Social network usage is ever-expanding due to more and more awareness of its benefits. There are even gains for the common user who has no business interests or inclination towards things like statistical usage. These individuals take pleasure in using these websites just for the purpose of remaining in touch with friends and family members. At first, as a user, you may simply sign up for an account of your own. The next step involves searching for friends and relatives who might have profiles on the same network. From here onwards, you can add contacts known to you as well as those whom you wish to befriend. In other words, a social network allows you to make friends, and this is how you can expand your ‘social circle.’ It is this very term that has now been incorporated in Google’s ‘Google Plus’ because of its significance.

With some social networking sites having reached the top of the competition, there is still immense room for competitors to make their way in, and the latest of these has been Google’s networking effort (Google Plus). After the overwhelming success that Facebook has had, Google perhaps sees itself as a potential success too. It has also had humble beginnings like facebook, and has also experienced a similar pattern of massive expansion. The major difference is that Google went down other avenues in contrast to Facebook, and explored the concept of online libraries and archives as well as other utilities such as online processing documents. Like other video sites, Google has also purchased companies like YouTube.

At this point in time, Google seems to be as serious as any other business is about its potential. It also has experience in owning a social network, Orkut, and it can certainly use this knowledge to its advantage. In time to come, it can be expected that Google Plus will draw many users its way. Already it has grown quite popular, with people who are already using Gmail receiving their invitations to sign up. It can also be said that Google Plus is in its testing phase, and it is believed to be doing pretty well. With a number of Gmail users out there, there is no doubt that they will at least be curious to see what’s being offered, and they will explore this newly introduced network.

With Google Plus possessing all the potential to capture the hearts and minds of many users online, facebook has to be on its guard. It’s not as though facebook is at risk, however, it will have consierable competition to deal with.

While facebook has shown its mettle in the past, Google + has also demonstrated that it is not far behind, especially when it comes to its Google + Games. However, Facebook has released an array of new features for Facebook games in response to Google launching its gaming platform. Google + offers games such as Zynga, Rovio and Wooga that clearly spell serious competition for facebook. However, facebook seems to be a step ahead with what it has in its armory; while the games offered tend to be the same, Facebook has already come up with its new alluring features for its games.

Facebook’s newly introduced features clearly seem to be countermeasures to Google + Games; they have appeared within just a few hours of Google+ launching its games. It was apparent that Google + took hinted broadly at Facebook when it mentioned that when their games go live, alerts will not appear in everyone’s stream. Facebook has been known for making sure users see their games, but Google + is trying to take moral ground by giving users a choice when it comes to being able to see these games in their streams.

Out of its 16 games listed in its announcement, Google + offers Zynga Poker, Angry Birds and Sudoko. However, this robust introduction has been countered with the Game Ticker from Facebook. The right-hand Facebook Chat column is transformed into a newsfeed of friends’ game activity. This area shows the games your friends are playing along with their successes as well as their high scores. This has been designed in order to fit the purpose of social networking; anyone who clicks on it will be taken to that game so that the user will be able to play it with friends. Also, similar to Facebook News Feed, a user can allow or prevent stories appearing in the stream, and obvious aim at sharing moral ground with Google + that offers users a choice between displaying their games in their streams.

Apart from the above features introduced, facebook has introduced some others. It appears that they have a string of counter measures to employ as they anticipate future moves from Google +.

At 1 p.m. ET Monday, June 7, American fashion designer Oscar de la Renta will unveil his Resort 2011 collection before a select coterie of fashion critics, buyers, celebrities and other industry professionals on a runway in New York — as well as thousands of fans watching the show live on Livestream and Facebook.

A number of fashion blogs will also be hosting the Livestream, and users can use the platform’s chat features to discuss the collection with other viewers on Facebook and Twitter during the show. A few minutes before the show starts, the designer will address the online audience about the collection and the company’s social media efforts.

The event is part of a broader shift in the attitude of the fashion industry, which has been frequently criticized for its hyper-exclusivity and the slow rate at which it has embraced certain technologies, like sustainable manufacturing and online platforms.

It wasn’t until this February that a small number of fashion houses, including Louis Vuitton and Dolce & Gabanna, began streaming their runway shows for the first time on their websites and mobile applications, and even then only a few of those shared their videos on Facebook and Livestream as well. Now, fashion enthusiasts can see entire collections at the same time as the buyers and press, and begin sharing their opinions about each look as it comes down the runway.

