Sociarati is a phrase that stems from the development and growth of the use of social networking websites. It refers to the masses of people who use these sites on a daily basis whether for business or pleasure, and it lumps them all together under one gigantic umbrella.

Breaking it down further you could arrive at the Sociarati enthusiast and the professional Sociarati. The latter are usually professional marketers who have managed to figure out how to use social networking sites for the benefit of business. In the world of online branding and search engine optimization, social networking sites up until now, have played a key role. But is this what the creators of social networking sites intended and will it continue?

Talk on the streets is that people are becoming bored with Facebook. On a personal note, I use Facebook a lot less than I used to. What was once a novelty is now a tiresome chore. I simply can’t think of something funny and witty to write as my status every hour – every day for that matter. My friends once applauded my status updates. My videos were once viewed the second I posted the link to my profile. Gone are those days. Have my friends given up on Facebook too? Maybe I just need to invite new friends to be my friends – but hang on – I don’t know them; damn. I’ve run out of true Facebook friends. Maybe I should join a social networking site?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of social networking sites and the potential they have both for personal and business use. I just think that there’s possibly too many out there. Anyone raising venture capital right now seems to be doing it for a great new social networking site. But how many websites can you belong to with the same people in your network? Do you truly know everyone within your social network or do you just feel pressure to add more people to show off the number of people you know. It’s funny how people that you were never too fond of from school or former places of work have managed to surface as ‘friends’ on Facebook. And this brings us to the biggest benefit of Social networking – social tolerance from a safe distance. The bottom line is that everyone wants to be loved. My four year old daughter always asks (usually just after she’s been naughty) “Daddy, do you still love me?”. The answer is always yes, but she still asks.

Therefore, online social networking and the tolerance of people who make your skin crawl is quite possibly one of the biggest factors that attribute to the success of social networking. Long live the Sociarati!