I’m more like a late early adopter. LinkedIn already had 5 million users by the time I signed up in September 2007. Twitter had been around close to two years by the time I joined in December 2009. I can’t remember when I signed up for Facebook, but it was definitely after my two oldest kids were experts.

But that was then. Social networks have become vital research and reporting tools for journalists and freelancers, so that when a new one comes along it’s smart to check it out sooner v. later.

That’s why this week found me digging into Google+, Google’s latest effort to beat Facebook at its own game. The online network is still in wide beta testing – meaning you have to get an invitation to try it. But some industry pundits are calculating that close to 10 million people are already on it.

Using Facebook has been a problem for people who wanted to separate their private lives from their work. The only options were either creating a separate fan page for your freelance work or small business or give up and accept friend requests from work colleagues and mix business with pleasure.

Google+ solves that problem by letting users create groups called Circles so they can share work-related updates with work friends, family updates with family, shop talk with fellow hobbyists and the like.

Will Google+ take off? It’s way too soon to tell. Right now the biggest topic of conversation in my Circles is Google+. However, I could definitely see using it for my freelance business to:

• Exchange instant messages instead of email with an editor to tell her I’m finished loading a story into the publication’s content management system
• Hold a video chat with the group of writers I edit
• Track sources
• Read articles in newspapers and magazines
• Do a video chat for the WordCount Blogathon (I just thought of that, now that’s a good idea!)

But a lot of those things would replace social networks and other tech tools I already use. So the big question is, is Google+ good enough to make me change my ways?

See for yourself. Here’s a post I did for SecondAct.com on Google+ – maybe it will help you decide whether to open the invitation that’s sitting in your inbox.

Google+: Testing the Waters

Are you using Google+? If so, I’d love to hear your initial reactions. Please leave a comment, especially if you have tips for how journalists and freelancers could benefit from using it.

Gee, I wonder what she’s referring to? Of course, it’s LinkedIn, the social network that’s more business than pleasure. Though roughly a seventh of the size of Facebook – 100 million members v. 700 million by some accounts – LinkedIn has long had a lock on the business side of social networking. Now it looks as if Facebook’s after LinkedIn’s piece of the business networking pie. Here’s a post that Monster.com published on its blog yesterday explaining how to use BeKnown.

But LinkedIn hasn’t been standing still. Fueled with cash from a recent initial public stock offering, the company has been furiously adding Facebook and Twitter-style features, all the better to keep users happy and logged on longer.

If it’s been a few months since you last visited LinkedIn, you’re missing out on a boatload of tools and other goodies the online business network has added. Among them are a number that directly or indirectly help independent journalists and other freelance writers find sources, do research and look for work.

I recently recapped LinkedIn’s new features in a story for SecondAct, Entrepreneur Media’s website for people over 40 where I write twice a week. Read the entire post here:

10 new need-to-know features on LinkedIn.

Tune in again tomorrow when I look at new services for journalists that all three major online networks – Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn – have started or re-engineered in recent weeks.

If you’ve sworn off online communities like Facebook and Twitter because all people seem to do on them is goof around, consider joining LinkedIn, the site that puts the “work” in “social network.”

While other online networks might be bigger – Facebook now has more members than the entire U.S. population – LinkedIn is specifically tailored to the world of work. No Mafia Wars. No Farmville. Instead, you’ll find people talking shop, looking for jobs or job candidates and connecting with colleagues past, present and future.

Read the rest of this post at SecondAct.com: The social network that puts work first.

• The Editor Unleashed The Editor Unleashed Guide to Good Blogging - Good advice from the former editor of Writer’s Digest.
• The Huffington Post 13 tips for actually getting some writing done
• The Urban Muse I Said, He Said, We Said – Picking a point of view for your website.
• Penelope Trunk’s Brazen Careerist Conflict of interest doesn’t apply to blogs (another reason newspapers are dead)
• Erik Sherman’s WriterBiz 6 lessons from using Twitter
• Blog Salad How to throw a Twitter party – Exceedingly detailed (and simple) instructions for using Twitter hashtags for “a conference, or a live guest lecture series, or just an exclusive conversation with a certain group or certain topic in mind.”
• Seth’s Blog Saying ‘no’ – To remind ourselves that sometimes turning down an assignment is the right thing to do.
• Bike with Jackie Embrace your supporters – Using social networks to give as much as you get.

Is it OK to post a link to that killer story you wrote for Ladies Home Journal on Twitter more than once – an hour?

