Facebook , MySpace , Twitter , LinkedIn and Ning are ranked 4th, 11th, 25th, 89th and 154th among all websites in the world, respectively. Facebook , Twitter , LinkedIn , and the Ning family of social networking sites are the most popular social networks with wide business appeal. have taken the time to position my self on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Ning, The rapid growth of Facebook and Twitter has created lots of excitement. Alexa ranks the world’s most popular websites.

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This month's Online Community Expert Interview is with Allen Blue of LinkedIn . LinkedIn has traditionally been the professional network of choice, and has experienced a surge in use and attention in recent months because of the increase in job-seeking activity.Allen is one of the co-founders of LinkedIn , where he manages the Content and Communities division, covering LinkedIn's Groups, Events, Answers, Communication and Network Updates products. Q: What excites you most about He was formerly Director of Product Design at SocialNet.com, a social networking service supporting dating, recreational and professional activities, where he was responsible for product design and implementation of SocialNet’s member-data focused business model.

Social Networking sites like Myspace, Facebook, Linkedin and others are the buzz of the day.  Facebook and Linkedin are not just places to network, they are global businesses.  Both rSitez.com and Ning, social networking website providers, announced over 150% percent growth in 2009 – that’s more than doubling the business they did before the recession.  The Market But more than being the buzz of the day, they are the faster growing segment on the internet today. 

Take for example the recent integration of LinkedIn with Twitter . You can now tweet your LinkedIn status to your Twitter followers and automatically post your tweets to your LinkedIn status. It is easy to see that this Twitter-LinkedIn partnership has many practical implications. We learn nearly every day of developments in the social media world which have the potential for far reaching impact. Based on my research, these are my top 10 takeaways from the new Twitter-LinkedIn hookup:

A comment last week to my October 2008 blog post, Ning Social Networking Sites Update , linked back to Ning Exposed - Tech Company Scams its Clients , an article which sharply criticizes Ning’s latest business model and platform, and it alleges foul play on Ning’s part in reacting to complaints by network creators. As a Ning social network creator and user, I happen to appreciate Ning’s recent platform improvements and tend to disagree with the article’s assessments. While the allegations of censorship are disturbing, my careful reading of Ning’s Terms of Service leaves me hopeful that Ning has acted fully within its rights.

LinkedIn tells you how many ties you have at each degree of separation, but other than that you are not given much information about those ties. LinkedIn has another problem too: It makes it difficult for you to connect with your weak ties. No wonder LinkedIn is being eclipsed by other social network services! Boxes And Arrows : The Design Behind the Design Register or Log In Search Stories Ideas Forums People Events Jobs About February Issue, 2009

By contrast, Ning is more mature, enabling plugins to the network and a more polished finish. Next Post Previous Post Responses A Mogul To Be June 8th, 2007 at 9:13 pm Stubbleblog August 28th, 2007 at 12:13 pm Roll Your Own Social Network With Crowdvine April 24th, 2008 at 6:37 am Comments Silicon Dalley - June 8th, 2007 at 5:05 pm PDT It will be

8221; Ning “Ning is the fast and free way to create custom Social Websites!” venture funding April 20, 2008: Ning raises $60m valued at $500m pre money Feb 19, 2008: ONEsite Acquires Social Platform . Could be better than Linkedin! About Contact Web Strategy Vault Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang | Social Media, Web Marketing Jeremiah Owyang discusses how web tools and social media enable companies to connect with customers List of “White Label” or “Private Label” (Applications you can Rebrand) Social Networking Platforms, Community Platforms February 12th, 2007 | Category: White Label Social Network , Industry Index , Social Networking Left Graphic: Forrester Wave™: Community Platforms, Q1 ’09 Important Update:

I am about to discuss targeting and connecting as they apply to Facebook , Twitter , LinkedIn and Ning networks, the most popular social networking sites for business networking . LinkedIn On LinkedIn , targeting is fairly straightforward, but connecting can be a challenge. I could have broken the material into four separate blog posts, but decided instead to deliver it to you as four articles wrapped up into one long one.