Social Networking vs. Social Media

Social Networking is an online community for expanding users business or social contacts by making connection through their mutual business or personal connections.** Social media uses tools for sharing and discussing information. Networks get things done. People networks help us make friends, jobs, finding partners. They can help you see connections hidden opportunities in the real world.

Stelzner, a networking examiner writing on the differences between networks and media, quotes one individuals who says that “Social Networking is a tool and a utility for connecting with others. The difference is not just semantics but in the features and functions put into these websites by their creators which dictates the way they are to be used. There’s also a kind of, which came first, the chicken or the egg kind of argument to be made here. I suspect that Social Networking came first which evolved into Social Media.“ (http://www.examiner.com/networking-in-national/social-media-vs-social-networking-what-s-the-difference)

Still confused about the difference between social networking and social media?  Here’s a simpler way to process the divide. Social Media are tools for sharing and discussing information. Social Networking is the use of communities of interest to connect to others. You can use Social Media to facilitate Social Networking or you can network by leveraging Social Media. If you're still scratching your head, be sure to watch a terrific Social Networking 101 video below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a_KF7TYKVc

** Laudon, Kenneth C., and Jane Price. Laudon. Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm. 12th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002. Print.