One of the main difficulties with the online social world is the dazzling array of different services and websites you can use. Just how do they all fit together? Which ones do what kinds of jobs? Whenever I meet people and talk to them about social media they are often confused by the mass of sites and services on offer.

Well, worry no more...!

Here is a map of the social media world. If you click on the image you can download a PDF version in which all the links are "active" enabling you to click on each link and get to precisely what you need.

Thanks to Overdrive Interactive for this map.

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In spite of all the brouhaha about the killer Raoul Moat on Facebook the social networking site is not as negative as you might think. New research shows that it is actually quite good for you. Cornell University psychologists looked at the use of Facebook and self-esteem. And there's a finding they reveal which could do you the power of good.

What they discovered was that people who update and check their own Facebook profiles have higher measures of self-esteem than people who do not. It seems that people who selectively present themselves in digital form - and make regular checks on their self-presentation online - have a more positive self-esteem rating than people who don't do this.

So, that long-lost art of "Googling Yourself" is something you should actively take up, it would suggest. So too is updating your profile on any network you use and then checking it.

But wait a mo...before we get too narcissistic...isn't there another reason for doing this kind of thing? Yep. You guessed right..!

Updating your profile is essential. Imagine for a moment you are round your neighbour's house. You tell them exactly the same information about yourself as you did the last time you were there and the time before that. Guess what. This is probably your last invite round their house; they are bored with you already.

Now go round your neighbour's house and tell them something else about you, something they don't know. Who is the life and soul of every party? The cheerful chappie who always has something new to say, not just about themselves but about other people they have met. If they only meet people who said the same stuff all the time, the life and soul would depart from our cheerful chap.

Social interaction depends upon new information; at its very foundation is the sharing of new details about each other and about others in our social network. Yes, you might like to call this gossip, but studies show it represents around 75% of our social interactions - even in business meetings.

If there is nothing new on your profiles on the web, your social contacts have little extra to say about you. In other words, your social profile becomes - well, less social. So, not only does updating and checking your profile make you feel better, it will also give your contacts more to think and say about you, thus enhancing your online sociability. And that, in turn, will make you feel even better.

So, go for it. Check your profiles, change them and do it regularly. You will feel better and you will give your contacts more material to think about and talk about, which ultimately will deepen your relationships and thereby bring you more business.

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Teenagers are giving up on Facebook - at least that's what some of the statistics would have you believe. But like all statistics there are some hidden facts behind them. Let's look at the facts we do know.

According to Facebook themselves - and they should know - some 200m people log into the site every day. That's half of the 400m active users who are daily users of Facebook. Not much sign, then, of the "Facebook Exodus" that was recently reported. And we are told that only a third of Facebook's users are teenagers. The average age of Facebook users is mid-30s; it is not the preserve of kids, as some of the media coverage might lead us to believe.

So should we be worried about the latest "study" which shows that "teens are moving on" from Facebook? According to this "research" teenagers are departing from Facebook and compared with two years ago the numbers are downwards. Apart from the fact that two years ago some of the youngsters that could have been counted are no longer included because they are - well, older - this study also misses out an important fact. It was conducted at the height of the school exam season, when teenagers would have their heads down in textbooks (we hope...!). In other words, it's a bit like a study which tells us the number of people visiting the seaside is "down", only to discover that the counting was done in the depth of winter.

There's another issue with this research. It says that the main reason children are leaving Facebook is boredom. And who is behind the research? Oh yes, an online fashion game, designed to make online activity fun for youngsters. QED m'Lud.

Here's the thing about some studies of online activity. They either state the obvious - or they fail to take into account all the possible factors - as in this case, it seems. So, when you see headlines telling you teens are leaving Facebook, you might be tempted to change what you do online, if they are an important market for you. Alternatively, you might flock towards Facebook if you think it is no longer the domain of kids. Either way, it's wrong.

Here's the truth: the online world  is very, very similar to the offline one. Teenagers are fickle offline and take up activities and drop them quickly. It is all part of growing up and developing self-identity. So if it is happening with Facebook, that's no surprise. What is a surprise is that people are surprised by it...!

For your business, all you really need to know is that the online world is much like the real world. That means, organising your online business in much the same way and avoid being misdirected by headlines and weak research.

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Hands up...who likes Vodafone? Aha...some people clearly do not think they are the greatest mobile phone company on earth. In fact, in terms of market share, they are not; they used to be Number One, now they are dropping around Europe - so much so that pay has been linked to increasing the company's market share. So, with market share being a real issue for the firm, clearly not everyone likes Vodafone. Which is why this advertisement in the video below will not be to everyone's taste.

