Social Media Directory

Networking | Publishing | Linking | Interactive | Niche

We wanted more than a list of examples, so we have gathered a directory of the most relevant Social Media websites for promoting your brand and business online.

This directory is organized by the 5 spheres of Social Media. It focuses on US centric sites that we think offer value. The list is ever changing. Our goal is not to list every social media site on the web, but rather the most relevant and useful sites for marketing a business. To suggest changes or additions,

Facebook - Social networking, originally for college students
Friendster - Original social network that inspired MySpace
LinkedIn - Professional and career networking
Myspace - Largest social network; strong music, comedy, photo content
Meetup - Allows for creation of many niche in-person networking groups
Plaxo - Professional and career networking

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Blogging
Blogger - Online hosted blogging network, by Google, allows ads
Live Journal - Online hosted blogging network, journals, online diaries
PayPerPost - Paid blogging community
SocialSpark - Paid blogging community
Tumblr - Online hosted blogging network, focus on found content and rich media, such as video, photos, music, quotations
Xanga - Online hosted blogging network
Wordpress - Online hosted blogging network

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Micro Blogging
Brightkite- Similar to Twitter; location based, image sharing
Dodgeball - Text based micro blogging by Google
FriendFeed - Social aggregator, consolidates updates from other social media
identi.ca - Similar to Twitter
Jaiku - Similar to Twitter by Google; allows incoming feeds, closed Beta
Plurk - Similar to Twitter; visualizes updates in a timeline
Pownce - Similar to Twitter; allows incoming feeds, files and events, sharing
Twitter - The biggest micro blogging leader
Yammer - Twitter for closed internal business communication

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Music
Groove Shark - Music sharing community
The Hype Machine - Music sharing community
Jam Now - Music sharing community with live music collaboration
Last.fm - Music sharing community
Mog - Music sharing community
Musicovery - Music sharing community
Pandora - Music sharing community
Spiral Frog - Music sharing community

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Photography
Deviant Art - Photo and art sharing community
Flickr - Photo sharing community
My Shutter Space - Photo sharing community, a Ning site
Picture Social - Photo sharing community, a Ning site
Smug Mug - Photo sharing community

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Reference
DocStoc - Professional document development and sharing
Slideshare - Slide show sharing community
Squidoo - User generated resource pages as "lenses" into specific subjects
Wikipedia - Crowdsourced encyclopedia

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Video
blip.tv - Video sharing community
EmPivot - Environmental video sharing community
imeem - Video sharing community; also music and photos
iReport - User generated news video for CNN
Metacafe - Video sharing community
Vimeo - Video sharing community with HD
Youtube - Original video sharing community

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Link Sharing
Digg - User rated news, video, images
Dwigger - User rated micro blogging
Furl - User rated links and news
Ma.gnolia - User rated links and news
Mixx - User rated links and news
Propeller - User rated links and news
Reddit - User rated links and news
Sphinn - SEO (search engine marketing) link community
Stumble - Share and browse links via their "stumble" toolbar
Twine - Social link sharing within specific subject groupings or "twines"
Yahoo Buzz! - User rated links and news, promotion to Yahoo! front page

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News Communities
HubDub - Users gamble with fake money on the outcome of news stories
Newsvine - News sharing and discussion
Now Public - News sharing
NPR Community - Social media community of NPR.org
WikiNews - News sharing

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Crowdsourcing
99 designs - Crowdsource your design needs
eLance - Freelancing community
Idea Crossing - Democratic creative talent
Mosio - Text based question and answer crowdsourcing
NameThis - Crowdsourced naming site
oDesk - Crowdsource your programmer search
Slice The Pie - Musician funding community
Threadless - Community-centered online apparel
VenCorps - Startup community

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Social Gaming
Club Penguin - Disney children's games and virtual world
Everquest - Similar to World of Warcraft; paid subscription
Runescape - MMO optional subscription, web based
Webkinz - Children's game community, based on virtual pet versions of plush toys
World of Warcraft - Largest MMORPG (massively multi player online role playing game), paid subscription, fighting, quests, trading, interaction

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Virtual Communities
Dotsoul - Similar to Second Life
Furcadia - Longest running MMO (massively multi-player online)
Google Lively - Google's virtual community
Habbo - Teen virtual community
IMVU - Virtual instant messaging
Nicktropolis - Nickelodeon online MMORPG
Second Life - 3D Virtual World

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Since the Social Niche Sphere is so vast and growing, we are only listing a small selection of social niche examples to give you a good sampling of what is out there.

Bigger Pockets - Real estate community
Classmates.com - High school alumni community
Health Ranker - Link sharing for health stories
Kirtsy - Female focused social linking and editorial content
My Church - Christian social network
Ning - Create your own niche social network
Passport Stamp - Social network for travelers
Takkle - Highschool Sports sociel network, by Sports Illustrated
Out Everywhere - GBTL social network

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