I have noticed that as I first started this site as one that would focus on Twitter, my love of many social networking sites has led me to the conclusion that I should come up with a list of the top social networks for people to use. This list is in no way comprehensive, and reflects my personal preferences.

General

Facebook- Do you know anywhere else in the world where you can find your closest 400 million friends?

Myspace- While it is not as popular as it was in it’s heyday, Myspace has kept a devoted following among entertainers and artists. The community their is strong, and with over60 million active users, this is still a huge social network.

Twitter- 140 characters you say? This little tool is what this blog is all about, so I recommend that you look through the pages of the blog for more information.

Ning- Want to create your own social network? Then Ning is the place.

Business

LinkedIn- The premier site for business to business social networking. The average person on LinkedIn has an income of $110,000.  Good luck finding that anywhere else.

Ryze- While this site is not as popular as LinkedIn, it still has roughly 300,000 business professionals.

Multimedia

Flickr- Share pictures with friends and family, and also join groups around photography as well. For those with a trigger happy camera finger you should be here.

Youtube- Who would have thought that a child getting his finger bitten would garner 170 million plus views? Any video less than 10 minutes is game here, and there are more of these videos than anywhere else on the web.

Niche

Active Rain- The place where real estate professionals connect.

Etsy- This site is social network meets ebay. A strong community keeps a number of people active, and the selling features keep a lot of craftsmen actively selling their wares.

Social Bookmarking

Digg- Community based social news site that revolves around people sharing their favorite stories.

De.licio.us- The largest social bookmarking site in the world.

International

Badoo-  On of the biggest social networking sites in Europe.

Orkut- Google’s early attempt at social networking. This is mostly popular in Brazil.

Like I stated at the beginning this is a list of my recommendations for places that you might want to dip your social networking toe. This in no way means that this is a comprehensive list.