One of the challenges of a constantly changing technology landscape is that nearly everything one recommended to clients a few years ago is not always desirable today. A few years back I was asked to help companies build web sites. Today, people want blogs, Twitter accounts and Facebook pages.
One of the benefits of a constantly changing technology landscape is that as a consultant, I can continuously grow my diversified list of services that I offer to clients adding new and interesting tactics. In the last year, I’ve been exploring virtual worlds and lately it has really been paying off as I’ve taken on new Second Life marketing projects.
More recently, I’ve been exploring custom social networks for my own projects and for my clients. With moves by major Internet sites toward a more open, “social Web” including Google’s new FriendConnect service that is currently in beta, I think social networks and virtual worlds will become more and more relevant to how companies and organizations communicate their messages and do business online.
Private-label social network can offer the following:
1. Brand building environments. I remember the days when my clients wanted their own “online communities” attached to their web sites, forums where their customers and potential customers could interact with one another and with company representatives. Besides being fraught with maintenance and liability issues, they saw online communities as viable ways to get their brands in front of people on a recurring basis. For better or worse, social networks take message boards to an entirely new level of interactivity and engagement.
2. Community building tools. Online forums of the past allowed community members to post message, either in response to existing messages or starting message threads of their own. Custom social networks allow members to express themselves through multimedia features including blogs, blog comments, page comments, photo uploads, video uploads, even audio uploads. The community can create more content in more ways than ever, tipping the publishing power from strictly the company or organization hosting the community to the members themselves.
3. Viral features. In the “old days,” online forums relied mostly on word of mouth or happenstance to build their memberships. Today, social networks provide tools that let members spread the word about the networks through widgets, easily invite other members into the network, and even see what other members are doing through activity feeds so they can do it, too.
4. Social glue. There is nothing more powerful online than the strength of social bonds. When people connect with people they know or through people they know, they are more likely to interact in and return to a community because they have a social investment in that community. By building social networks, companies and organizations use social bonding to keep people coming back for more.
Because I’m not a developer, I’ve been using Ning to build custom social networks. I like the elegance of their tools and design templates for the non-programmer and non-designer. I do find Ning is lacking in a few areas such as not offering collaborative tools for network members, not having a way to post articles or upload document files that can be shared, and lacking a calendar feature. But for the time being, they are a major player in the custom social network building space.
This week, a new service debuted in public beta mode – WackWall – looking to enter the same space as Ning. WackWall feels like a watered down version of Ning with fewer features and capabilities. For now, I’ll stick with the tool that works and keep an eye on what Google, Facebook, MySpace and others will be offering in the near future.
Are you getting into the business of building social networks? And if so, what tools are you using?
Thanks Aliza. As I said in our blog post we are currently working on most required features so that it’s possible to see the aces in our sleeves. Feel free to watch the progress on our blog.
Great post! This is a keeper for me, since I’m occasionally asked why social networks should be of any interest to companies and nonprofits.
Hey Aliza!
Just wanted to note that we recently launched an Events feature, and our Forum allows for easy document attachments/sharing. For a peek at some more cool stuff on the horizon, check out our 3-Month Product Roadmap blog post.
Thanks!
Kyle Ford
Director of Product Marketing, Ning
I’ve found that a branded social network is an easier sell to the brand than to the user. Companies want to jump on the SN bandwagon, but users are busy enough already on Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Dogster, Sneakerplay, Bebo, and god knows wherever else
Rather than build a complete social network, I prefer to incorporate simple, familiar social features into the branded environment that make for a compelling experience without requiring a major ongoing commitment from the user.
Josh – good points. I do find, however, that those people who are NOT busy with Facebook, MySpace, etc. but are loyal to particular brands, can be introduced to social networking by a custom network hosted by their favorite brand. It facilitates their first social networking experience.
We in the “biz” tend to forget that there are millions and millions of people out there who have yet to get a MySpace or Facebook page, let alone Dogster and Bebo. I meet at least several a week including clients, friends, and people I talk to at the coffee shop, the grocery store, at networking events, at the gym, at the doctor’s office, at the mall, etc.
Yes.
Lotus Connections. Parts of IBM really do get “it” and produce some fantastic software.
I have been working on selling social networks projects for specific purposes in Brazil since last year. For more than one year – until last week, to be more precise – I have successfully delivered in a SaaS structure SNs for a handful of clients, ranging from nationwide educational programs (a SN for teachers, and the job also has a consultancy in best educational practices for the teachers as well) to a internal corporate SN for a bank that wants to capture stories among its collaborators in its 200th anniversary. The software at hand is a work in progress proprietary SN called AMIGOS. It is a Java 2EE application, which is a both a product and object of a Doctorate and several Masters researchs at the Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil.
Having left my employee last week, I am right now starting a social media consultancy biz, and will primarily focus in the advertising business. Web APIs from Kickapps and Ning are my weapons of choice, but I am still nurturing the foundation of my first job.
@Josh
@Aliza
We are always at several social networks, whether they’re web-based or not.
While I agree to some extent that having several “branded-CRMish SNs” we may have some sort of overdose, isn’t it possible for companies to run non-instrusive SNs that permeate all their other SNs through their API/widgets layers?
It’s not link having avatars or things like that, but more like SNs over several SNs.
@ Aliza:
The people I work with are trying to reach audiences that are already heavy web users – and I’m in San Francisco – so I admit to forgetting about the rest of the world sometimes….
@ Andre:
I think that’s right. Taking the brand’s content and tapping into existing communities to put that content in front of people where they already are.
I understand that everyone is looking to make a buck but this turns my stomach, trying to profit off of people’s social networking. It doesn’t exist to be a “market”, it is for people to make connections with each other. Once you bring in the profiteers, you kill the whole thing and if the social networks get saturated with advertisements, people will just go find some other vehicle to connect where people aren’t trying to sell them something.