Example of Social Networks

A social network defined as a social structure integrated either by people, organizations or entities, which are connected among themselves by one or several types of relationships, such as: economic relationships, kinship, common interests, friendship, among others things.

Main characteristics of social networks

Although there are many social networks and each of them has its particular characteristics, in general, all social networks share the following characteristics:

1. Virtual identity: All social networks invite their users to create a profile, this is what is called the virtual identity of each of them. Normally, users always give information such as their name or aliases, or perhaps an avatar, and descriptions about their personality. The important thing about virtual identity is that it does not always reflect the real identity of the user, since he can give the information he wants, whether true or false.

2. Links and connectivity: Social networks always try to get their users to create ties and connections with other people or organizations, since this is the ultimate goal of a network. Thus, along with the possibility of creating your own profile, social networks offer the possibility of creating lists of friends and sharing them with others.

3. Interaction: This characteristic encompasses the ultimate goal of social networks, and has to do with the fact that users interact with those with whom they have some kind of relationship or with those who share some interest. Thus, the creation of the profile and the friends list are only the requirements that the user must meet in order to carry out the most important thing, which is the interaction itself.

4. Personalization: In social networks, users are able to configure their site settings to their preference.

5. Real time: One of the characteristics of social networks is that users have the possibility of establishing an immediate relationship, that is, of continuous interaction.

6. Collective intelligence: Social networks are nothing more than virtual spaces where people can come together to establish collaboration, joint creation and mutual help.

7. Multimedia and hypertext language: Social networks are sites created on and for the Internet, so they offer the possibility of using resources audiovisuals such as image, video, audio, animations, etc., thus complementing the messages transmitted to through the text.

8. Virality: It is the social networks that allow us to currently live in a culture of immediacy, where immediate and immense propagation can be given to various contents. This viral capacity of social networks could be used for matters of benefit to society, such as complaints, dissemination of important information, and so on.

Brief history of social media

The first social network was created by Randy Conrads in 1995, this network bore the name of "Classmates", and aimed to give people around the world the opportunity to recover or continue to maintain contact with their friends.

Over the years, different social networks continued to emerge, but it was in 2003 that there was a greater arrival of these types of sites. Some of the most popular sites that were created in that year were Myspace, Friendster, Tribe, and XIng. It was a year later (in 2004) that it was created Facebook, the social network with the highest number of active users today.

10 examples of the most used social networks:

1. Facebook: This social network aims for users to find people with similar interests to yours, as well as regain contact with people from the past, or continue contact with friends current. Facebook has a set of chat rooms, and also has some applications that offer users various games. In addition, it allows the user to update statuses, as well as share photos, videos and other multimedia elements. https://www.facebook.com/

2. Twitter: This social network allows its users to share 140-character entries, through which they can share your views on a specific topic, as well as communicate with others people. Twitter offers its users the ability to upload photos, to create a 160 character biography. In addition, there is the option of "Retweet", which allows users to share those publications with which they agree or like. This social network also allows the possibility of talking in real time with other users. https://twitter.com/

On the other hand, Twitter has a section known as Trending Topics, which are the most popular topics that are being handled on the social network at that time.

3. Google plus: This social network allows users to organize their contacts by groups. This way you can decide which content to share with which groups. These groups are called circles. Thus, there are circles for friends, family, acquaintances, people at work, and so on. Google plus offers the +1 button, this for the user to point out and recommend what is to their liking. https://plus.google.com/

4. Instagram: This social network differs from other similar ones because its main function is that users share photos and videos. In addition, people can also apply photographic filters and effects to their content. Once this edition is done, the user can share their content on this same social network or on others such as Tumblr lickr and Twitter. https://www.instagram.com/

5. Tumblr: Tumblr is a social network through which users can create social microblogs, through which people can post texts, images, videos, quotes, links, audio files and type conversations chat. One of its main characteristics is that it has attractive templates and designs. https://www.tumblr.com/

6. Linkedin: Linkedin is clearly distinguished from the rest of the social networks because it is a social network for professionals. This social network aims for users to make professional and business connections. Linkedin allows its users to publish data about themselves, but no longer personal, but about your professional experience, education, and recommendations from others who have worked with they. In this social network a much more formal language is used than in others. https://www.linkedin.com/

7. Pinterest: This social network allows users to “pin” images on their boards. This means that the user can choose images shared by other users and place them as favorites in their folders. In this way, the content shared on Pinterest is purely visual. One of the characteristics of this social network is that user tracking is not reciprocal, therefore, one user can follow another, and the user does not necessarily have to follow the first. It is important to mention that 80% of Pinterest users are women. https://www.pinterest.com/

8. Hi5https://www.hi5.com/

9. Tinderhttps://www.gotinder.com/

10. Snapchat https://www.snapchat.com

Other articles on social networks that may interest you:

• Characteristics of social networks
• Example of language in networks
• What does Facebook mean?