Why do people choose what social network to use? It seems to be that the motives depend on the social network itself. You can think about motives if you are creating a social network of your own.

My social network use

Before entering middle school, I didn’t use any social networks. I knew what Digg was, I knew what MySpace was, but I didn’t use any of them. Now, I use just about all of them. How did this happen?

It all started when I entered middle school. People were nagging me to create a MySpace, so I did (actually, I got someone else to do it for me, but either way). I guess that’s the first reason that be will join: peer pressure (or bandwagon).

Peer pressure (or bandwagon)

I joined MySpace because other people wanted me to. I never would have on my own. This was a mixture of peer pressure, a few people that specifically wanted me to do it, and bandwagon, the fact that the majority of the people that I went to school with used it. This gets me into another topic: social networking at schools. Most of the people at my school used MySpace, so I joined MySpace. Now, most of the people at my school use Facebook, so I have a Facebook. The bandwagon can influence what social network people choose. In different places, such as schools, workplaces, etc, there are certain bandwagons that exist. What is the bandwagon for your school/workplace/etc?

Back to my story

So I used MySpace for a little while. I really didn’t like it. Then, sometime magical happened. When we hit highschool, everyone stopped using MySpace and started using Facebook. I guess that this is bandwagon again. The class that was a year older than us did the same thing when they entered high school. I used Facebook for a little while. I then starting making my own websites (like this blog), doing freelancing jobs. I joined Twitter and started using. I suppose that another reason is interests:

Interests

I joined Twitter because many other people like me were using. I suppose that this is bandwagon also, but for different reasons. I joined because other people with the same interests as me joined, not because I knew people. This can happen easier than the bandwagon method. If you are starting a social network, you should probably attempt to use this instead of bandwagon. You can do that by creating a social network with a unique niche.

In Conclusion

I use many social networks today. Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Mixx, StumbleUpon, Reddit, all of them. I use all of them for different reasons. What’s about you? What social networks do you use (and why)? Leave a comment! :D