It is fair to say that most consumers consider Google and Facebook the Internet in its entirety.  While they may be aware of other sites, when they think about the Internet, what they are thinking about is one of the above corporate giants. Social networking has been around for a long time. One of the first online communities was “The Well,” which still exists and was created in 1985 as an extension of the “Whole Earth Catalog.” MySpace, Xanga, and many others were very popular until the Facebook juggernaut took over the entire Internet. So will there be only one search engine or a single social network in the end?

The Faceless Book

It was not too long ago that Facebook was, while successful, just one of a number of social networking sites that people used to keep track of friends, communicate, and post pictures and messages. Friendster, MySpace, Xanga, Classmates, and others all served different demographics and markets.

Facebook on the other hand was originally a social network strictly built for Harvard students, and because exclusivity breeds desire, it led to Facebook expanding to include all Ivy League students. It later expanded again to include all college students of any school, and, finally, anyone with an Internet connection. This “forced scarcity” and tiered rollout created a huge demand and now we have the Facebook of today.

Facebook now claims to have 500 million users, which, if true, constitutes 25 percent of all Internet users. The other social sites have faded fast and while some have survived, many are no longer in business. With the social networking side of things well in hand, and Google the largest gateway to the web, Romulus and Remus rule us all and we are experiencing the end of the Internet. Or is it?

The Little Guys Strike Back

Like Twitter, Facebook has become awash with companies and individuals seeking to make a name for themselves, generate sales, and drive traffic to their sites; however, nothing could be more annoying. A certain amount of that is to be expected, but when the party population is more networkers than friends, it starts to go flat, and for this reason, other sites are starting to strike back.

Angie’s List is a good example. The website serves as a clearinghouse for reports and reviews on services rendered by contractors in order to aid others in finding good help and avoiding bad service. The company’s recent television ad campaign is proof that it is not fading. Recently a rush of sign-ups for Quora and Aardvark exploded; these websites provide question and answer services in which people can ask a question and get answers from other people on the network.

Increasingly, other social media efforts are gaining back the ground that Facebook claims to own. Actual social networking sites like Path and CollegeOnly are gaining momentum by limiting membership and limiting the number of friends a user can have; up to 50 in the case of Path. These sites are indications of a trend; people are looking to get away from the giant crowd and to a more personal place.

Create Your Own Social Network

SocialGo and Ning are not social networking sites, but they could be the beginning of the end of Facebook’s domination. With services ranging from free to $150 a month, anyone can create their own social network. Do you really want a stranger watching you share pictures with your family in Oregon?  Why not create a social network for only your family and friends and end the problem. Facebook has many privacy issues and this is a clear answer to most of them. Are you an avid Fly Fisher? There is a site for that called Troutpad, as a site exists for just about any hobby or interest.

Facebook may have created the social network as a popular new “Killer App” for the Internet, but the future may not belong to them. History buffs will remember that at the turn of the twentieth century, America fought back against monopolies and won. Maybe it is time for that to happen again only this time users can do it for themselves. There are many alternatives out there and users are starting to find them. The social networking monopoly, or claimed monopoly, will be temporary and people will begin to break off into more exclusive, “walled communities” that are private and safer driven by the increasing security threats and information privacy issues. Teens used Xanga as a way of keeping away from parents eyes. Perhaps the adults are doing the same thing.

Guest Author: Jon T. Norwood is a managing partner at Broadband Internet, a site dedicated to providing information on Mobile Broadband News.  Jon can be reached at jon@velocityguide.com.

From high school students to executives, everyone is using social media to connect in different ways. It may be because with such a large user base tapping into the web, there really is something for everyone. Job seekers turn to LinkedIn for career connections. Musicians are still turning to MySpace to make a name for themselves. Marketers are giving their products a voice through Facebook and Twitter. Publishers are re-inventing themselves with new ways to deliver content.

With this infographic, we’ll take a look at a few of the fears and promises of each of these points of view and try to shed some light on why it works.

More Social Networking History

The first social computer network was created in 1978 with CBBS, the Chicago Bulletin Board System. Bulletin Boards were hosted on personal computers connected through telephone-based modems.  These systems allowed for access to decentralized forums (Usenet), social gaming and file transfer.

The next evolution was dial-in networks such as America Online and CompuServe.  One of my favorites in this time period Sierra’s ImagiNation Network which replaced the text based BBS systems with a rich gaming environment that took the form of an amusement park. You could create avatars, chat and connect for games.

Even before Friendster, the connection concept was online with SixDegrees which started in 1997 with the idea of connecting contacts, then it was MySpace with its powerful database.

Now it’s all about Facebook, which has more users than the population of any country in the world outside of the U.S., China or India.  Television took 13 years to become as popular as the Internet, which only took four years.  More than 100 million people have joined Facebook over nine months.

