Compete's Top Ten Social Networks - With MySpace At The Top

I discuss social netwkorking often in this blog, but I usually discuss the networks that are friendly for parents to build up work/social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, email groups like Yahoo and best of all the blogging network). Compete blog just published their list of top ten social networks for February. On the top was MySpace - which did not surprise me. I know MySpace is out there and strong, but it is not my world so I have not paid much attention to it. My oldest is just 9 - and his social networking is all live for now. Just recently some interesting things happened that made me see how much MySpace is popular in the younger crowds:

• A (single mom) Mayor was fired over her putting up a racy picture of herself in her MySpace page as a way to meet men.
• Lately, when a story comes out about a young celebrity, instead of going through a publicist they put a response on their MySpace page! Ashlee Simpson just recently had a radio appearance where she slurred her words. There is a "celebrity MySpace" channel, and on that channel is her MySpace blog. I tried to look at the blog, but that set off alarms on my K9 Internet Filtering software so I never was able to see her blog... I am sure I could give many more example of young celebrity blogs on MySpace if I did not have K9 installed...
• The Chelsea Lately show had "here are my single staffers night". One of the male staffers had his MySpace page displayed on the screen for prospective gals to find him... Even Chelsea Handler has her own MySpace page.

So, MySpace seems to be the hot network for dating, celebrities and the young to network. Which is probably why I (a happily married mom of three) have no interest in MySpace. But as a technologist, I should look into MySpace to see why 65 million people visit monthly.

The networks I use came in 2nd (Facebook with 28 million users) and 8th (LinkedIn with 3 million users) per month. It is interesting that CafeMom was mentioned, I am very active in the mom blogger network and NOBODY I know has used it  - so where are the 1.5 million users coming from (and is that number for real?).

At the end of the Compete post was a link to another post titled "Facebook grows as MySpace slows". I have heard equal reports of teenagers/college students in Facebook and MySpace. I don't know any moms on MySpace (except for that racy Mayor), but I do know many moms on Facebook. In the end it will be interested to see what social network has the widest range of people hanging their "profile".

Comments

[Amy M.]

I was going to leave you a comment here but decided to post about my social networking opinions:

http://svmomblog.typepad.com/chicago_moms/2008/03/you-want-to-tal.html

You'll thank me after you see how long the post is. :)

[Beth B.]

Thank You either way! Really interesting points you bring up - especially the "new four" topics kids need to learn: "sex, drugs, alcohol and social networking sites"

[Social Network Web Design]

Majority of MySpace users are really teenagers and celebrities. It wouldn't hurt to see why lots of people prefer MySpace over other social networking sites. Maybe it't time to bring diversity in MySpace and not just let the young ones populate the network. :)

[Lee12]

Hello,
This is really interesting points you bring up - especially the "new four" topics kids need to learn: "sex, drugs, alcohol and social networking sites"

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Lee
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