Social networking is a web trend that is hard to avoid at the moment and, for many, names such as myspace and facebook simply roll off the tongue like a decades old well known brand names. There is also a new contingent of social networking and collaboration sites tailored especially towards finance. Let’s take a look.

The whole social aspect of the web has certainly become popularised into the mainstream here in Australia with current election campaigning seeing each political party making great use of sites such as myspace, facebook and even youtube to connect with audiences and perhaps awkwardly, or not at all, interact with those site members or audience.

Perhaps they may have missed a vital aspect of this new trend which is that those sites, for the most part, are not just about pasting up a static page about how good you are or what you do, it’s all about interaction. And it’s the social interaction with the discussion and sharing of experiences or views that really are the value component of these sites.

And it looks like the world of finance, and even mortgage, isn’t going to be left behind in this new trend of online social networking and discussion. The home mortgage, and finance in general, is a large part of peoples lives and lifestyles. It affects our decisions, choices and for many makes a large part of our goals. So, in a way, this new trend would be falling rather short if there where not portals for the topic.

And there is such sites, MortgageFit is one such site that along with a range of tools is driven by community participation around the topic of mortgage and home loans. The sites tools include calculators, lenders directory, rate watch, book catalog, budgeting tools and more although possibly the most interesting part of the site is the sharing of knowledge, experiences and views at the forums.

For an overall synopsis of the site it probably best describes itself - “Our community seeks to provide quality content with updated information on mortgage and related issues. The community also offers practical solutions to problems people come across in their mortgage deals. Our goal is to guide individuals throughout the process, which equips them with better knowledge and insight on all aspects of the industry.”

Other Social Networking sites relating to Finance
SocialPicks - SocialPicks is a community for stock market investors to share investment ideas, exchange market research, and track peers’ investment performance. .

Wesabe - Community-based money management. From the site - “…..painless tools for taking control of your money and reaching your goals, and members’ tips and discussions to help you find the best values.”

BullPoo - BullPoo is both an interactive community of investors and a personalized investment tool. The platform allows investors of all sorts and from all over the world to come together, collaborate and share investing knowledge and insights through various means; from sharing personal blogs to participating in discussions to opening up their very own virtual portfolio to the community.

Motley Fool - The Fool community, at the popular investor site The Motley Fool, is a large community discussing and interacting on a diverse range of topics from investment through to family life.

Many of these sites have a US focus although as seen with other social sites it’s generally just a matter of a local community starting there. There is another question that could be asked - does this replace the advice from a professional financial adviser - NO - I see it more as a social connection of like minded people along with building awareness and discovery.