Should You Create Your Own Social Networking Site?
Social networking sites are a dime a dozen. They are popping up all over the Internet and getting people together. People are starting to thing that creating a social site is the next best thing for marketing. Unfortunately, unless you have a direct niche for your social network then you might not get any followers at all.
What drives people to a social networking site? Friends and content. People are obviously going to join sites where their buddies are located, but what about other people? Why would someone join your site if they’re not your personal friend?
What you need to do is find a niche. Back in the 1970s and 1980s computer people grouped together and formed user groups. Much like social networks they formed dialup bulletin boards where people could participate in discussions, live chats, and downloads. As dialup is very slow people still needed to meet monthly.
The fad continued throughout the 90s with little changing except the software. The groups eventually gave up on BBS software and looked toward the Web. Those who kept up saved their organizations by changing their attitude toward payments and software. Those who didn’t lost their members to the open country of the Web.
Now in the early 2000s we are back to creating sites where groups of people can get together from all over and chat about their niche. Social networking has been around all along to select groups, but it wasn’t until the content management systems PostNuke and PHPNuke started bringing people together again. These systems have evolved into blogging and social networks allowing people to join because they like the social and niche aspect of the sites.
If you owned a social network, what would it be? How would you get your members to join? Would they be friends or coworkers? Would it be local? Would it be a niche? Perhaps to make money you need to find that niche that other people love yet there are no other niche markets. I’m sure there are still some out there–you just have to find one.
