Adequate time has passed for social networking to have experienced age and change. We don’t often think of the web as having time periods like we experience in the real world (such as years and eras), but a recent report identifies five eras of social networking. The fact is the social web is changing!
The Five Eras of the Social Web:
1) Era of Social Relationships: People connect to others and share.
2) Era of Social Functionality: Social networks become like operating systems.
3) Era of Social Colonization: Every experience can now be social.
4) Era of Social Context: Personalized and accurate content.
5) Era of Social Commerce: Communities define future products and services.
The bottom line: Social networking will only increase the power shift away from companies and their brands to the consumer. Hold onto your hat–all those social websites that you have joined will soon connect into a web relationship of a new kind. Are we who are in the business and ministry world getting ready for this change?
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the road ahead 
Mike,I’m intrigued about the Social Functionality era. In which ways do social networks become like operating systems?
Comment by Maurilio Amorim June 1, 2009 @ 8:32 am