Reaction to Week 6 Readings

In Boyd and Ellison’s article about social networking sites, they provide a definition of social networking sites and include in the definition that the sites are not really to network and create relationships with strangers, but rather to link and connect to people that you already have an existing relationship or connection. While I agree that this is true, especially with Facebook and other similar social networks, I think that other social media is straying from this and serves primarily to establish connections with people, products or companies.

 In chapter 8 of PR 2.0, Neal Gorenflo is interviewed and states that social networking and social media is changing the way business is being done and for the better in most cases. He says that social media and social networking allows “engaging customers in deep and meaningful ways in every stage of the product lifecycle.” This is an example of social networking being used to create connections rather than connect within existing relationships. Social networking continues to change and new uses for it are continually arising. As the evolution continues, I think that defining what exactly it is and what it is used for will become increasingly difficult.