Social Media Sites As "RSS Readers" - Online Collaboration
Design Tools:
  - designmoo A website dedicated to giving designers a place to share resources.
Users can post fonts, icons, ...
 - designfloat Web design news & tips
 - behance.net An online portfolio platform for creative professionals,
including photography, graphic design, illustration, ...
 - feedburner.google.com a web feed management provider
 - ShareThis - Provides code to add to your web site to create a share button.
Aimed at advertisers and publishers.
 BitTorrent - Sharing and Download engine for music, software, ...
People Search:
See The Search page
International:
 Odnoklassniki (russia, ok.ru)
 VK (russia, vk.com)
Others:
 Bebo
Answers.com is a wiki Q&A combined with free online dictionary, thesaurus, and
encyclopedias.
Buzznet is a photo, journal, and video-sharing social media network.
Members participate in communities that are created around ideas, events and interests.
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media.
IMVU is a social game and entertainment site where millions of people meet, chat,
play games and have fun.
Netlog is a European youth-oriented online community available in over 20 languages
where users create profiles, join groups, post blogs and media.
BlackPlanet is a social networking site targeted to the African American community
with music, jobs, forums, chat, photos, dating personals and groups.
Kongregate is an online gaming site where users can upload and play flash-based games,
earn points and rewards for high scores and discuss in user forums.
Rankings
* Rankings come from several sources,  Alexa,
 Quantcast,
and  SiteAnalytics @ Compete.com
so results may be inconsistent. They are only general guidelines.
|
A Case Study in Social Media Demographics | OnlineMBA Mar., 2012 SNS uses,
67% - Stay in touch with friends
64% - Stay in touch with family
50% - Reconnect with old friends
14% - Connect with people who share similar
interests
9% - Make new friends
5% Read comments from celebrities, athletes
or politicians
3% - Find potentially romantic partners
| At "The new normal in the digital age", Pew's Internet & American Life Project says,
Networked creators are everywhere
(two-thirds of adults; three-quarters of teens)
66% of int. users are social networking site users
55% share photos
37% contribute rankings and ratings
33% create content tags
30% share personal creations
26% post comments on sites and blogs
15% have personal website
15% are content remixers
14 %are bloggers
13% use Twitter
6% location services
9% allow location awareness from social media
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Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project
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According to Nielssn in 2011 social media represents 22.5% of the time Americans spend online. They spend 9.8% on online gaming, and just 7.6% for email.
On a typical day, 43% of online adults use social networking.
According to a 2012 Pew study 63% of teens exchange text messages, while only 6% exchange email.
There were 245 Million Internet Users in the U.S. in Feb., 2012.
The percent using each Social Network Service (SNS) was:
64% Facebook
26% Twitter
25% BlogSpot
15% Linkedin
6% MySpace
Note: These kind of stats are tricky. Average users tend to access SNS sites more frequently (typically several times a day) than others such as shopping sites, so total visits may be a higher percentage. The number of visitors in any given time period may be lower, because a few people people visit infrequently.
Social networking sites accounted for 5% of internet traffic in 2006 (when MySpace accounted for most of it).
Source: Social Networking Sites in 2006 | SearchRank Blog
In May 2011 SNS accounted for 16% (Mashable) to 22% (Nielsen) of time spent online.
In 2011 SNS was the #5 most popular online activity (65% of Internet users do it) behind, email (92%), searching, news and shopping (71%), according to Pew Internet & American Life Project
More icons from
AddThis.com
Reference:
Tech Giants, Once Seen as Saviors, Are Now Viewed as Threats - The New York Times 10/13/17
Blogs.com">eBiz|MBA top 15 Social Networking, Video, Blogs,
Social Bookmarking,
Music.com">Image Hosting, Music, Dating
SocialTimes - Your Social Media Source
The Top Social Networking Sites
Top social networking sites in the World
Top 10 Best Social Networks on Pikimal
Social Media at Wikipedia
Wed usage stats:
Alexa,
SiteAnalytics @ Compete.com and
Quantcast
List of social networking websites with user count - Wikipedia
How Three Entrepreneurs (And One Huge Company) Built Empires On Social Commerce | LinkedIn
What is a Blog? : @ProBlogger
"Students Addicted to Social Media - U. Maryland Study". April, 2010.
The Perils of Social Media Connectivity: You Just Can't Quit - DailyFinance
What are the best organizational tools for groups? - O'Reilly Answers
Cloud Computing
Social Media at Mashablle.com
Americans Use Social Media More Than Anything Else Online according to Nielson Sept, 2011
Social Networking at the The Pew Internet & American Life Project
Top 5 Instant Messaging Clients @ Web-Abet
Klout measures your influence on your social networks.
Social Networking links at the Sierra Club
Icon Search Engine | Iconfinder
Peer-to-peer (P2P) Digital Media
Web Icons
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last updated 2 Apr 2020
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