How many Social Networks do you want to be a member of today?  In How Many Social Networks? Mike Moran brings up the majority of us who join Social Networks and talk a lot about them, aren't spending that much time on them.  I suppose the same thing could be said for Second Life.

Here's the thing - if you really need to spend a lot of time on Social Networks - it's to connect with people …but if your already connected with enough people…how much time and effort do you want spend connecting all over again, online? 

Perhaps a Social Network does make sense since it would help you stay in touch with the people you already know. 

According to Mike Moran:

"…I know I am supposed to be an expert on social media marketing; I speak about it a lot;but I have not personally spent a lot of time with social networks in particular.

I haven't yet joined Facebook (it's on my list) but I think it's the hottest place out there for businesses at the moment. I am in Linked In, but spend little time enhancing my standing;mostly just accepting the invitations of others. I, like many of us, am struggling with the idea of what kind of time is required to be in multiple social networks. I know it won't take long to set up a Facebook presence, but I am wary of how many different networks I "should" be in and how much time it sucks from my already busy days. Are there others like me that are concerned about the drip-drip-drip time drain of all this different stuff? Facebook is probably exactly the wrong example because it may be abundantly clear to most of you that I should be hanging out there if I do anything in social networking. But it occurs to me that I don't have a clear thought process around which ones deserve my time and which ones don't."

Several years ago, when Health Food Stores and Food Coop's were still more alternative than mainstream (as they are now) I'd go in to buy vitamins and notice that people who were in these places often looked more unhealthy than the people in the street.   

Extending that idea out - people in search of something often don't have it (what they're searching for).  For example (and I know it's a touchy subject) people searching for money (because they're not rich and don't have it) or people searching for respect and acceptance (because they don't have it from themselves).  

If you look at a Tarot deck there's a symbol of the Hierophant, the most common interpretation of this symbolic card is people who look for the trappings of things rather than the substance of it - those in search of acceptance ….because they don't see they have it.

In the same way, people, I feel, can fall into the notion that Social Networks will bring you something you don't have - I don't believe Social Networks, by them selves, deliver …friendships … jobs….. relationships…that's not going to happen just because you join a social network.

But the Social Network can help when you have a common basis to work together.

That's why I started the Web Analytics Association Social Media and Community Network - because I was elected to the Board of Directors of the Web Analytics Association and I have a committee that now numbers around 30 people (all should be WAA members first, BTW) and I needed to communicate with them and have a sense of further community and collaboration outside our monthly meetings over the phone or in Second Life.

In other words - I built a social network out of actual need i had - and out of an actual community I had.   I did not build a social network to create a community I did not have…nor would I bother.  

I'm delighted that our new Social Network has a life of it's own - and people are having dialogs that are happening because they want to communicate and share with each other.  In this case, I don't really need to do that much - just set up the standards and stay out of the way…letting the dialog happen, supporting it…maybe focusing it along the lines of our Social Media Committee which I direct.

And I think that's why a lot of people don't know what to do with a Social Network …because they don't see they have any clear need for one…and the truth is…. they don't.

But if you think about it …. why would Facebook be so popular with Gen Y people?  It's obvious if you think about.

Facebook, I believe, was created to fulfill a common need that many people in high school and college have - and the technology enabled that need (for them to communicate); College Students needing to stay in touch- talk to each other more. 

Then the rest of us join the bandwagon be we don't seem to have the same needs that need to be expressed in the same exact circumstances (we're not in college anymore) ….so we find ourselves wondering what we'll get out of joining Facebook.  

Sure, Facebook is evolving to meet our needs too - just as the other Social Networks are … but fundamentally - it worked better for the population it was created for than it does for anyone else (I know this will be a point of debate, BTW).

There are many places in our lives where Social Networks would help; any kind of group that already exists and meets often, or even people who you take a trip with (like my Art Friends who I met in Paris and Aix-en-Provence recently) could have a Social Network to build on what we already have.   A Doctor could form a Social Network with his or own patients (esp a Social Worker or psychotherapist); it would also be great for Dance and Art Studios and it could also work well in Company Intranets, in your job.   There's all kinds of places where Social Networks need to be, and people haven't yet figured it out yet.

The Web Analytics Association, for example, also, has community that would benefit by having it's own Social Network and we're looking into that right now. An author, like Mike Moran, could, in theory, create a Social Network of his own, around his book (and people who buy his book could be invited to join his Social Network).  There's thousands of ways that Social Networks can be used to enhance and grow what already exists.

But to just join Facebook or even LinkedIn just because everyone else is……..for what purpose?  

If you have no need, no bond that drives you to connect with people that you might already know, or that have a common bond with you, but you don't know them yet ….(which I think is a good reason to have a network) then I'd say….forget the Social Networks.

Social Networks build on needs and associations we already have - they don't replace them.