The business of Social Networking

What was once thought of as a fad, is now proving to have some staying power. Sites such as MySpace and Facebook are showing with their large user base and investment funding that the phenomenon will be around for some time to come. Advertisers are also starting to shift their thinking on how to utilize these sites to their advantage. Check out Socializing for Dollars. Most of these sites however are mostly about meeting people, making friends, trying to show how cool you are, fitting in, and just finding yourself and your place in the world. We are social beings and this concept definitely has it place, but how can or will this trend or model transfer into the business world? Linkedin, and Simplyhired take the concept of social networking and put it to work in a business application, but I feel that this is just scratching the surface as to where we could go to create social networking applications that can actually drive economic progress inside company walls as well as the business community in general. Plus, think about the the MySpace generation as it (eventually) grows up and enters the workforce. Applications that use the social networking model should be adopted easily, as long as it increases productivity, and not just killing time at work.