Social Networks

I am comparing two different social networking sites, Myspace and LinkedIn, to analyse the differences between them and why people use them:The first very large difference between LinkedIn and Myspace is their target audiences. LinkedIn is created for business professionals, therefore people who most probably have been in employment for a number of years. Myspace is targeted at almost anyone, however due to the types of advertisements, it seems to suggest it is aimed at a younger, more rebellious audience than LinkedIn. Some of these advertisements are shown below:
Another very large difference is the range of options on each of this sites, linked to the target audiences. As LinkedIn is aimed at business professionals, the site is full of information and options which would appeal only to people interested in business. However Myspace has a range of options and activities on its site to enable you to enjoy it no matter what your interests are, such as music, videos, photographs, reading, writing, socialising and more. Below is a screenshot of the Myspace toolbar.
Another difference between the two social networking sites is that Myspace is a completely free service to use, whereas LinkedIn is not. This decreases the amount of appeal it has to users, however as LinkedIn helps many of its member to get jobs or improve their businesses, members are willing to pay for this service. also profitable: since they help members find jobs or build their businesses, many users are willing to pay.

LinkedIn allows you to view the contacts who have visited your page. On one hand this is good as you can see who is interested in what you have got to say, but on the other hand if it is not a wanted visitor it could cause problems. Myspace is different to this, as although it tells you how many profile views you have received it does not tell you who exactly it was that visited. This allows more privacy and therefore more comfort for members to visit pages.
Unlike Myspace, LinkedIn has its own search engine. Although Myspace has the ability to search for things, it is not always reliable a opposed to LinkedIn's very thorough and detailed search engine. Using this, members of LinkedIn can find out anything to do with the business genre, to help them excel with their jobs and businesses.
There are a few negative aspects to using ANY social networking service however. Firstly for any of these services you must set up an account, which involves disclosing personal details online. Like any online activity, this obviously means that your details are at risk from being stolen or used unwillingly. Also on social networking sites you create your own identity. This can cause problems as people can create false identities and put you at risk. These include perverts and paedophiles.