(View seven social networks to avoid slideshow on MSN.ca)

Choosing a social network to join is a lot like figuring where you want to go to university. Are your friends going? Do you want to go alone and meet new people? Will you get something out of it in the end? It’s a decision that shouldn’t be taken lightly — social networking is not only time consuming, it tells people a lot about who you are, whether you post regular photos on your wall or not.

These days, Facebook seems to be the default network for North Americans — more than 350 million people use the site — but others sites such as the business professional-oriented LinkedIn and the giant RSS feed known as Twitter are gaining ground.

Still, some people will also want to sign up to MySpace or Friendster, but they may want to reconsider. Having too many social networks is not a good thing. “The average person can only manage two or three,” says Amber MacArthur, a digital technology expert and author of the soon to be released Power Friending: Demystifying Social Media to Grow Your Business. “It makes sense to have one for personal reasons and one for professional.”

When you’re seeking out a network to join, MacArthur says people should ask themselves a couple of questions: How frequently will they use the site and how much of a community needs to be built there. If the community is built in, like on Facebook, where everyone from your neighbour to your great aunt has a profile, it’s easy to start participating. If you join one of the many obscure sites, or a network where you don’t know anyone, you’ll have to develop your own posse of virtual friends.

Privacy policies are another big factor to consider when choosing a network to join. Facebook received a lot of complaints after it recently made changes to its privacy settings — as of December 2009 users can no longer hide their fan pages, friends, profile picture and friends list — but, says MacArthur, the site still does a decent job of protecting people’s profiles. (You can set it so others can’t see your wall, photos and most of your personal details.)

Twitter on the other hand, isn’t for the publicity-adverse web user. Every update you post, unless your profile is locked — which means you have to approve followers — gets indexed by Google. Search for yourself and you’ll find almost every Tweet you’ve ever sent. “So many social networks make it easy for the information to be public,” cautions MacArthur, “which means you have to be careful with what you write.”

While it’s important to do your due diligence when picking a site to join, it may just be easier to stick to the ones that are already popular. “There are literally thousands of social networks that people haven’t even heard of,” says MacArthur. “There are networks for criminals looking for pen pals and the list goes on. You should just stick with the top ones.” That includes Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Beyond that, people could run into sites with viruses and phishing problems. (Though the big sites are not immune to that either.)

It may come as a surprise, but one site that’s not on MacArthur’s list to join is MySpace. The once popular social network that still has millions of users is considered by many to be the out-of-touch dad of social networks. Besides looking sorely outdated, it’s a haven for spam messages and creepy lurkers. “MySpace has definitely changed over the past year,” she says. “It’s not a place for the average person to network. There’s lots of trash talk.” Where MySpace succeeds is in promoting music. So far, no other network has been able to connect bands to fans, but these days that’s all it has going for it.

Another network to watch out for is the new Google Buzz. Its main drawback is its redundancy. The network is supposed to act a bit like a Twitter for Gmail users. You can share photos and comments to your entire contact list. The problem with that is that you’re already sharing that type of information — through email, if not on another social network.

“Google Buzz is a weird one,” MacArthur admits. “It’s confusing in that it connects people who are already in your Gmail account. Why wouldn’t you just email them?” To really make it work, she says, you have to find people who are using it in a meaningful way and you’ll have to devote time and effort to connect with them.

There are plenty of other networks to avoid, but it may be difficult to know which ones. Besides sticking to the most popular sites, MacArthur has another tip: Make sure the social network you join will be around longer than a couple months. “If you’re putting personal information into these networks and haven’t read up on them, they could be gone in two or three months,” she says. “A lot of these are the hot thing today, but the chances of them being around down the road are slim.”

Appeared on MSN.ca on April 5, 2010.

(View seven social networks to avoid slideshow on MSN.ca)

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