Everybody loves Facebook, some people can’t live without checking in at foursquare or gowalla, brazilians are crazy about Orkut and tech-savvy professionals have always their profile at Linkedin up-to-date. But, the truth is: only a few people know how to use properly Social Networks.

The Basics: Adding People Just Because

Can someone please explain me WHY people add whoever they find on their way? I’m going to say a sad truth: you WON’T become more famous or popular or whatever because you have one million friends YOU DON’T KNOW. Oh, yeah, you shouldn’t import your whole Gmail address book into your new Social Network account – that’s horrible.

Most networks will offer you the option to scan you contact list to see if, among their registered users, they found a match of your friends. And at this moment you should be wise and think if you know these people well enough to add them on that kind of network. For instance, on Linkedin, you should add only people who have worked or done some kind of business with you – not your friendly neighbour who always invites you for a barbecue. This guy must be on your Facebook.

There’s an important observation regarding networks like Foursquare and Gowalla: it’s useless to add people who live in different cities, as their information won’t be available to you (unless you go visit each other city). These networks are based in geoinformation and writing tips about places in your specific city. Don’t even bother about adding that interesting guy in Tokyo.

I’m a Fan of Everything

People love ice cream, chocolate, movies, all sort of stuff. Then they’ll become fans of ice cream, chocolate, movies about ice cream and chocolate and everything they find. Again, what’s the purpose of joining every group you see? If a group doesn’t seem to have any relevant information about something that might interest you, why join?

Do I need to be in another social network?

Everyday a new social network is born and thousands of people subscribe to their services. And I’m pretty sure as fast as they’re born, they’ll be forgotten. Do you remember friendster? I had an account there and now i can’t even remember what e-mail I used to register. There are social networks for pets (yeah, don’t you know catster and dogster?) but, mostly, they’ll do the same thing. So, why do you need the incredible new one? Another username and password to remember. More time spent at the interwebs. Yeah, right.

Conclusion

I’m not saying that social networks are bad. They have their place on the internet – like that rainboot manufacturer, “Connecting People” – but there are many people on them who aren’t able to connect to each other very well.

Related posts:

1. Social Media in Toronto