“The audience of [our] shows has evolved over the last 50 years,” explained Alex Bolen, the CEO of Oscar de la Renta. “Previously it was the buyers who were sitting in the first and foremost seats and while they are an extremely important constituency for our show, there’s a broader constituency we want to know about our brand.”

Oscar de la Renta has ramped up its social media efforts as of late, leveraging Facebook to share behind-the-scenes footage with its more than 30,000 fans and to drive sales at its online store. The brand is also very engaged with followers on Twitter via the whimsical and personable @OscarPRGirl.

“We’re a family-owned, relatively small business competing against big players,” Bolen said. “We have to constantly be looking for ways to get an edge, to punch above our weight. It’s my belief that some people are moving slowly in the e-commerce space. We embrace the fact that things are rapidly changing, understand the fact that we’ll have some missteps, but we want to be in the game and figure out which direction things are moving.”

Although Oscar de la Renta has been relatively quick to appropriate social media resources, there are several reasons why the industry as a whole has been hesitant to do so. For one thing, the fashion industry has always thrived on the aura of exclusivity it creates around the unveiling of its collections; invitations for major fashion shows are generally reserved for celebrities and the industry elite.

Now, thanks to the livestream, anyone with an Internet connection can watch the runway show live. As Natalie Massenet, founder and chairman of Net-a-porter.com explained, “Buyers and the press have been privileged and blessed to be in this little club, but now the consumer is in the room with us, and everything has changed.”

Timing is a larger issue. Collections are generally unveiled six months before they are purchased and worn by consumers; fall clothes are shown in February, just before spring weather arrives, and spring previews occur in September, just as consumers are stocking up on chunky knits and leggings for the cooler months. The clothes that Oscar de la Renta shows today will not appear in stores until the holiday season.

“What’s the point of showing these clothes so early on… when you’re promoting a product that’s not even available to buy?” Lazaro Hernandez, the co-founder of fashion label Proenza Schouler, asked in an interview with Portfolio.

Bolen acknowledged the general fear that the event will be “overexposed and the clothes will be tired in six months.” The only solution, he said, was to get the clothes into stores more quickly, although production, especially work by hand, takes a certain amount of time. “But there’s no stopping it,” he said. “The information is going to be out there. It’s not as if we’re going to be able to prevent people from looking at our clothes…We [just need] to get quicker.”

What do you think of Oscar de la Renta’s decision to stream the show live online? Should the fashion industry continue to embrace social media, or is there a risk that certain brands may lose their luster? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Tags: facebook, fashion, livestream, oscar de la renta, social media

Did you hear that? It’s the sound of another week coming to a close. You’re probably thinking to yourself, “How will I ever get to read all of the social media tips, app reviews, and trend analyses I’ve missed?”

Well, this is the Internet — you could search and scroll your way around in the hopes of finding the resources you’re looking for. Or, you could simply take a peek below at our handy weekly guide to all that was new on the web in the last seven days.

This week’s roundup includes some social media sleuthing tips for that upcoming job interview, the innovative ways that lawyers use the social web to advance their careers, and some Apple-themed products for baby that will have you cooing uncontrollably.

Social Media

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• Top 10 Stop Motion Videos on YouTube
  The painstaking art of stop motion video is widely honored on YouTube. Here are 10 of the best animations we’ve seen.
• Top 10 YouTube News Bloopers
  Who doesn’t love a good blooper reel, especially when it comes from those suit-and-tie-serious news anchors? For a laugh, check out these 10 greats that were just too good not to find their way to the Internet.
• 5 Things the Library of Congress is Archiving Online
  You may not think of all your social media noodlings as a historical document, but that’s what the Library of Congress aims to create with its archive of the web. Check out what their huge project of capturing our time entails.
• 6 Websites for Remembering and Honoring Veterans
  Though Memorial Day has passed, it’s never a bad time to take a moment and reflect on the sacrifices of those who defend our country. These six sites are full of important stories and resources.
• How Lawyers Are Using Social Media for Real Results
  While many attorneys and firms have been cautious around new media, some have reinvented their careers through blogging, tweeting, and sharing. Here are some examples.
• 4 Social Media Efforts to Aid the Gulf Coast
  The Gulf oil spill tragedy has left many feeling powerless to help out, but pockets of non-profits are using social media tools for grassroots action. Here’s a look at their efforts.
• HOW TO: Make a Great How-To Video
  Tom Laidlaw, the CEO of the how-to video site VideoJug.com, shares some top dos and don’ts for the instructional format.
• 4 Tips for Producing Quality Web Videos
  With the explosion of web video content, it’s harder than ever to get your productions seen and heard. Here are a few tips that will help you distinguish your videos.
• How Does Facebook View the World?
  Facebook may be the first large scale Internet company to survive a bold “shoot first and ask questions later” policy when it comes to innovation. Here’s a look at what they’ve done right, and what could be improved.

