Social Networking On Your Mobile Phone
The boom in social networking on the internet has been remarkable and the last few years have seen an explosion in the popularity of online social networking, such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Linkedin. The good news is, that for mobile phone users, these sites are becoming accessible through your handset.
Here is a summary of the most popular:
MySpace
www.myspace.com was one of the first traditional web based sites and is still one of the most popular. A mobile portal is now available, called MySpace Mobile it is accessible through m.myspace.com. The user can view and send messages, read and send bullitins, read and post blogs, view friend’s profiles and upload snapshots.
Facebook started life in 2004 but 2007 was when it really boomed, rivalling the popularity of MySpace. Facebook ranks in the top 10 most visited sites in the world and (in Sept 08) has reported seven million members in the UK and over 50 million worldwide. The mobile portal m.facebook.com allows you to manage your home page from your smart phone. Facebook have optimised the display so it is suitable for a small screen. If you are a BlackBerry user type www.blackberry.com/facebook in the address bar and you can download a version of Facebook that will let you use your handset to manage your social networking account. With BlackBerry you can even take a photo with your built in camera, post it and tag it, all from your handset.
There is an iPhone version of Facebook available from your apple store and using your iPhone’s safari browser you can view the full PC based Facebook site through your handset.
www.twitter.com is a service designed to help friends, family and co-workers communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick and frequent messages. The free site allows users to sent text based posts of up to 140 characters (known as Tweets). Updates are then displayed on the users profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them.
A streamlined mobile version was launched in 2007 at m.twitter.com and can be used to manage a Twitter account and keep in touch with a personal network whilst you are away from the home or office
If you haven’t done so already why not consider setting up an online account with a social networking site and receive a taste of what this phenomenon is all about. Most are free to join and many now offer a mobile portal so you can keep in touch with friends at any time of the day.