Like many of the over-30 set in our industry I have a LinkedIn profile that I maintain but until recently I tended to observe other social network sites like Facebook and MySpace mostly from the sidelines. Once the Facebook platform launched I decided it was time for me to get off the sidelines, immerse myself, and really try to understand what really drives adoption of and participation within these sites.

 

Along with that immersion, I've tried to leverage other people's efforts at understanding social network usage and behavior. I've listed a few of the more valuable resources below.

 

 

• The Role of Status Seeking in Online Communities: Giving the Gift of Experience - A fantastic paper that, while not targeted specifically at social networks, does a great job at really trying to explain the difference between status and reputation and how users attempt to create digital identities through the content they create. I took many, many notes while reading this paper.
• (I wish there were more good papers to list. I've read many, but gotten real value from few. Sigh. Drop a comment if you have any favorites.)

I don't have many resources specific to MySpace or LinkedIn yet. Maybe I will once they open up their platforms and I spend more time researching them.