Beginning in the early 2000s, a new form of online social interaction emerged - social network websites.

Social networks provided people with a way to set up a personal page or profile to which they could post updates on what they were doing, while also keeping track of the activities of family, friends and colleagues.

People also can engage in group activities online and display feeds of information on their home pages - everything from personal photo slideshows and videos to musical playlists and calendars to weather reports and news stories. The applications that allow social network users to display this information on their profile pages are called widgets.

Some of the early social networks were Friendster, started in 2002, and Tribe, launched in 2003.

News organizations had experimented with a form of social networking in the late 1990s, trying to form online communities for local community organizations. One popular platform for this online community building was Koz.com, co-founded by a former executive editor of the Raleigh News & Observer and founder of the paper's Nando.net online operation.

While these efforts by news organization aimed at community groups generally didn't gain a lot of traction (Koz.com went out of business and the Koz.com domain was subsequently put up for sale), independent social networks that served individuals took off.

By 2008, 35 percent of adult Internet users had created a profile on a social network, quadruple the percentage in 2005, according to a Pew Internet & American Life Project survey in December 2008. The numbers are even more striking for younger people - 75 percent of Internet users aged 18-24 have a social network profile.

Journalism and Social Networks

For journalists and news organizations, social networks provide an opportunity both for connecting with people and distributing news stories.

Reporters can join the networks, converse with people and showcase their stories. It's yet another way for reporters to develop personal brands for their work.

News organizations can develop widgets that provide feeds of news stories that can be displayed on the personal pages of social network members.

See for example the New York Times Widgets page that people can used to embed news feeds from the Times on their personal profile pages or on blogs or other websites.

News organizations also can set up their own social networks, using third-party software or their own homegrown platforms.

Some have even speculated that social networks will supplant news websites as the place where people get news.

Social Network Examples

Among the significant social networks now are:

MySpace

MySpace launched in 2003 and initially attracted a lot of young music lovers because of its MySpace Music feature. This let bands post their songs on the site, which other people then could add to their personal profile pages.

MySpace quickly evolved into a more general interest social network, mainly for young people. It was purchased by News Corp. in 2005. By 2006 MySpace claimed to have more than 100 million users.

Facebook

Facebook, founded in February 2004, started as a service for college students but then opened its doors to anyone to join. As of 2008 it claimed 140 milion active users.

In May 2008, Facebook also launched Facebook Connect, which lets other websites utliize Facebook users' profiles and networking features. Thus a news website can have users register at the site using their Facebook accounts and then explore content on the site that they can share with their friends on the Facebook network. Thus a news organization can integrate a social network into its website without having to create one itself.

For one implementation of Facebook Connect at a news site, see the News Mixer project developed by students at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a social network that targets professionals and promotes itself as a way to find business contacts and jobs. It launched in 2003 and as of 2008 claimed to have 30 million users.

Several companies provide tools for news organizations to set up their own social networks. They include:

Ning

Ning is a website founded in 2004 that allows easy creation of a social network, hosted on Ning's site for free. Some news organizations have used Ning to create social networks for the communities they serve.

Pluck

Pluck provides a suite of tools for websites that want to create social networks, as well as blogs, forums and comments.

Here are some news sites that have set up their own social networks:

Bakersfield Californian - Bakotopia

The Bakersfield Californian newspaper developed a home-grown social networking application - Bakotopia - that people use to create their own profiles and personal pages. Bakotopia started in 2005 as a preemptive move against craigslist by providing an online classified ad service. As it evolved other features were added, including social networking.

Denver Post/Denver Newspaper Agency - YourHub

YourHub is a series of local online communities developed by the Denver Newspaper Agency, in which people can create profiles and blogs, and post their events, personal stories and photos.

New York Times - Times People

At the Times People page you create a profile and "share articles, videos, slideshows, blog posts, reader comments, and ratings and reviews of movies, restaurants and hotels."

Resources and Readings

The Fastest Growing Social Sites - Mashable, Apri 20, 2009

The End of News Websites - Online Journalism Blog

Women use social media more than men: what’s news orgs’ response? - Nieman Journalism Lab