Social Media Starter Moves for Entrepreneurs
This could be considered a “backwards” post. I tend to talk from the perspective of a user of technology, but I am writing this one for the point of view of people who might be seeking to build new tools, to join the social software scene. I love entrepreneurs, and I enjoy the notion of building new, amazing things. But I do want you to think about this space, too.
If you’re NOT building a social network or platform, stick around. I want YOU to tell folks your thoughts, too.
The Platforms We’re Using
I’m definitely not going to list out every social network and social media tool, but I do want you to understand a bit about HOW we’re using these tools, so I’ll mention a few.
- MySpace or Facebook - Not just for kids any more. The grown-ups I know use both of these services for roughly the same thing: connecting with people they already know and making some new connections.
- LinkedIn - Business social networking, and the top of the heap. It’s getting a little more interesting, because of their status stream, and the redesign.
- Twitter - Not everyone’s on there, but we’re more on there than Pownce and Jaiku. Why? It’s not because it’s better. It’s just because we’re all still there, because it’s simple, because it solves a lot of needs.
- Flickr - We’re sharing photos on Flickr and SmugMug.
- YouTube - We’re sharing video on YouTube and Blip.tv and a few dozen smaller places.
- Digg - We’re getting news from Digg and Reddit and SlashDot, and there are lots of new upstarts for specific niches. We seem to like these sites because they let the crowd vote on what’s newsworthy to US as a niche.
So that’s some of what we’re interested in. You’ll certainly want to add places and tools into the comments section, so that we can get those called out, too.
The Marketplace Overall
I’d say the barrier to getting me to join a new social network is getting higher and higher. If you’re doing a business network, I’m already using LinkedIn. If you’re building a place for friends to connect, Facebook in all its annoyance still handles that enough-ish, and Twitter handles it great.
What comes next for networks? Velvet rope. Lots of it. I think the next step (and this was once prophesied by Eric Rice somewhere) is something closer to an anti-social network, or more accurately, a professional social network. Want to see a top shelf example? Check out Sermo, a social network for physicians. I met with Daniel Palenstrant, the founder, recently and he’s a smart cookie. He’s got a great product and he knows it.
What about tools?
Social Media Tools
There are lots of overlap experiences going on at the moment. For instance, there’s an entire social information aggregation space, all with different spins. There’s Lijit for search, FriendFeed for aggregation, and then maybe a dozen variations on the theme thereafter. Check out Louis Gray’s site for TONS of these types of apps. (Good guy, Louis).
There’s Blog Talk Radio and Talkshoe offering phone-to-podcast experiences with different twists (and I’m friendly with both companies, and they’re both full of great people).
We have Twitter/Pownce/Jaiku. We have Utterz for the multimedia-meets-phone. We have Qik and Seesmic and a flavor in between.
In blogging software and content platforms, we have WordPress, Drupal, Tumblr, Blogger, Joomla, TypePad, LiveJournal, and another million opportunities.
There are MANY tools. So then, what is the barrier to entry with either another tool or network?
High. Challenging. Difficult.
So What Do We Want?
This is your turn to answer. What do you think is necessary out there? What do you want built to suit YOUR world? How can an entrepreneur turn your head and get your attention? What would lure you off your platforms right now, or what aren’t your existing tools covering for you?
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Comments
Chris, thank you very much for this. More information about social media, the better. As a blogger, you can never take advantage of this enough.
Chris, this is something I have done some thinking on. All these places are great and provide some unique service/applications. IMHO, things are probably heading toward niche, high quality and focused networks that take advantage of such applications. Personally, there is some much out there and some much innovation is happening but the question is - how does it all apply in the longtail. This is the track I’m heading with my company, focusing on a specific market and applying these great tools that create further innovation in our niche. So, in the case of the medical network - how can these tools and applications begin to innovate medicine and other such markets.
Thought I’d share.
Cheers,
Jason
Chris, I agree with Jason that the longtail needs to be a huge consideration for developers. I’m seeing A LOT of development companies popping up recently (huge rise in the past 2-3 months) that are creating generic social networking platforms for the sake of riding this wave. The problem with that approach is we only need so many generic networks … and, like you pointed out, we’ve got plenty to choose from. Enough already!
What I’d like to see is, not only an emphasis on niche networks, but a melding of the networks, interactively. OpenID is the way to connect the log in processes. MeGo looks like it has opportunity for a more robust portable profile … but I want even more than that! Easy access to lots of niche networks would be awesome.
I bought SocialNicheWorks.com domain name in January. Not sure yet what’s going to come of it but this thread sure helps. Thanks!
Kevin, I agree with easy access to lots of niche networks. I want to lower the barier of entry even more. OpenID needs to get easier and less cumbersome.
“I think the next step (and this was once prophesied by Eric Rice somewhere) is something closer to an anti-social network, or more accurately, a professional social network.”
That’s what is so great about http://www.Ning.com, they are building a beautiful, easy to build, highly-configurable platform for anyone to create their own social-network (from totally private, to totally public).
