We're all connected in this great big world

When it comes to media use, we live in an extremely connected world. The internet has the potential to bring people from every corner of the planet together to trade and share information in a universal platform. The biggest way this is being done today is through social networking websites and applications such as blogs, myspace, and facebook. Basically social media describes websites where users generate their own content: members share opinions, insights, experiences, perspectives, and media with other users, connecting and forming relationships with them. New networking sites emerge everyday and technology constantly evolves, but what remains constant throughout all of this change is the basic form of advertising all of these new networks are solely based on: word of mouth.

As business trends article, Go International or Go Broke and Advertising Via Social Networks, points out: Social networks are an incredible way to spread and disseminate information.


This is largely due to the fact that social networks, are as they say, social. A is friends with B, and B is friends with C. All members are connected and have the potential to build relationships with each other. These contacts are extremely powerful when you stop and think about how many social networks most people actually belong to and the potential for information to spread very quickly. This technologically evolved word-of-mouth advertising is more credible to users, as the information they obtain is through the words or opinions of their peers, contacts, and friends. When a well respected marketer blogs about upcoming products or events, people view him as a credible source and may use his opinion in their own version of the same story. Information spreads in this way and relationships are further strengthened.

Business is built on relationships. Most work in this world is focused on strengthening relationships and building networks anyway, but having these social networks connecting companies all over the globe together at just the click of a mouse is a priceless resource no one can deny. More often then not, social networking serves to increase the strength of businesses and their social connections, providing marketers with a platform they utilize to obtain, share, and spread information to peers, consumers and contacts.

Social networking websites are surprisingly utilized all over the world, thought not all the same we know, love and use here. Tech gossip website Valleywag has created a map of the world (above) divided according to which social network countries are using the most. In this world map of social networks, Valleywag describes what's popular, where:

• Orkut leads in the Indian subcontinent, as well as Brazil.
• Facebook is stronger, internationally, than Myspace, with surprising strongholds in the Middle East.
• hi5.com is the most international of all the social networks, leading in Peru, Colombia, Central America, and other, scattered countries such as Mongolia, Romania, and Tunisia.
• both Bebo and Skyblog follow colonial patterns, the first strong in smaller English-speaking countries such as Ireland and New Zealand, and the latter in Francophone countries;
• and Friendster, the original social network, leads all across Southeast Asia.
• Fotolog, a photo service defeated in the US by Friendster, has re-emerged as the dominant social network in Argentina and Chile.