How to Make Social Networking Work for You

As a Baby Boomer in the Information Age, I like to think I'm pretty up to date on Social Networking. I have found many benefits of social networking for both myself personally and also for our business.

I've been on MySpace for about 5 years now, and I remember when I started I got alot of flack from my sons who thought I was spying on them (actually I was) Besides being able to spy on them and get to know what types of friends they were hanging out with, I actually started having fun there. Some of my sons friends have actually became good friends with me, and I have mentored many of them, helping them with things all the way from questions about pregnancy to applying for unemployment.

So my time on MySpace has been fun and productive, and I could see how networking like this could actually be alot of fun, even for "oldsters" like me! (BTW- alot of my sons friends think I'm a pretty cool mom for being a MySpacer...lol)

A few months ago I found an ad on Craigslist about joining a new social networking site called Yuwie. After checking it out, I felt I had nothing to lose as it was free to join, and I could actually make money recruiting friends to Yuwie.

So I signed up in November, and since then I have almost 1,000 friends, over 1,500 comments and lots and lots of exposure,

Since I'm an artist and a writer, the exposure certainly has helped, and as far as the money goes, well it's there for the making if someone chooses to go that course. (I've made money since Dec. of 2007) I haven't been really active on recruiting people to Yuwie but that's OK because really for me it's about having a nice portal where I can make layouts to share, share my blingee pictures, post pictures of all my fur-babies and make clubs like "The Underground News" (a club about news the mass media usually tries it bury)

The icing on the cake has been the new friends I've made from all over the world- a nuclear physicist from India, an artist from Sweden, a fellow artist from London, a model friend of Van Halen and Rod Stewart, just to name a few. Some very interesting people congregate at Yuwie and I like the idea of getting to know people from all over the world. It enriches my life, helps me process what's going on around the world and introduces me to new and different things on the Internet. (my being here at the Hub is a direct result of Yuwie)

So is Yuwie for You? I can't say except to say that if you like MySpace and you like networking you'll like Yuwie.

It's free, you don't get spammed and it's fun.

A great combination.

If you'd like to check it out you can click on my Yuwie referral link below and it will take you through a very short intro, and if you like what you see you can join and be a member. There are no dues so it's just another cool free site to be yourself.

UPDATE ON YUWIE 9 - 2011: Yuwie is no longer a social website. The benefits of being there are still with me to this day though. FaceBook has become the leader in social networking and that is where I spend most of my time networking now.

(Dorsi Diaz is a freelance writer/publisher here at HubPages)