If you like Vodafone, you'll laugh at the ad. If you dislike Vodafone you will find the advert tacky, a waste of time and annoying. So. here goes....

Well, they paid millions for it I guess, so they must think it is worth it. But new research suggests that advertising like this could be a complete waste of money. Indeed, the study from Australian psychologists implies that this kind of advertising can be more damaging than ever in these "social network" times.

The research got people to look at mobile phone adverts; sometimes the participants knew who the brand was, at other times they did not. What the psychologists knew was whether or not people liked a brand and whether they had been influenced by social networking to dislike a brand. When people were indifferent to a brand, the advertising was seen as OK. But when the brand was disliked, the advert was also disliked - confirming the negative views of the individual. But importantly, this was the case when those negative views had arisen via social networks.

In other words, if social networks make people think negative things about your products or services any advertising you might undertake to reduce those views has the opposite effect; it appears to solidify the negative viewpoint, not get people to change their opinion of you. The advertising industry - and some advisers to BP, no doubt - will hate this. They have been telling companies for years that if their reputation takes a hit, all they need to do is advertise their way out of the situation. This new study suggests that this approach actually worsens the problem because according to the Australian researchers people are effectively saying "I hate this company for trying to talk me into liking them".

It all suggests that the power of social networks is much greater than many businesses have feared. Once you get a negative reaction to your business on a social network it appears that getting that stain removed is next to impossible. Best therefore not to let such problems arise in the first place.

We all know that BP got into their sticky situation at the moment because, somehow, somewhere, someone cut corners. The company is now spending millions to destroy the negative picture being painted. But if they hadn't got into the situation in the first place, they would have saved millions and been liked by more people. Whatever went wrong in BP we will never really know, but one thing is for sure, if the business had not allowed itself to make those mistakes they wouldn't - literally - "Be Paying" for them now.

With your business do you ensure that you don't annoy people, that your customer service is king and that your products and services are top notch? If you do, the chances of negative comments on social networks will be lessened and that means you won't end up with people permanently disliking you, no matter what you do to react. In other words, the problems that potentially face your business via social networks are nothing to do with those networks; they are all to do with the way you run your business. This new research suggests we we all need to pay more attention to that, because if the proverbial hits the fan there is precious little we can do about it. As ever, prevention is better than cure.

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Peter Morgan is the Director of Communications at Rolls Royce - and he is not a fan of social media. Indeed, at a recent corporate communications meeting he largely said it was a waste of time. He was scathing about the potential of social media to alert corporates to problems and he said that social media hadn't affected share prices. Perhaps someone ought to mention "BP" in his ear...? Or the Hudson River airline crash? Perhaps, of course, he might know I am talking about him if he were to use social media - but my guess is he doesn't know I am saying any of this.

In which case he could be in for a shock in the years to come. His next job might not be easily won and when he does get it, the chances are his salary will not be as high as he might like. This is because a new study from the Department of Management at the University of Wisconsin shows that users of social networks are more likely to get a job and when they do get the job they get higher starting salaries than people who do not engage with online social networks.

True, this research has some flaws - it was theoretical, rather than based on actual job applications in real situations. But, nevertheless, it shows the way hiring managers think. When faced with job applications that show a clear use of social networks they said they favoured such candidates over applicants who had no use of social networks. And when it came to salaries they were prepared to pay the social networkers more money than the people who did not use the likes of Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

There was a twist in the study; the social networking profiles were written in three ways. One group of profiles were business-like, another were focused on friends and family, while a third group concentrated on the alcoholic exploits of the candidates...! Needless to say, the alcohol-related applicants were rejected - but the other two were treated equally. This squashes the myth that you should separate your social networks into one for friends and another for business. Employers, it seems, are just as happy to take you on if your profile is family related.

Why? Well, the clue is in the name - "social networking". Business depends upon people who get on with other people. If you are employing someone, yes, you want their technical skills or specialist knowledge, but you also want to be sure that they will fit in, that they will be able to get on with others in your organisation and outside. Evidence of a good online social network suggests that these potential employees have the networking and social capabilities a business requires.

As ever, it is not what you know - but who you know. Demonstrating to potential employers that you know plenty of people suggests you are social, that you get on with others and that you put the networking work in. That's highly attractive to potential employers.

It is also what customers want to hear from potential suppliers; if a company bidding for some work appears to know lots of other people in a sector, they must be more valuable than a company that doesn't know anyone outside it's immediate circle. Even though you may know plenty of people in your industry, having an online social network presence confirms that to potential customers or employers. What this new research suggests is the possibility that social networkers will earn more than those who do not engage with the online social world. They will be able to gain bigger salaries or charge higher fees. And that, surely, must be a good reason for joining in the world of social networking.

