Socially Networked - now what? (Part II)
I have been thinking over my previous post and now think of adding something to what I wrote yesterday.
Repeating the earlier thought - what current social networking websites provide is a base network to do a lot of stuff together online. Now, there are specifically themed social networking websites that enable people with common interests to join in - these websites certainly provide a common starting ground for discussion, linking and activity but these can be considered social networking sites targetted towards smaller group. A user would certainly not want to join 3 or 4 social networking sites to cater to different likings he has. So, future of these sites would be rather bleak since a larger number of user’s contacts (assuming that user is not fanatic for one thing) may not be on that website - giving him a good reason to not join in.
So, we would very much want a social networking website that can offer multiple themes and common starting points of discussion. What social networking sites have built upto now is large amount of very valuable information such as what are people’s likes and dislikes, professions, locations and so on. Focus needs to be turned towards use of this valuable information - not just for interactive customized advertising but also to provide or enable more interactive content, features and capabilities to make stick to the website.
Great post dude. My two cents on SN go here:
-Myspace has moved beyond users connecting/generating content. It is selling music online, and hence making money (apart from the ad earnings ofcouse) Bebo is selling iTunes.
-Have come across marketing executives that market your sites on myspace/facebook which result into upto 10,000 registrations everyday. (Isn’t this an example of using SN sites beyond contacting friends?)
-Google’s Orkut has a feature which lets u find friends’ friends with particular interest/location/etc. Myspace/Facebook should have the same feature I guess
-Standards like OpenID which let you create one identity and use it across portals (from different companies ofcourse) are fast gaining acceptance and popularity
-Came across www.ning.com which allows users to create their own social networks around themes and include unlimited functionalities
Comment by Tejas — June 20, 2007 @ 3:15 am
Tejas
Interesting points - but my post was more focused on making SNs more usable (rather than more revenue generators directly). Ofcourse more usability is for bringing more revenues - but in longer and more stable way. Respones to your points:
- Your point on MySpace’s content is great example of SN extension.
- Not sure if marketing of sites over MySpace is a longer term revenue generation mechanism since this is more dependent on MySpace’s current popularity - I was talking about pushing popularity further - marketing doesnt do that.
- Orkut’s location wise search is perfect example, but then use of something like tags will help getting much more accurate results.
- Use of OpenIDs for aspect of SN integration will require much more thought - integration of networks, groups, communities..?
- Letting users create their communities is again - just letting users stay in touch..
Comment by Punit — June 20, 2007 @ 12:13 pm
One more extension to it, which I was thinking of was even having a blog there itself. If you have everything at the same place, you need not log in to several sites. If one single site provides me the facility of SN, blog, mails, chat, and convenient and user-friendly search, why would I ever visit another site???
Comment by Nimitt — June 25, 2007 @ 2:13 am
Agreed - Infact I have always desired to have a diary kind of thing that talks current mood/ likings/ ongoings with SN sites that enable connected people to know whats up with their buddies right at that time..
Comment by illusionsofreality — June 25, 2007 @ 12:54 pm