Culture, particularly in America, is increasingly dictated by online activity and interactions. I get so tired of hearing people talk about their Facebook wall activity or what Charlie Sheen just tweeted. While there is a lot of merit to social networking, it has spawned many problems. That’s another blog post though…what I want to discuss is LinkedIn. I personally enjoy LinkedIn and appreciate its vision and potential, but it’s hard for me to reconcile the arguable unprofessionalism of the familiar Myspace, Facebook and Twitter with the pushed professional “atmosphere” of LinkedIn. Can we really network professionally, get jobs and internships, meet business peers and even create leads based on one website? Traditionally, professional interaction is based on handshakes, golf outings and what kind of shoes you wear, not your Facebook profile.

I strongly believe that while this may cause many skeptical eyebrows to be raised today, it will make a lot of sense in the very near future. LinkedIn has been acclaimed for its success and I personally know people who have been hired based on initial contact through LinkedIn. Monster is great for job searching, but LinkedIn takes their model a step further by being great for people searching…which sounds a lot like networking! Looking toward the future is how great organizations are born. Founded in just 2002, the site has over 90 million members and was recently rated #24 in FastCompany.com’s list of the Fifty Most Innovative Companies, ahead of Amazon and right behind eBay. Wow.

Internet Entrepreneurship is all about finding the next big thing, and I strongly believe that LinkedIn is just that for the young and soon-to-be professionals of the world.

1. Marketing and Communication:

As a small business company or a large business you can use twitter to advertise and provide information to your customers through a popular site easily.

2. Easy Blogging:

It is the easiest and most basic form of blogging out there.

3. Business networking:

Twitter is a informal type of social media networking and can be used to develop business relationships or ventures.

4. Breaking News and Gossip:

It can be used between family members to tell each other of important things that happened in the last week or it could be used for big companies telling of their new product that they are developing.

5. Streamlining Social Media:

You can use Twitter for email type chatting, for chatting, and instant messaging. So instead of using a bunch of different programs you could just end up using Twitter.

I love Twitter. My first use of Twitter was as an account for a band I was with at the time, a way to communicate with fans, update them instantaneously, and tweet the shenanigans that we were up to. About a year ago, though, I decided to sign myself up for it. As I became more interested in social media and in engaging with the world via the internet, I recognized this little bird as a force to be reckoned with.

Since then, I’ve really come to enjoy it! Twitter is a great source of immediate news and interesting items. I follow numerous world news, local news, business news, music news sports news, sports teams and athletes, celebrities, comedians, businesses, bands and friends so that I can log in at any time and get information that is actually beneficial. I feel that Facebook focuses on people, particularly friends. Honestly, I’m not sure it’s worth much besides keeping up to date on friends that I would rather call, text, or hang out with anyways. With Twitter, I can connect to the happenings of the world. Also, being followed by people I don’t know is much less creepy than being friend requested by those people on Facebook.

My roommate and I often get caught up with trying to be retweeted or responded to by the many Pittsburgh Steelers that we follow. I also love to spout off opinions on matters that my 100+ followers will see, many of them companies, professional musicians and professional athletes. I believe that the endless struggle by many Twitter users to gain followers and to be retweeted is driven by something everybody wants: attention.

Twitter is an incredible place for Steve Jobs, Ben Folds, LaMarr Woodley, Taco Bell and Dan Van Matre to have an equal voice. Try it out!

Twitter, “the best way to discover what’s new in your world.”

I don’t own an account and I don’t understand what it is all about. From my perspective it is a way for a self-absorbed society to talk about themselves and expect other people to care. Now, some people have more of a reason than others because people care about famous people (for some reason). A lot of famous people have very popular twitter accounts, that people can follow and see what they are doing. Its still under the assumption that people care what they think and do every second of the day.

I am being negative. Twitter definitely could be used in a non self-absorbed way. If you and your family or friends don’t live near each other it is a way of staying up to date on the day day doings of those people close to you. This kind of social media could bring families together in a way that not many other websites do.

I will have to give twitter a chance before I condemn it.

Thanks to the use of social media giant YouTube, even former students at small colleges like Grove City are able to keep in contact with their friends.  For example, alumni of the Omicron Xi fraternity can check out what their active fraternity brothers have been up to…

Ever find yourself bored and wanting something to do.. well why not stumble. Stumbleupon is a site that brings up sites from all over the web. All you have to do is go to stumbleupon.com and fill out the form that asks for interests. This insures that the sites being generated are in your field of interest. If you love business or entrepreneurship check it out and let it know that you are interested in business.. see what comes up. You may come across different innovative business models or maybe just a blog about how to start a fruit stand on the side of the road. Either way, stumbleupon can be not only a way to waste free time, but also a way to learn more about business and help to innovate your business if you have one.