Even if Rolls Royce's Mr Morgan cannot see the point of using social media in his company, perhaps he might see the point for boosting his take home pay...? But there again, we may never know, because he probably isn't reading this.

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No wonder David Cameron keeps smiling; the Conservative Party has more friends on Facebook than any of the other main political parties. According to a recent report, the Tories had over 130,000 connections on Facebook - more than Labour and the Lib Dems combined. However, the Prime Minister may well have to wipe the smile off his face if new research on social connections is anything to go by.

According to sociologists from Cornell University the diversity of the social networks we keep is linked to the economic success of those networks. Although the researchers point out they only conducted the study on telephone use, there's no reason to suspect it would be any different if we examined the topic using Facebook or Twitter as our examples. Indeed, the scientists plan to move onto studying the impact of our online social networks on our economic success.

The telephone study revealed that when people phoned a diverse range of contacts over a wide area they tended to live in more affluent areas and have more economic opportunities. People who only phoned a narrow range of people who were mostly local tended to live in economically narrow areas. In other words, if you have contacts who are spread far and wide in a variety of situations you are probably more affluent than if you are restricted to locals.

Many people online appear to be chasing raw numbers; indeed there are networking consultants who will tell you that you need a large number of contacts so that you can find the quality amongst the big group. If you only have a small number of friends or contacts, they argue, you could be missing out on the quality you need. However, this new study suggests this notion is flawed. More importantly, it reveals that it is the diversity of the group of contact you have and their widespread location which is more important in economic success.

What you need, it appears, is a group of contacts from different places, with varied backgrounds and experiences. According to the sociologists who conducted this new study, the most economically successful people tend to be those who have a wider social group. It is not the numbers of people who count, but where they come from that matters.

We have yet to see if this research is confirmed in an online setting, but the chances are it will be. And that means you shouldn't be chasing raw numbers of friends, Twitter followers or LinkedIn connections. Instead, you should be looking at the diversity within your group. If your network is not that diverse or geographically spread, then looking for people to fill the gaps is most likely to bring you more benefit in the future.

So, one thing may well have benefited the Prime Minister after all - the chances are his online connections have widened from the Tory faithful into the Liberal Democrat territory. Perhaps he can smile after all - his friends are more diverse than they were a month ago...!

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Some commentators would have you believe that the internet is the root of all evil. They cite the evidence produced earlier this week which shows that we are spending more hours online than ever before and that the bulk of that time is spent on social networking sites, like Facebook. What these doomsayers forget to mention, of course, is all the data which point in the opposite direction.

For instance, the most active online social networkers are the most active socially in the "real world". Equally, the sociable people who happily chat away online are not "at home" when they are forbidden from using social networks at work. In fact, some research has shown that when you take away online social networks from people who are truly sociable, they become less productive.

Now, a new study suggests why this may be the case. The pervasive nature of online social networking now means that people value free access to these sites over and above their salary. Research on 1,600 people in the USA, the UK, Germany and France shows that staff would rather have free access to social network availability in the workplace, instead of extra cash in their salary. It is clear that the people in this research valued the use of social networks more highly than cash itself.

The message from the study is clear - you don't have to pay your staff top dollar as long as you let them have free access to the internet and to all the websites they want - particularly social ones. Another way of looking at the information is that if you want to ban Facebook or YouTube in the office, then the only way you can retain your staff is to pay them more than the competition. It's either low pay rises and free web access at work, or high pay rises. The "bonus" of freely available web access is enough to compensate for lower salaries, it seems.

This ties in nicely with the research on the number of hours we are spending online. Taken together the two studies show that online social networking is now viewed as fundamental to the normal functioning of many individuals. Like it or loathe it, online social networking access is now a currency you can pay your staff with.

Social networking is so important a feature in many employees lives, that banning it or restricting internet use at work is enough to demotivate people from working in such an environment. Besides, even if you do ban Facebook, for instance, they can access it on their mobile phones.

However, this new research points out an important factor for employers. It's not actually about the free internet access. It is all about trust. Restricting internet access at work is sending out a clear message: "we don't trust you". It is this which is so demotivating and - coupled with a deep desire to use social networks, you can bet that big business is in for a rocky ride soon. Unless, of course, many big firms have a wholesale change in attitude to staff using the internet however and whenever they like.

Did you see that....? Another flying pig.

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