What’s Your Niche Social Network? – Golden Tech “How To” Series
Social Networks are not a new thing, and they’re not a trend that is leaving anytime soon. In 2006 there was an estimated 650 social networks throughout the web. Two years later in 2008 there was an estimated 850 social networks. Today there are well over 1,000 social networks. We all know about FacebookFacebook
, TwitterTwitter
, and LinkedIn LinkedInso where are these other networks?
What is a Niche Social Network
Most of the social networks out there are niche social networks. In other words they are social networking sites dedicated to a specific topic. Sites such as My Dog Space, Ravelry, GoodReads, SlashDot, and NWIFeed are all considered niche social networks. They allow you to interact with people of similar interests.
What is the Point?
Instead of going on Facebook and joining a group dedicated to a topic, you can find an entire social network devoted to it. This allows you to do more than post on a wall and upload pictures. Depending on the website there are a variety of different features that a Facebook group doesn’t have. For Example, GoodReads allows users to track what books they are currently reading as well as books they’ve read in the past. They can also post reviews and ratings to let others know what they thought of a book. In order to accomplish something like this with a Facebook group, a new group would need to be created for each book.
If you are a business owner and you’re looking for advice on how to run a certain aspect the business, you would probably turn is a search engine such as Google Googleor Yahoo!Yahoo!. What happens the next time you have a question? A website such as StartupNation or BizNik would be a perfect place to start. Joining into their communities you’d be able to build up trust with other business owners who may be able to offer some advice.
How Do I Start My Own Social Network?
A site was created called Ning that allows people to start their own social networks. Ning will set up the basic functionality you need for your social network and allow you to use their service. They allow you to host it all on their servers by using the subdomain.ning.com as your URL. From there you can customize your network and share it with others. The directory on the main page also will allow your directory to be found by new visitors to Ning as well.
If you want to create something outside of the box, contact us and we’ll help you get started!
Photo Credit: Max di Over Dreamvia Flickr
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