"It's all about the networking" was the business catch phrase of the nineties. The slogan may have grown out the eighties craze of multi-level marketing. That method of building a business grew into popularity from the Amway model for conducting business. Multi-level marketing is much more about building a network than about selling product. Networking drove the business. High-level movers and shakers always keep an eye on business trends. The multi-level marketers failed to achieve the promises of yachts and half-year vacations. As they thinned out the regular business world transformed what was formerly called smoozing and butt kissing into the multi-level marketing tool known as networking. Now, networking is not just for business, but is a powerful trend within social circles overlapping business and pleasure as a lifestyle.
The dawn of online social networking
The advent of the email started a basic form of social networking. The introduction of the chatroom was the big bang that exploded into the online social networking galaxy. The chatroom help people form, strengthen and break the bonds of relationships. Out of these chatrooms grew social networks beyond imagination. Cyberspace became a haven for the socially inept and deprived. It also gave refuge to the predator. Each one of these groups utilized the web to fill their needs. In addition, the chatroom gave them a place to hide from the real world in which they had problems coping.
The downline of online social networking
Growth of online social networking mirrored the growth of new businesses. Dating sites, auction sites, and bartering sites were joined by marketing sites, gaming sites and the interactive business and learning sites flooded the web. These all spawned forums called "Bulletin Boards" to post and trade information. The Bulletin Board gave way to the present day, web logging. The online social network of web logging or as it is better known now, Blogging is a way of life.
Blogging - a business and social network
The original concept of the Blog was to be more of a journal or diary. That concept matured into more of an information exchange forum. With online businesses looking for a way to generate more dollars through marketing, they set up enhanced blogging groups. The rulers of the online social network were those that had the best blogging at the best sites. Now, businesses attracted customers online through blogs. The social networking forums made profit by using new technology with an old web standard, the click per link reinvented.
The current generation of online social networking
Supported by technologies as Google AdSense, blogs make profit by what is called search engine optimization. Using a tool called the keyword; you advance your business by attracting new customers from search engines by the use of certain words in blogs. This has given way to blog for profit sites such as MyLot.com and Payposter.com. These sites are the new future of online social networking.
Blogging for profit – uniting the forward and backward
Chatrooms became popular because they give instant contact to multiple parties. With email, you have almost instant communication but the contact is that of reading a letter. The new blogging for profit is more like a bulletin board than a direct contact. You get paid pennies on a blog discussion post and people respond for everyone to see. Mainly, it is an open forum to which anyone can respond. The AdSense and linked ads provide the host with their income to power the site and line their pockets. As of now, gone are the instant rapport of chatrooms and instant messengers once so popular.
Online social networking is no longer a fad. It is a lifestyle. We do it for business and we do it for pleasure. We also combine the two. I predict it will not be long before the next generation of online social networking evolves. It appears anything profitable on the web turns and transforms as fast as a glass of milk left in the hot sun. Profits will be bigger and better. The online social networks will transcend the line between business and social retaining the multi-level marketing roots of networking for fun and dollars.
