Social media in the biz world

If anybody thinks social networking’s a fad or if parents think it’s just frivolity, see this: “The nation's fastest-growing private companies are making use of social media — including blogs, social networking and podcasts — at a rate more than twice that of Fortune 500 companies, according to a new study.” Fox News is citing a University of Massachusetts survey of companies on the Inc. 500 list to gauge their familiarity with and use of social media. Your children’s blogging in Xanga, profile customizing in MySpace, or video producing in Facebook may actually be prepping them for future career experiences, networking, or self-presentation. BTW, you may have seen in tech headlines nationwide that Cisco, which makes networking routers and switches, just acquired a company that makes software which adds social-networking features to businesses’ Web sites. Yet another sign that pretty soon any site that ever offered “community” will offer social networking. So, parents, if teens decide MySpace is too safe, they’ll soon be able to socialize, openly or secretly, just about anywhere on the Web.