Does memorizing the LinkedIn profile of an editor you’d like to pitch constitute stalking?

Is it OK to friend your editor on Facebook?

All humor aside, since social networks have become such an integral part of freelancers’ daily work life, it’s easy to forget some people – including editors – still use them just for fun.

When it comes to social networks, it’s important to look before you leap. And when it comes to connecting with editors or potential editors, that means looking at how they’re using social networks and acting accordingly. If an editor you’re dying to work for is on Facebook but only uses it for friends and family, don’t go there. But if the same editor is on LinkedIn and has specifically listed “Career opportunities,” “Job inquiries” or “Getting back in touch” in their LinkedIn profile, it’s a clear sign to use the service to introduce yourself.

Linda Formichelli has lots more to say about this in a post called Connecting with editors on social media on The Renegade Writer blog for freelancers. If you read closely you’ll see yours truly is one of the writers interviewed in the piece.

News U. and the Knight Digital Media Center are hosting a Webinar on social networks on Tuesday, April 14, 2 to 3 p.m. EDT.

The Webinar, called Social Networks: The New Architecture of the Web will help decode what’s happening on social network giants like Facebook and Twitter as well as specialty groups and how.

The Webinar will be led by Paul Gillin, a well-known social media expert and newspaper industry analyst who blogs at NewspaperDeathWatch.com. Note: I’ve interviewed Gillin for WordCount and he knows his stuff. The cost is $24.95.

Although the information sounds like it’s primarily aimed at journalists working for MSM, it could be worth looking into for new freelance markets or if you’re contemplating starting your own social networking-based new media venture. Register or learn more here.

Here’s some promo copy from the site:

Media organizations can tap into the trusted advice networks that are forming online and leverage them to their advantage. You will learn:

• Why online “friends” are the foundation of social networks’ appeal
• How trusted sources are migrating from mass media to friends’ networks
• From examples of news organizations that are leveraging social networks to extend their influence
• What newspapers can do right now to tap into emerging communities

The quiz was created by Tom H.C. Anderson, head of a New York Web 2.0 market research firm called Anderson Analytics LLC.

Anderson came up with the test so people could see where they fit in among LInkedIn’s 30 million members.

Anderson puts LinkedIn’s social networkers into four groups: Savvy Networkers, Senior Executives, Late Adopters and Exploring Options.

I didn’t really need a sophisticated algorithm to tell me I like to network and I’m hooked on LinkedIn. My connections are at 340+ and counting (but I’m way behind on Facebook and haven’t started using Twitter yet, although I plan to in 2009). When it comes to computers, software apps, electronic gadgets and Web 2.0 innovations I’ve never been the first in my circle – physical or virtual – to try something new. But I’m usually right behind, and love reporting on what I’ve learned – all those years spent as a tech writer I guess.

In his research, Anderson found that the more connections a person had, the more likely they were to have a higher personal income. You can read some of Anderson’s other findings here or on his blog here.

It’s not what you think. Social networks aren’t shrinking. The audience they’re trying to reach is. Think LinkedIn or Facebook, but way smaller.

Exhibit A. Today, a new Website for women over 40 called Women on the Web, or Wowowow.com, said it would launch Saturday. According to this story in today’s New York Times, the backers are a who’s who of big-name women in media including Leslie Stahl, Liz Smith and Mary Wells. Celebs like Lily Tomlin, Candice Bergen, Whoopi Goldberg, Marlo Thomas will make guest appearances.

Earlier this week, Penelope Trunk spun off the BrazenCareerist.com, network from her long-time blog of the same name. The Website is a mash up 50 Gen Y bloggers writing about all the stuff that Gen Y-age people care about from a Gen Y perspective.

Recently, I got invited to join The Content Wrangler, a Website for people who manage content in some way, shape or form. A couple nights ago my husband the lawyer brought home the latest issue of California Lawyer with an article about social networks for lawyers. I’m sure there are more out there now, and lots more to come.

It’s something to watch. These networks are to the Facebooks and MySpaces of the world what niche magazines are to Good Housekeeping, People and Reader’s Digest. No doubt they’ll go after advertisers that want face time with the particular demographic they represent. Watch for big membership drives so they can boost their circulation figures and attract more ad $$$.

Many of these networks are relying on blogs and contributions from members for a substantial part of what they publish. That could be an opportunity for freelancers, to market ourselves, build up expertise, and who knows, maybe even make some money.