So Many Social Networks, So Little Time

In the past few months, there seems to have been an explosion in the world of social networks. An arena that was once, and by most reports still is, dominated by MySpace and now Facebook, has spawn countless new social networks. My main question is not whether there is value in each of these sites, but whether any of them have what it takes to survive and grow.

If you’re in the marketing/advertising field, or participate in social networks, you’ve probably noticed somewhat of a decline in your friends’ participation on MySpace. A year or 2 ago, it seems like everyone on MySpace participated daily and spent a lot of time on the site. Lots of people even “collected” friends and bragged about who had the most. Now, the only friend requests I get are from girls who want me to visit their web cams or bands that I’ve never heard of. This isn’t to say that MySpace is finished, they’re still growing at an amazing rate and are adding new features all the time. There’s just been a large contingent of people migrating to Facebook.

I’m one of the people that falls into this category. Just a week or two ago I decided to actually create a Facebook account. It’s not that I had anything against Facebook before, I just didn’t feel like managing another social network account. But, I got bored of never seeing anything new on MySpace, so I took the plunge. There’s also been so much buzz surrounding Facebook in the marketing community this summer. You can’t read any industry site without seeing at least one article claiming that Facebook is the greatest company ever and is taking over the world. Ok, maybe that’s a bit much, but marketing people sure do love talking about the next big thing.

For now, at least, it seems like MySpace and Facebook will continue to dominate the broad, more general social networking marketplace. That fact, however, has not stopped the launch of countless niche social networks. Here’s a couple of the sites I have accounts with. Notice, I didn’t say that I actually participate in these communities. For the majority of these, I’ve checked them out and maybe even check in regularly, but haven’t participated in their communities:

Flickr - I joined this photo sharing site a few years ago. I’ve uploaded maybe 30 photos to the site. So far, this has only served as a place for me to store pictures.

iLike - iLike connects you with people who have the same musical tastes as you and exposes you to new music that is similar to what you like. I download the app and attached it to my iTunes. It’s a cool idea, but again, I’ve never actually talked to anyone in the community.

Yelp - Yelp is a really cool site that is all about social reviewing. Basically, you enter the city that you are in or are traveling to and can find reviews on anything from restaurants, to nightlife, to hotels, to the best tattoo shops. I just joined this last week, so I can’t really say whether I will write reviews, but I’ve definitely already read a bunch. This is a site worth checking out.

Pownce - Pownce has been heralded in some trade pubs as the next big thing. I think this is mostly because it was created by the guys who created Digg. Pownce is currently invitation-only and has a rather small user base. This site is really to be used for file sharing between friends. This could be useful, but unless your friends are here, it’s kind of pointless.

These are just a few of the many social networks seemingly popping up daily. Others include MeetUp, LastFM, Funny or Die, and many more.

Now, back to my main point for this post. Do you think any of these niche social networks will grow and ever be as successful, if not as large, as MySpace, Facebook, or YouTube? Perhaps there will be another site that was created by some high school student that everyone now uses. Or, in 5 years will social networking be something that we all used to do, but got bored with?

One thing is for sure. Every marketer wants to create a strong social networking site to engage their customers or audience. I listened to a pitch yesterday for a new social network that “combines all the best parts of YouTube, MySpace and Facebook”. I don’t doubt that these guys spent a lot of time and thought and didn’t plenty of research before building this site. But, the question remains, will anyone actually participate in this community? Because that’s what makes a social networking site work: people communicating through the medium. It doesn’t matter how cool a site is unless you know or can easily meet people there.

It’s like going to a blow-out party. If you have a bunch of friends there and are introduced to new people and can easily meet others, then you’ll stay all night and have a blast. But, if you go to a party, whether big or small, and you don’t know anyone there and everyone is kind of standoffish, you’ll probably leave pretty quickly. Even if you thought the party was cool, it’s the people you know and can meet that decides whether you will have a good experience and want to return.