What Online Social Media Networks Do You Participate In?

There are so many social media networks that add value in some way. Most are free, while some offer upgrades for special features. Here is a list of the networks I use, organized by frequency, along with a brief description of my perceived value. FREQUENTLY VISITED Digg.com One of the most addicting sites on the Internet today. I always find a slew of interesting articles on the front page, top 10 and upcoming sections. I also find the comments entertaining; while you may find many comments that don’t contribute to the thread, those will be voted down by the community, putting them out of sight. Twitter.com I am a new Twitter user who previously did not understand the craze; however, since joining, I have found it to be interesting and easy to contribute. Jott.com allows for easy contribution via phone and Twitter works easily with my Pocket PC using their mobile interface. Del.icio.us I use this service exclusively for websites that I want to find easily later. I am considering building a master search tool that would easily search across all my social bookmarking accounts to easily find the websites I have submitted and voted on. I just started a new account with del.icio.us; however, my previous account will still be used until I can find a way to merge the two. It is also cool that del.icio.us is now using my favorite framework, Symfony. VISITED ALMOST DAILY StumbleUpon.com I can always find interesting stories here, so much so that I need to be careful not to vaporize hours. I am almost at the point where this site will be moving to my “frequently visited” list. The only reason it has not, is that I already spend too much time at Digg.com. Mixx.com Many Diggers have migrated to this relatively new Digg like social news network. I like the features here, but so far there is something about it, that I can’t quite pinpoint, that makes it look a level below Digg. That said, I look forward to contributing and watching them evolve. Pownce.com As I start using this more, it may become my replacement to Twitter, due to its awesome feature set. Especially if they make an interface to Jott.com like Twitter did. News.YCombinator.com There are always interesting articles related to tech start ups here. Since I own a few tech start ups, the content at YCombinator is always interesting to me. Generally the comments seem to be more helpful and positive in comparison to its cousin Reddit. WEEKLY Reddit.com I consider this website Digg’s ugly step-sister :p. However, I still visit on occasion to check out the content, since its content and community differs from Digg in some ways, but I still prefer to see the description in addition to the title. Sphinn.com I just found out about this site from a friend recently.Then I found out that Tamar was a moderator. Those two facts caused me to give Sphinn a serious look. I like what I see in terms of content and community. I can see myself using this site more and more. Just need to figure out how to add more hours to the day. Propeller.com Something about the feel of this site has kept me from coming back more regularly. But since Muhammed is a scout there, I will keep hope alive and continue to contribute. ThemBid.com As my time becomes less available, I find it necessary to outsource on occasion. I used to use CraigsList for this; however, since ThemBid.com now reposts to CraigsList automatically, I get the huge viewer base for CraigsList combined with structured conversation and data with ThemBid. I’m calling this a social media network because you have comment threads surrounding your request, that the community can participate in, along with the ability to upload files to help describe your request. FaceBook.com I have been sucked into the FaceBook world by real world friends. Once I arrived, I found that many of the people I meet, when networking, are connected via FaceBook. I am not sure what I think about the platform yet, as I have not had that much time to play with it. My initial impression is that its a good way to stay connected with both contacts and relationships. LinkedIn.com I use LinkedIn to track all of my professional relationships. I find that most of my executive/owner level contacts are all on LinkedIn. I’ve gained value from the question/answer feature and the ability to get introduced to someone else’s contact. RARELY VISITED MySpace.com I started using this only recently because many of my friends use it and I often get consulting questions revolving around MySpace. It seems that the interface is a bit cleaner than it was back in the beginning, although the header looks to same and there are a ton of ads. I may end up using MySpace more often depending on how often my real friends use it. But, you’ll see no blinking animations of any kind on my profile (unless its and ad). Flickr.com Now that I have a nifty new camera, I just might start using this service. I have a bunch of photos from previous conferences that I have not found the time to upload. I think this will be a great way to share my photos, similar to YouTube with my videos. MyBlogLog.com I just signed up for this a few weeks ago. It seems to be an interesting way to keep track of your blogs. The stats section seems interesting (mmmm, stats); I just need to make time and add the script to my blogs. YouTube.com I plan to contribute more tutorials and videos; however, video editing is still too time consuming for me. Perhaps, after I become more proficient with video editing, I will contribute more often. I do enjoy perusing YouTube videos; however, I miss the download to iPod format feature with Google Videos. Add your favorite social media networks in the comments.