For more social media news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s social media channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

Tech & Mobile

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• 10 Must-Have Apps for the New iPad Owner
  With the long-awaited international launch of the iPad, thousands of folks will be app hunting in the coming weeks. We’ve highlighted 10 must-haves to start you off right.
• 10 Free Android Apps to Boost Your Productivity
  Time may be money, but these absolutely free Android apps will help you save both by boosting your productivity.
• 5 Matching iPhone and iPad Cases
  Are you a fashion-forward Apple addict? Then have we got the accessories for you. Clad your favorite phone and tablet in matching garb with these swanky cases.
• 10 Adorable Apple-Themed Baby Accessories
  Prepare for cute overload! From outfits, to hats, to toy iPhones, these “iBaby” products will start your offspring on the path to Apple fandom while they’re still highly impressionable.
• 3 Key Location Trends for Moms
  As location services become more mainstream, moms are taking advantage of related discounts, utility apps, and entertainment on-the-go. Here are 3 location trends to watch.
• What the Future Holds for the Checkin
  Location-based services, while still somewhat abstract in their usefulness, offer a wealth of social engagement opportunities that have yet to be implemented. Here are a few examples.
• 7 Awesome CSS3 Techniques You Can Start Using Right Now
  From slideshows to navigation menus, here are seven of our favorite practical CSS3 techniques that you can experiment with.

For more tech news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s tech channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

Business

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• 5 Small Business Social Media Success Stories
  Small businesses can always learn from the success stories of others. Here are five companies that are kicking tail and taking names while staying on top of their social media efforts.
• 3 Ways to Ace Your Job Interview with Social Media
  Social media can help you gain crucial insights about the company and people you’ll be interviewing with. Here’s how you can leverage that info for a successful meeting.
• HOW TO: Organize Your Contacts for Networking Success
  Now that you’ve accumulated so many friends and followers, learn how to gather and secure all their contact information on your desktop and phone.

For more business news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s business channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

Tags: business, facebook, Features Week In Review, List, Lists, Mobile 2.0, small business, social media, tech, twitter, youtube

Bloggers, on the whole, are young — but not too young, according to a report from research company Sysomos. That’s right, the voice of the Internet, for the most part, is aged 21-35.

This information isn’t particularly surprising, given the fact that people in this age bracket grew up during the blog boom — which started roughly seven years ago, according to Sysmos — but it does show an interesting striation in terms of where people are on the web.

The report culled more than 120 million blog posts for information. According to a rep, “The demographics — including age, gender, location — are based on self-disclosed information. For example, if someone mentions I live in Queens, or Brooklyn, or Manhattan, we put that person as living in New York.”

Using this method, the company deduced that 53.3% of the total blogging population is 21-35 years old. Bloggers aged 20 and under came in second, with 20.2%, followed by 36-50-year-olds (at 19.4%), and 51-year-olds and older (7.1%).

These numbers go hand-in-hand with previous studies we’ve seen — past research has indicated that Twitter is beloved by teens (which makes sense considering that it’s a newer platform) and older folks are finding their way to Facebook, so much so that mothers have become a target audience for ads (with 400 million accounts, Facebook has a pretty diverse user base).

Interestingly, Sysmos also found that the gender distribution is nearly even among bloggers — with women making up 50.9% of keyboard jockeys and men 49.1%. We’re happy to see such equality reflected in the blogosphere (Sysmos, however, had no data with regard to race).

Other notable stats include:

• 29.2% of bloggers are located in the U.S. — that’s four times as many as the the UK, which comes in second with 6.75%.
• California has the most bloggers (14.1%), and New York comes in number two with 7.1%.
• While more than half of the tweets in the world come from the U.S., only a third of blog posts originate there.

