Definition – Social networking tools are interactive websites allowing users to create profiles and ‘network’ with other users by forming relationships, ultimately allowing them to mirror, communicate with, and potentially expand their social networks online. Many social networking tools also offer other applications, such as quizzes and games.

Examples – Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, Orkut, LinkedIn, Ning, Care2

Why Use It? – Users use social networking tools to communicate with friends in a public/performative way (vs. privately via email), display how they’re doing in a multimedia way via text, images, video, and/or otherwise (vs. sending mass text-based emails), find old friends, form groups and communities of interest, meet new friends or friends-of-friends, advertise their skills/services/artwork/etc., engage in activism and philanthropy, and in general, mirror, communicate with, and expand their social networks. There are also social networking tools dedicated to a particular theme or purpose such as LinkedIn, a social networking tool for professional and job-related activities.

Use-Cases – Social networking tools allow users to create groups and applications, which can be dedicated to collective action on a range of issues. Examples from Facebook include:

• In terms of groups, Facebook has groups dedicated to “Support the Monks' protest in Burma” and “Lower Gas and Diesel Emissions! Save the Environment!”
• In terms of applications, Facebook has an application called “Causes,” which allows users to start and join causes they care about and make donations, which can benefit registered 501(c)(3) non-profits and major presidential campaigns. It is also integrated with virtual gifting; users pay for a virtual product and engage in philanthropy in the process. For example, in a partnership with the nonprofit One Laptop Per Child, users can pay $200 for a virtual laptop on Facebook and donate a laptop to a child in a developing nation.

There may also be social networking tools entirely dedicated to collective action. Care2 is a tool dedicated to green living, health, and human rights, among other issues. Its users engage in collective action with regards to consumption, employment-seeking, and online petitioning, for example.

Ratings
Cost: $$ (social networking tools involve a lot of client-server exchanges, making a relatively fast connection desirable)
Start-Up Time: TTT
Maintenance time: TTT
Complexity for Creators: **
Complexity for Users: **
Broadband required for effective use?: Y (hence $$)
Read Accessibility: 2
Write Accessibility: 3
Traffic: 10
Bling: 4 (note: large range, e.g. Facebook has approx. 60 million users vs. Care2 has approx. 8 million users)
Blingability: 7 (note: large range, e.g. MySpace allows for much more user customization than Facebook)


How-To – Register for an account, create a profile, and start networking.

Helpful Links
Social networking tools:

• Facebook
• Facebook group for Participatory Media and Collective Action
  
• MySpace
• Friendster
• Orkut
• LinkedIn (social networking tool for professional purposes)
• Ning (create your own social networking tool)
• Care2 (social networking tool for social change)

Social networking tools as pmca:

• In online worlds, the thought and the gift are social currency (article in SFGate)