A List and Description of the Top Social Networks Online

Choosing which social networks to join online can be a daunting task. "Aren't they all similar?" You might wonder. While each network has some things in common (like: the ability to add friends or followers, send messages, and post a photo) they also each have their own strengths. This is a list of the top online social networks and the number of unique visitors they had during the month of August 2009 (these numbers were taken from compete.com)-

Facebook: 122,220,617

• uses standard pages for each member. You can add "friends" on this network and post pictures, videos, notes, and short updates about your life. You can build a personal page, or an artist/celebrity/business page. Facebook is well-suited for use to stay in contact with family and friends and is also set up to help an artist or business really promote their brand and increase their following. It is simple to disseminate ideas or information through this platform since user updates are viewable to all "friends" or "fans" of the user.

MySpace: 55,599,585

• is similar to Facebook in many ways but has customizable backgrounds so that you can make it look more like a personal/professional webpage. You can add "friends" on this network and post photos, videos, blog posts, and music. You can create personal pages or pages for bands. MySpace is not used as much as Facebook (and I do not recommend it over Facebook).

Twitter: 23,579,044

• allows you to share 140 character posts (called tweets) about whatever you want. You can search comment streams to find people who have the same interests as you. You can include links that drive traffic to your blog or website. You can choose to "follow" people, which will keep you updated on their posts. This is one of the fastest growing online networks in the world.

LinkedIn: 14,241,651

• a site for professionals to exchange ideas and job opportunities. A way to link with others who might be interested in your work and to find others in similar fields. LinkedIn is mainly used for professional networking as opposed to social relationships.

Ning: 6,112,986

• is a collection of networks. Individuals can join multiple networks based on their interests and connect with thousands of others who care about the same topic. Users can add blog posts, photos, videos and events to their networks.

These numbers indicate "unique visitors" which means that one person who visits the site multiple times is only counted once that month.