What do you think of these findings? Does anything surprise you?

[img credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com]

Tags: blog, facebook, social media, stats, twitter

Chris Saad is VP of strategy at Echo, the world’s leading provider of comment/conversation technology to Tier 1 publishers. He is also the co-author of the Synaptic Web Strawman, co-author of the Attention Profiling Markup Language (APML) specification, and co-founder of the DataPortability Project.

Last week, I wrote a post calling out Mark Zuckerberg for making a correlation between Facebook’s privacy issues and their altruistic pursuit of data portability.

Today I’d like to do something a little different. I’d like to examine some of the reasons why Facebook is finding it challenging to either a) implement data portability, or b) communicate about issues of privacy or data portability — and why ultimately, that might be OK, in the sense that it leaves room for the rest of the web to innovate.

I will examine the issue in three parts. These parts, I believe, make up the crux of any reasonable criticism of Facebook at this time.

Data Portability vs. Interoperability

First, Facebook tends to discuss data portability without acknowledging the significance of open standards and interoperability.

Data portability is not just allowing users to access their data. There is a silent “Interoperable” before the phrase that means the data, and the protocols to get it, need to be based on open standards and be interchangeable. Letting people code against your API is not the same as building the API in such a way that others (i.e. social aggregators or networks) could participate in the transactions just as easily.

Facebook’s challenge, however, is that they are pioneering many of these interactions and can’t necessarily wait for standards to emerge or crystallize before acting.

Standards emerge after a good pattern gets established. In many ways, Facebook’s leadership in demonstrating these patterns at scale shows the way (and provides the market momentum and emotional fuel) for standards to emerge. See the OExchange announcement earlier this week, for example.

The challenge for Facebook here is to balance their need (and obvious appetite) for innovation with architectural choices that allow for open standards and interoperable protocols to be absorbed by their system. To show true commitment, they must also quickly adopt standards as they emerge.

Taking these steps would put them in good position to avoid the Internet-scale forces that often reject proprietary platforms as fast as they emerge. In addition to decisive action, if Facebook clearly acknowledged this to stakeholders, it would go a long way.

Will they make these decisions rather than pay lip service? That seems unlikely.

Social Contracts vs. Open Culture

Second, Facebook confuses privacy concerns with anger over a violation of their social contract with users, specifically with regard to people pushing back on the general goal of human openness.

The potential for social media to make the world a more transparent and connected place is real and significant. I don’t think that any rational person who seriously considers the trends could argue against the idea that people sharing more in public, and reading more about others, could reduce fear born from any sense of ‘us’ vs ‘them’.

I don’t think that anyone really challenges Mark Zuckerberg on this point when he makes it. They shouldn’t.

The challenge for Facebook, however, is they began with a social contract — a promise to their users — of a private place for sharing amongst mutually confirmed friendships.

To their credit as a company, they want to continue to push the boundaries, and innovate and evolve as quickly as the market. And the market has evolved. Thanks to Flickr, Twitter and others, public is the new default, and Facebook needs to keep up. For them to change direction towards these open defaults, however, they must declare this intention clearly and unequivocally.

The team at Facebook tries to talk about the need for an open and connected society, and have continued to make incremental steps in this direction. But they have really failed to put it in the context of their history and our future. They need to tell the story of a cultural trend towards openness and explain that while they started as private place, their (new) unashamed goal is move towards a public one.

Doing it in small steps without explaining the end goal or the reason, or even acknowledging the fundamental shift, is a big (and unnecessary) source of criticism.

Open Culture vs. Open Technology

Third, Facebook tends to use the word ‘open’ without drawing a distinction between culture and technology

When the team at Facebook talks about wanting to make the world more “open,” I, and others who care about such things, hear them cloaking themselves in the mantra of Open Technologies when they are actually talking about open/transparent/public culture.

Trying to draw the distinction between Open Technology vs. Open Culture is difficult for Facebook, considering that their audience is not that of our little echo chamber but rather a very mainstream community that does not understand such nuance. So in some regards, glossing over these distinctions is understandable given their target market.

The problem, though, is that making the world a more open place using closed technologies all routed through a single company is not the way it can or should work.

A more interoperable, peer-to-peer method of achieving cultural transparency is critical for there to be true openness (of both kinds). There is an architecture that would allow each node (read: user/site/service) to be a first class citizen on the interoperable social web and to choose how public or private it is when it comes to sharing.