Guest Author: This is a guest post by Brian E. Young, a graphic designer and illustrator who blogs and podcasts about creativity at www.Sketchee.com.

Doesn't this image make you hungry for ice cream?

Another great milestone has been achieved through social media!  A couple weeks ago Dippin’ Dots Ice Cream reached a huge milestone of one million fans on Facebook.  How did I learn about this?  Through my news source, Twitter of course.  Orange County Dippin’ Dots franchisee, Debbie Tesla (@dippindotwoman) and I follow each other on Twitter.  Her tweet of this exciting news showed up in my stream.

Reaching one million fans is a huge milestone, but as you may already know, social networking is not about the number of fans and followers, but the quality.  The powerful Dippin’ Dots’ Facebook strategy proved that they have quality fans.  Their strategy not only helped them bond with existing customers, but also heightened brand awareness, boosted customer loyalty, and increased sales.

As you can see on the Dippin’ Dots fan page, they know how to engage their audience with questions, polls, giveaways, contests and more!  As a matter of fact, they gave away one million ice cream Dots to their one millionth fan, John Migetz.  That equals one gallon of Dippin’ Dots per month for 20 months.  Wowwie John, I hope you will be sharing some of that ice cream with your friends!

Aside from Facebook, Dippin’ Dots is on Twitter (@RealDippinDots), MySpace, Flickr, YouTube, and they have a corporate blog.  Plus, they also use crowdsourcing (poll & surveys) by tapping into their customers’ brains to help them create new ice cream flavors.

To see what Dippin’ Dots is up to, I interviewed Dana Knudsen, the director of marketing in Kentucky along with Erin Brown (@ErinRocks) and Anthony Cerreta (@AnthonyCerreta) from Matrixx in Los Angeles.  Matrixx is the digital marketing agency responsible for assisting Dippin’ Dots with the launch of the Facebook page in 2007 and helped them get to this great landmark. I have a feeling Anthony has a Twitter strategy up his sleeve for Dippin’ Dots pretty soon (I wonder if I can also bribe him to grow my fan page to a million fans? J/K Anthony).

Let’s listen to what the team had to say about social media.

What is the Dippin’ Dot social media lesson?

• Know what your customers want and show them you care by listening to them.
• Be patient because social media is not an overnight process.  It does take time to build a loyal and engage a loyal community (It took them 2.5 years to reach this Facebook milestone.)
• Be willing to experiment and make changes accordingly.
• And, have fun!

Congrats again to Dippin’ Dots for this amazing social media achievement!

I will be posting more case study interviews like this on a regular basis. If you are using social media successfully in your business and would like to be interviewed, please reach out to me. I love hearing social media success stories!

When 17 year old Chelsea King went missing on February 25^th, her family called the police as soon as it became obvious the teen hadn’t returned from her run. The search for the missing girl started that same night, turning up nothing but a locked car that Chelsea left outside the Rancho Bernardo Community Center. Then they did something that isn’t as standard . . . they set up a Facebook Group and a Twitter account for Chelsea.

The pages are the perfect way to keep friends and family updated on the worrying situation, but it has done much more than that. In a very short time, close to 6,000 people (and growing) have joined the group, spreading the word about the missing teen through the world of online media and putting Chelsea’s photo and description out on the internet. Hundreds of volunteers showed up to help search for the girl, some as a direct result of the page. Social networking is giving back!

Chelsea’s Facebook Group isn’t the first time social media has been used as a cry for help. In 2007, Tom McEwan set up a Facebook page to help find his 19 year old son Kyle. Today, his MySpace page continues to share songs and memories of Kyle.

If you are a frequent user of Twitter, chances are you’ve seen a few Amber Alerts retweeted there.  The micro-blogging network is often used to share alerts when a child goes missing and to update information. Social networks like Twitter and Facebook get the word out faster than any other medium and can reach thousands or millions within seconds.

A more recent example of using Twitter to help find missing family members occurred just after the 8.8 earthquake in Chile. Sheryl Breuker hadn’t heard from her sister-in-law after the quake and used Twitter to post pertinent info and ask for people to help her find the woman. Just two hours later, a local man tracked the woman down, assuring Breuker via Twitter, that her brother’s wife was indeed safe (See Mashable post).

Social media has been used for many things, from dating to business promotion, but now it can help save lives as well. An organization called Help Find My Child has set up a system to help parents of missing children get the necessary information out fast on multiple networks, including Twitter, Facebook, Bebo and MySpace, among others. It’s just one way to make sure that social networking sites are giving back to families and helping them find their missing children.

Please help retweet and share this blog post on all your social networks so we can help find Chelsea King fast.