Social networking is so commonplace by now we tend to take it for granted–aren’t babies issued a Facebook page along with their birth-certificates? But, still, the final word isn’t in on social networks based on books–there’s GoodReads, LibraryThing, Shelfari, and a couple others, including GetGlue, a newer entry into the world of recommendations, which covers all kinds of things, not just books and other media. Anyway, while the debate rages on about Wylie, we thought we’d point your attention to a somewhat calmer and more pleasant debate going on over at Lifehacker. The site is polling to see which book-oriented social networks readers like best. Do you use any of these sites? Do you like them? Do you integrate them into Facebook or another social network, or just use them on their own? How do you have time for all that social networking?
I post reviews to Goodreads and LibraryThing. From Goodreads I also post to Twitter and Facebook. However, I predominantly use Facebook to check on and keep up with friends and family that are spread all over the place. I’ve hear of GetGlue and will check them out.
I too adore LibrarThing, starting for the cataloguing and staying for the book-geeking and group efforts. Tim and co. have been adding functionality steadily, and we’ve got a nice combination of catalog data, tags I write and use for myself, and even where I can go to buy a book near me.
Hmmm…a good spread of users across all the sites. GetGlue is worth checking out, only because it’s not just book-based, so integrates your interests across various media. Personally, though, I can only handle facebook–any more social networks and I’m overwhelmed.
I’m a GoodReads person as well, although I think I’ll check out the others you mentioned.
As to how to have enough time – I basically ignore FB.
I love Shelfari.com.
LibraryThing has been my mainstay since I left the bookbiz in ’06. I have refused to integrate my LT stuff with FaceBook (I have some serious concerns about FB generally), I find the information annoyingly redundant (one tends to have many of the same friends in both places) and have thus “hidden” both LT and GoodReads on FaceBook.
I started social networking on LT and real conversations do still happen on the boards there. I prefer this to the little strings of mostly validating comments on FB. I am also now on Twitter, not so much to follow friends, but to follow book publishers, political pundits, news sources…etc efficiently and succinctly. It seems to be working:-)
I use Shelfari because I like the layout, but GetGlue sounds like a lot of fun, so I might try to adopt it as well. It’s just really hard switching systems because it takes you a LONG time to accumulate all of the books you can remember ever reading.
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I use GoodReads pretty much exclusively. I love the community interactions; you can not only network and get book recommendations through the groups themselves, but also through your own reviews and those of your friends.