Facebook might know this, but their job is not to create an interoperable social web. They are the market leader — the clear winner — and as Dave McClure likes to say, “Open is for losers.” The nice thing about the web, though, is there are a lot of big, important, well funded and motivated losers who will ensure that Open will win in the end.

Facebook’s job, however, is to capitalize on their momentum and network effects to create maximum value for their shareholders. This is not ‘evil’ or even necessarily undesirable. Because like with open standards, oftentimes until someone shows the industry how it’s done (and frankly lights a fire under its butt), it’s often hard for us all to collectively imagine what the future might look like.

The challenge for Facebook — one they are more than capable of facing – is keeping up with the inevitable opening of the walls and the peering of the nodes. They are the most agile and innovative company at scale that has ever existed on the Internet. If anyone can do it, they can. The only question is, can the rest of the community execute as well?

Conclusion

In these three areas — Data Portability vs. Interoperability, Social Contracts vs. Open Culture, Open Culture vs. Open Technology — Facebook has made big moves and very high profile blunders. Their challenges are great and their ability to execute with ambition first, ask questions later and quickly clean up the mess is the very reason for their success.

Are these blunders a series of accidental missteps (a combination of ambition, scale and hubris) or a calculated risk to force their world view on unsuspecting users (easier to ask for forgiveness)? Only the executives at Facebook can ever truly answer this question.

What’s clear, though, is that their platform is tightly coupled with countless other websites and applications across the web, and their financial success is aligned with many influential investors and actors. At this stage, and at this rate, their continued success is all but assured.

But so is the success of the rest of the web. Countless social applications emerge every day and the rest of the web is, and always will be, bigger than any proprietary platform. Through its action and inaction, Facebook offers opportunities for us all. And in the dance between their moves and the rest of the web’s, innovation can be found.

The only thing that can truly hurt the web is a monopoly on ideas, and the only ones who can let that happen are web users themselves.

More Facebook resources from Mashable:

- Why Facebook’s Privacy War Is Not Over
- Why Facebook Must Get Serious About Privacy
- 4 Tips for B2B Marketing on Facebook
- In Defense of Facebook
- The Local Advertising War Will Be a Clash of the Internet Titans

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, alwyncooper

Tags: data portability, editorial, facebook, open technology, privacy, social contracts, social media

Dan Schawbel, recognized as “Personal Branding Guru” by The New York Times, is the Managing Partner of Millennial Branding, LLC, the #1 international bestselling author of Me 2.0, and owner of the Personal Branding Blog.

Managing your online network is critical, whether you’re looking for a job, trying to advance in your career, or you’re starting a business. Think of the Internet as a global talent pool that has more contact information than the White Pages. In fact, 80 percent of available jobs are never even advertised, with more than half of all employees finding their jobs through networking, according to BH Careers International.

Social networks have connected and exposed us to more people than ever before. With all the online friends and followers you’ve accumulated, it’s become increasingly complicated to make sense of your social graph and use it to your advantage. It’s also never been more important to build your contact database, organize it, and then put it to work for you. The old adage “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know,” is true, so consider your rolodex more valuable than your wallet when it comes to achieving success in business.

Here is how to create a basic contact management strategy, stay connected and organized from your desktop to your phone, and give you some insight onto how to expand your network.

Your Contact Management Strategy

You will always have different tiers of relationships, from family, to friends, to associates, to acquaintances and everyone in between. In order to organize your database, you need to have specific categories in mind. Consider things like the strength of your relationship, how important the relationship is to you, the last time you connected with them, three things about them, what company they work for, their location, and their contact information (e-mail, phone, address, LinkedIn). You can use a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, an Access Database, Act!, or another similar software package to help manage your contacts, using these columns. Aside from these software packages, there are other applications listed below that can help you. By organizing your contacts under these main categories, it will allow you to reconnect with the right people, and expand your relationships.

1. From Your Social Graph to Your Desktop

It’s very important that you have physical copies of your contact database as a backup. Although, you may participate in a handful of social networks, that data resides in the cloud, and not on your desktop. Backing up your social graph means that if, for some reason, your social media profile disappears, is removed entirely, or the social network collapses and you lose everything, you’ll be protected regardless. Try to get in the habit of exporting your contacts so that you have a copy on your desktop in an Excel file.

