by R. Hake

Created on: January 03, 2009   Last Updated: March 20, 2012

Social Networking is becoming a key component in many companies' operations, making it one of the fastest-growing sources of company information systems. Social networking can be presented in an organization in a variety of ways for several different purposes. These types of programs have most commonly been known for their use among young adults and teenagers, but are now being utilized in several other ways for business purposes.

Social networking is most commonly seen among young people as Internet blogging sites such as Facebook and MySpace. Over 123 million visitors currently use these sites. Facebook had been restricted to students only until 2006, when they extended access to anyone with a verified email address. However, social networking is common among all groups of people, not just school-aged adolescents. Businesses as well are seeing the benefits of these high-traffic communicative tools. These sites are now becoming most popular with businesses for recruitment and advertising. It is estimated that advertisers will spend approximately $1.4 billion in advertising on these sites and ones similar. There are also groups and blogs on these sites, as well as the advertising sections, that are available for businesses to recruit for job positions and internships. These spaces will be most widely marketed toward college students, who make up the largest portion of Facebook visitors as well as a lot of MySpace regulars. Another thing that businesses could take advantage of social networking sites for is product development. Opinions and polls about products could be conducted on these sites if this age range is in their target market. Another option would be to advertise paid and volunteer research groups to test new products. The possibilities with these high traffic sites are almost endless for businesses in today's technological world.

In addition to businesses using social networking sites to recruit new employees and advertise products and jobs, they also use networking sites for personal company use. Wiki sites are used the most often, which are a collaboration of web pages that can be accessed and edited by multiple individuals, usually the employees of an organization. These sites normally hold important information such as schedules, policies, communication tools, and other company information that employees can comment on or edit as updates are received. Links can be posted that are commonly visited or that may be of importance to others in the

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