A Working Definition of Social Networking and Web 2.0 For Writers.

Published on: Dec 9, 2009 @ 11:53

There’s a subtle difference between “Social Networking” and websites that used Web 2.0 interaction.  Wikipedia lists all the most popular social networking sites still active today, and the most popular by far, of course, is Facebook, which has an Alexa ranking of #2.  MySpace, Multiply, LinkedIn and any “closed” social site where you have to sign up, build your own profile and make friends with others in that community is a social networking site.

Web 2.0, on the other hand, is a form of web-based coding that allows two-way interaction between host and user.  To be very technical, it allowed the development of web languages such as XHTML, XML, and scripting codes like JAVA and PHP… and is what gave birth to blogs.  Blogs are unique as a promotion tool for authors, and should be central in your on-line promotion efforts.

All social networking sites are built upon Web 2.0 platforms.

Social bookmarking sites DIGG, Delicious, Technorati, MyBlogLog, Blog Catalogue, Reddit, and Blog readers like Google Reader, NetVibes, Rojo, and Newsgator all use Web 2.0 tools as well, but they aren’t considered social networking sites.   However, the bookmarking sites can be useful promotion tools for authors, used in conjunction with your blog.  On their own, they have limited use.

Many people use “social networking” to cover all sites that use Web 2.0 tools for two-way exchanges between peers, and you’d be safe enough to use that definition yourself.  But be aware that the broader context is not exactly correct.

How does this affect you, the author?

Don’t let the terminology frazzle you.  You’ll find a lot of sites and experts out there trying to sell you on the latest and greatest scheme to promote your book, and there’s a lot of them (both schemes and experts).  The vast majority of the experts and plans are focused on selling non-fiction books, and don’t suit fiction authors.  I learned this the hard way, with heavy impacts on my hip pocket and time, because I got dazzled by the terminology.

Build your own plan and stick with it.  The Internet appears to move at light speed or faster, but promotion does actually take some time to start showing results, so settling in and remaining consistent is better than bouncing all over the place and trying new things every week.   Stick with it for a while, track your results, and analyse them before you try something new.  Then you’ll be confident you’re moving on for good reason.

First appeared on Bootstrap Bookmarketing Coop.