social media networking sites

Pheed is a newcomer to the social networking world, but kids who crave the latest, coolest, newest apps to use have been quick to jump on this one. It brings together the best of a lot of other popular social sites like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram all rolled into one super hip, super young social network on the web and mobile. Could it be the next big thing? Well just have to wait and see.

Currently hosts address books for more than 40 million people. Helps people stay in touch with Pulse, which is a dashboard that lets you see what the people you know are sharing all over the web. Strengths Graphical user interface makes it easy to use. Weaknesses Its not as widely adopted as some other platforms such as LinkedIn.

Are you interested in creating an online forum where members of your community can engage with each other and offer each other advice? Then a discussion board or forum is for you. The best known platforms for forums include Lefora, Zoho, Drupal, PhpBB, Simple Machines, Vanila, JavaBB and vBulletin. Strengths Forums are a great way to build a relationship with customers and prospects. Weaknesses They require regular, ongoing time and energy to keep them running properly.

Wouldnt it be cool if there was a website where you could watch How To videos on the topic of your choice? Well, there is and its called Howcast. Its an extremely worthy competitor to YouTube. Strengths A great place to upload high quality content. Weaknesses The default is still YouTube. Most people are conditioned to automatically type YouTube into their browser.

This is not the only podcasting site, but its the best known and most popular. If youre doing interviews with industry experts or if youre creating mini radio shows, iTunes is the place to be. Strengths Its a well known, well respected platform. Weaknesses If you dont create scintillating content, people wont come back for more.

This is a photo organizing, editing and sharing site thats owned by Google. You can tag photos to enable quick searches by users. Strengths As with most Google services, Picasa is easy to use and loads very quickly. Weaknesses Photo sharing is important, but its not the very first thing youd want to work on in your social media campaign.

Think of Vimeo as a high end YouTube. Its perfect for people interested in sharing their videos with a community of positive, encouraging creative professionals. Strengths You gotta love a site that oozes upbeat, optimistic, life affirming energy that Vimeo does. Weaknesses Its not a default site the way YouTube is, but that may change in the near future.

This social media management tool allows you to schedule Tweets and Facebook updates quickly and easily from your web browser. Its perfect for people not interested in using TweetDeck or HootSuite. Just sign up, install on your browser and the next time youre at a web page you want to share, hit the Buffer button and schedule it for sometime in the future. Strengths An easy way to schedule updates on Twitter and Facebook. Weaknesses Other platforms offer the same functionality.

This is a tool that allows you to manage multiple social media channels through one dashboard. If you have a company with more than one contributor to your social media program, HootSuite is a good solution. Strengths A very easy to use interface. Simple set up, yet still powerful. Weaknesses If your social media program is no more extensive than updating a Twitter account, then HootSuite would be over kill.

This platform offers user generated reviews on cool places to eat, shop, drink, relax and play. Yelp has an augmented reality Smart Phone application that makes using it on the run a blast. Strengths User generated reviews are a great way for customers and prospects to find out about your business. Weaknesses Some people try to game the system with faux reviews, but Yelp does a pretty good job of keeping those faux reviews at bay.