Here is how to save your social friends, contacts, and followers on your desktop:

Facebook: Although Facebook might appear as a wall garden, there’s actually a trick to capturing your friends’ phone numbers and e-mail addresses. Create or use your existing Yahoo! e-mail account and import your Facebook friends right into your address book. Then download the .CSV file to your desktop.

LinkedIn: After logging into LinkedIn, go straight to the “connections” link in the global navigation area. At the bottom of the page, you’ll see “export connections.” From the next screen, you can download the .CSV file to your desktop.

Twitter: You don’t have the ability to view email addresses or phone numbers of your Twitter followers. You can, however, download a .CSV file of 100 of your followers to your desktop by using Twitter Export. The information in the spreadsheet will be the name, user name, follower and following count, and their bios.

2. From the Cloud

Gist (Free): Use this tool to make sense of your social connections. After creating an account, you can immediately import your contacts from Outlook, Facebook, LinkedIn, Gmail, Lotus Notes, as well as .CSV files and vCards. After you have established your network, you can view the last time you’ve reached out to each of your contacts, how many emails you’ve sent and received from them, and what companies they work for.

JibberJobber (Free to $9.95/month): This tool allows you to organize and manage your job search, track relationships, target companies, and track the jobs you apply to. With a free basic account, you can manage up to 75 contacts. There is no limit to the amount of contacts you can store with a premium account.

Xobni for Microsoft Outlook (Free): Microsoft Outlook can help you manage your address book, but with the Xobni add-on, you can integrate the social media profiles of your contacts. This means you’ll receive additional contact information that wouldn’t normally be included in your address book.

Disclosure: Gist is a sponsor of Mashable.

3. From Your Phone

The strongest relationships are created in the real world, not the virtual world. If you’re on a plane, train, car, or just at a networking event, you’ll want to capture contact information from the people you meet. A paper business card is still extremely important for exchanging information with people, but the following tools will help store information virtually on the go.

Groups 2 ($5.99): The fastest way to manage your contacts on your iPhone with a drag and drop interface. You can create your own groups, send a mass e-mail to members of each group, and attach vCards to share information with others. Aside from sending e-mails, you can make quick calls, and send text messages. An additional benefit with this application is that is syncs with your Windows address book.

WorldCard Mobile ($5.99): You can scan business cards onto your iPhone by taking a photo, and it instantly recognizes data from business cards and sorts the fields into a contact list. You can save a lot of information into each contact profile, including an image, e-mail, website address, phone number, SMS, and maps.

Bump (Free): If you want to save precious time, and want to have a little fun with your in-person networking, then this application is for you. With Bump, all you have to do is hold your iPhone next to a fellow iPhone user and “bump” them together. You can share photos and contacts with other people who have iPhones and the Bump application.

Growing Your Network

There is a lot of value in a contact management system. It saves you time from researching information about people you’ve already met, and can act as a reference sheet. It also allows you to keep organized and aware of which contacts you haven’t spoken to in a while, and who works at companies that you either want to collaborate with, or work for. The payoff of investing time in a contact management system is that you will be able to keep track of the people you meet, refer back to it, and grow it throughout the course of your life.

In order to expand your network, you need to target people who are in your industry, and those who share the same interests and passions that you have. Once you connect with them in-person, through e-mail or phone, put them into your contact management system.

More business resources from Mashable:

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- 5 Ways For Small Companies To Better Engage Reporters
- How One Small Biz Turned Their Company Retreat Into Social Media Success
- Growing Your Business: 5 Tips From the Founder of Foursquare
- 5 Essential Apps for Your Business’s Facebook Fan Page
- HOW TO: Implement a Social Media Business Strategy

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, tiridifilm

Tags: business, contact management, contacts, facebook, how to, linkedin, networking, organize, twitter

Facebook has launched a page devoted to U.S. politics, located at Facebook.com/USpolitics.

Rolled out at the Personal Democracy Forum in New York City, the page monitors how U.S. politicians, elected officials and political campaigns use Facebook to connect with citizens.

Facebook is an important part of U.S. politics today. Barack Obama has an incredibly popular page, with more than 8.6 million fans; recently, U.S. President George W. Bush started his own Facebook page, amassing over 70,000 fans in a very short timespan.

Facebook also has a similar page devoted to sports, as well as all of the celebrities who use Facebook.

Tags: facebook, social media, social networking, US politics