I’ve been building sites for clients with a number of needs: small businesses, biz teams, biz partnerships/networks, classrooms, social groups, families, etc.
My concern is that early adopters are going to start burning out right as the ‘masses’ start joining in.
But then we’ll have some kind of OpenID managing that burnout I hope.
So, I actually have some ideas on the stuff we need when we switch to the “lots of networks” model. If I don’t fall asleep accidentally, I will write it up for tomorrow’s post.
And then there’s http://WhyGoSolo.com which is our social network to get you offline. ;) But we aren’t a competitor to all of those, we integrate directly. When you sign up for WhyGoSolo and add a listing, it ripples through your networks… shows up on your Facebook profile, appears in your Twitter stream, and (eventually) shows up on your blog via widgets.
We’re the tool for taking online connections offline. ;)
Just stopped by via your Twitter post! *=)
I think as an entrepreneur, I am always looking for a an adveritsing element that allows me to meet my very targeted demographic directly, based on multiple elements. For instance, if I am marketing to business owners in the tech industry.. ages 25-35… I’d like to be able to use ad-targeting based on those qualifications… perhaps in a social networking environment.
There are many other things that I can think of, but that one seems to be a priority for myself and most of my own clients.
Great post!~
Chris, thank you for your thoughts, as always. First mover advantage in any of the niches seems to be growing.
I think Marshall hit upon something that many, many services are niggling around: surfacing the most relevant content to a particular individual based upon interests, surfing behavior and social network membership. I love popURLs because of its aggregation of services with lots of “meta juice.” I’m eagerly awaiting Readburner’s return.
Leif nailed Ning’s relevance to this space. If niche or elite social networking sites represent one of the major Internet growth areas of 2008, Marc’s current idea may look (almost) as brilliant as that other useful notion.
I think the social network as many know it today is dying…People want more than just a place to connect. They want a place where they can get relevant content, news, advice and information. For example, if there was a social network for dentists, it should include the latest techniques, news, studies, etc. You have to give people a real reason to join new sites these days…”connecting” simply isn’t good enough.
I think Jason’s right. The novelty of “hey, all my friends are here,” or “hey, I can make friends!” is wearing off. We get it. It *can* be done. But then what? What does a growing social network do ultimately to your blog? Anything? To your business? Unless you can USE that network in meaningful ways, mobilize it, etc, what does it do for you?
So, lots of interesting thoughts.
And yes, I like Ning a lot. Still haven’t met and spoken with Marc and Gina, but I’ve talked with them, and met some of the rest of the team, so I’m happy there. : )
Chris & Jason…
Re: “I think the social network as many know it today is dying…People want more than just a place to connect. They want a place where they can get relevant content, news, advice and information.”
I’d take it even one step further. People (again, at least us early adopters) are not only tired of ‘friending’…I think many of us are also tiring of info (overwhelmed!) and entertainment (bite my zombie ass!)
My hunch is that this year we’ll see the rise of ‘action-based’ and/or ‘real life enhancing’ new social media. I don’t know what name to give it yet, what to tag it, but I know its coming. The 4th wall is coming down.
I’m actually surprised at how slow developers are to catch on to the power of substantive social-networking. Besides minor attempts by sites like 43 folders, Zeenami, and Limeade, where’s the social-networking site designed to help me achieve my goals by making my goals public, hooking me up with other people with similar goals, helping us be accountable and support each other, and connecting us to relevant resources?
Peter Brown’s ‘RealityAllStarz’ is a fun example, but personally I think his vision is too small.
Social Networking
+
“Life as Adventure Game” paradigm
+
Real life goals and dreams
=Social Playformation (accelerated transformation)
Enough rambling.
-Leif
http://www.SparkSocialMedia.com
http://www.SparkNorthwest.com
Oh, by the way, perfect case study for those that don’t buy my above prediction:
Improv Everywhere posts their “New York Grand Central Station Freeze Stunt…in the first week, about ~2 million views…now at TEN MILLION views. Their “ImprovEverywhere” Ning site (pointed to on the youtube channel) now has almost 14,000 “agents” in hundreds of cities around the world. Boom daddy.
Niche social networks are very hard to make en masse - even ning can’t provide eg for every professional’s needs - and its even harder to get those in the niche to make the network themselves. All I can think as a half-solution is a combination of plugins adaptable to particular niches and data portability (to make a plugin written in one niche usable in another)
[…] a hard pill to swallow. Those of us who are experienced need to be patient and take the time to help them bridge the chasm. It’s going to take time. by Geoff Livingston | Geoff, Internet […]
Yes Dimitris, you are right that Ning is a great thing but I need more than that. I need a packaged solution (not just a plug in) to take the “brochure” website of my Non-Profit Medical Society and create that “Anti-social Network” where my members meet, mingle and help develop content on the site as it suits their needs.
