Wednesday, May 14, 2008
The Two Worlds of Social Networking
Over at Scoblelizer, Robert wrote a long post saying that Friend Connect could compete with Ning, the platform for creating sites around social networking. After Ning's Andreessen replied that he's going after a different market -- consumers rather than corporate -- Scoble changed his tune.
If this is the case, I'm worried about Ning. I see the social networking phenomenon dividing into two camps. The first are a few sites that most of us are on that provide a common ground for connecting. You almost have to be on LinkedIn/Facebook/MySpace if you want to connect to the broadest audience.
The second is that social networking features will be build into websites with good content that would to engage their audience and foster community. This is the world of news publishers, professional associations, and commerce that Friend Connect can target.
I don't believe that there's much of a market for consumer oriented sites that are primarily aimed at building community without some other piece (commerce, news, blogging) for building an audience. People aren't going to go a site just to interact around a common interest. They need some meat to discuss and share. If you want to form community around bowling, bird watching, or Russian literature, then get yourself a group on one of the aforementioned sites.
I see adding layers to an existing site through open protocols like Friend Connect as preferable to a third-party hosted site such as Ning. It will be easier to build, and publishers will have more control.
Posted By John Gartner at 09:57 AM
Permanent Link: The Two Worlds of Social Networking
| Comments (0)
Subscribe to The MarketingShift Feed