Social Media Sites Abound

Part of the research I do at work is in researching new social media--that's anything in the realm of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and last.fm.

One thing my research has shown in the last week is that there are so many new social media sites popping up that I will never be able to catalog them all.

I think it's fascinating there are so many reasons people decide to build social networking sites. Some of those reasons are actually pretty dumb, but others are really neat.

Some sites I found this week that I think are cool:

LearnHub
It's all about exchanging knowledge. Anyone can form a "community" about something and use it to create lessons, tests and trivia to help other people learn more about that topic. You can be a student and a teacher at once, offer tutoring sessions and even make money by teaching a course. Sure, if you haven't got all the time in the world, this may seem like more time-wasting idiocy. But when is learning something new ever a bad thing? I dig it.

Chictopia
As stupid as it sounds, the fashion-lover in me shouted for joy when I found this site. It's a social network for fashion lovers--the motto is "ordinary people can be super models, too". The great part is that it's for guys and girls, and you can learn what's most flattering for your shape while you're on there. You put in your personal and size information (everything from pant size to bra size if you're a lady), write a few things about your style philosophy, and start posting photos of yourself in various outfits, or your favorite accessories, in your ChicBlog. If you look super-stylish, your photo gets picked to go into the gallery and others can vote on how chic you look, and comment about what they love most. While the pursuit is, at its heart, shallow in every way, I think it has useful (and fun!) applications.

mEgo
This thing creates an Avatar for you that you can post on your blog, Web site, social networks, etc., with all of your information in one place. The review on Mashable said it was a two-hour commitment to make an avatar, which could be a bad thing if you're a busy bee. Another downside the review cited was that the widget felt a lot like MySpace--which I characterize as trashy and difficult to navigate. I tried the widget (you can see mine on the right sidebar, under the blog archive) and didn't think it was that bad. There is the possibility of making a trashy, flashy, overpowering-looking avatar, but hopefully you won't do that. It also didn't take me two long to create the avatar--maybe half hour tops, but then I am a 20-something Web whiz, right?

Glassdoor
This network is nifty for anyone job searching. When you create a profile you can look at information about different companies--everything from ratings of the management to salaries in the position you're looking at. This is particularly interesting since so many companies have that "you may not discuss your salary with anyone" policy that usually accompanies unequal and unethical salary assignment.

These are just specks in the spectrum of social media I've discovered lately, but I think they're worthwhile. None moreso than Facebook or studiVZ, though. :-)