It has to be all of these things:
- Single sign-on and draw data from my existing CRM - only allowing authorized members
- Wrapped in a new, updated content management system website with efficient, simple navigation that can be easily administered WITHOUT an IT department
- Have mechanisms for “self policing”
- Be cheap enough for a non-profit
- Do all these things(list taken from a question on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/answers/technology/web-development/TCH_WDD/199343-9745371):
Group Blogging
Editorial blog powers
Categories
RSS feed aggregator
Event Calendar
Member profiles
Member Groups
Friend/follow functionality for users
Video /photo hosting
Interface to dynamically update homepage w/featured video, photo, blog posts, etc
Podcast embedding
metatagging
Event pages
Forums
Email / rss subscriptions
Doc hosting
PowerPoint/pdf sharing
Job Board
I’ve demo-ed Ning and looked at drupal and everything in the CMS Matrix tool http://www.cmsmatrix.org/ but I really think I need full service.
Some that I am actively looking at are myAmphi, HigherLogic & KickApps. Which ones am I missing?
[By the way, that question from LinkedIn is still receiving comments and I used it as a jumping off point to start a discussion group on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10317927191 “How Non-Profits are using Social Media and Web 2.0″ If anyone would like to take this discussion further, please meet me there. The group is just getting started.]
_
I am on every social network still i find something is missing. A niche where you share your specific shopping tastes and connect and socialize through them.
Es. I am not a person, I am what I wear, I am what I listen etc. There are blogs about it but not social network. And if an entrepreneur is out there, i have some ideas!
Nice post.
I have tagged you in the ‘8 little known things about me’ meme.
http://blog.joshanstey.com/index.php/2008/04/04/8-little-known-things-about-me/
Check it out and keep it going.
Have a great day.
Shelley, I’ve looked through your list and the only things that Ning don’t provide, directly, are:
-Group Calendar/Events
(Which is strange, because there earliest version did. But you could always embed Google Cal…not too hard)
-Doc Hosting (though you can add doc attachments to every forum post, so that contextualizes it)
Otherwise, its all there. And you can add tons more with simple copy and paste, no need to be an IT guy/gal.
Leif - thanks for your input, I will check it out more.
Your statement before
“My concern is that early adopters are going to start burning out right as the ‘masses’ start joining in.”
Caught my attention when first read it. Insightful.
Margherita, I’m an entrepreneur and starting a social application portal for a particular industry. I hope to go live in May.
I’d love to hear your ideas please.
Thanks
OK, so you go out and connect with people. THEN what? Do you just talk some more? And then talk some more? And then talk some more?
So the question is, aside from finding someone to chat with, what do social networks actually do for me? Or for anyone? They take a lot of time, if you join too many they scatter your focus, and they don’t seem to get you anywhere.
I would look long and hard at the value it offered before making a longterm committment to social networking. Dare I say social networking is more a fad than a feature for quite a few businesses?
Some great insights…Chris you are right…the post is good, but the comments are great. I love the collaboration on this blog. Great job!
We are working on a project that we think is niche, but maybe not niche enough. Feedback on what we could do to enhance our offer would be fantastic. http://www.yourteamonline.ca
Thanks in advance.
Great post Chris.
I’m interested in two aspects of ‘what’s next’ for social networks:
- How to best mobilize the networks that we set up and/or join. Do Good, Get Things Done, etc.
- How to do this on a local level. How does the technology help groups that are also physically close?
I recently set up a network on Ning for a group of local parents to organize around an upcoming student exchange. Not a lot of early adopters in the group so it will be a real test — for the technology (can these tools help us work together more effectively) and for me as community organizer (can I help people over the learning curve so they get value from this)
Helping the next wave of people over the hump — from ‘this is cool’ to ‘this is useful’ is a big growth opportunity, IMO.
Nice Overview Chris,
I have been using twitter a lot over the last month and have found it really interesting.
Ria Kennedy:
In marketing, communication is the greatest factor. If you do not communicate with your clients or would-be clients, you are lost. And the more ways you communicate with them, the more of them are going to pay for your product or service.
“Friendfeeder” - a reverse FriendFeed/personal hub. It needs contact and content management that delivers everything I write - addressed and/or tagged - to the people who want it based. Reverse RSS could be an analogy. Each of us would have one of these as our “home base” (like Facebook, MySpace today) and it would interact with others - receiving AND sending.
Yes, niches will arise and are needed. But, first, a specialized search engine for social networks’ (SN) object or reason to be is essential. Some tool where people can seek for a list of SN’s based on, say for a very specific example, “the behavior of ants”. And that search would only show a list of existing SN’s related to our search. Does it exists already? If so, show me the light, please.
Otherwise, the search gets difficult as the web grows exponentially richer with SN’s.
I want a service that recommends other users to me who have similar tastes to my own - prioritized by who finds stuff earliest on a consistent basis. FriendFeed would be perfect for that but Del.icio.us would be better. Something that covers every service I use would be the best yet. With OpenID login and APML import please!
:) good post Chris