Comments on: Myspace and Facebook Losing Ground to Niche Networks? http://www.conversionrater.com/2006/10/27/myspace-and-facebook-losing-ground-to-niche-networks/ A discussion of ecommerce, online advertising, Web 2.0, web entrepreneurship, and just making the web convert for your goals. Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:10:08 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: Joe Suh http://www.conversionrater.com/2006/10/27/myspace-and-facebook-losing-ground-to-niche-networks/#comment-24316 Joe Suh Mon, 30 Oct 2006 01:56:19 +0000 http://www.conversionrater.com/index.php/2006/10/27/myspace-and-facebook-losing-ground-to-niche-networks/#comment-24316 Thanks Pat. I just can't imagine a "social network" for wakeboarders popping up and replacing wakeboarderforums.com (or whatever the popular forum for this interest is). Some believe forums will be obsolete thanks to social networks. Forums aren't going away anytime soon. I think they'll just evolve to get a little more social (very easy to do). Social networks will carve a new niche for communities that are actually networks of people. Launching a social network from the gound up to compete with existing interest-based forums is an exercise in futility imho. Thanks Pat. I just can’t imagine a “social network” for wakeboarders popping up and replacing wakeboarderforums.com (or whatever the popular forum for this interest is).

Some believe forums will be obsolete thanks to social networks. Forums aren’t going away anytime soon. I think they’ll just evolve to get a little more social (very easy to do). Social networks will carve a new niche for communities that are actually networks of people. Launching a social network from the gound up to compete with existing interest-based forums is an exercise in futility imho.

]]> By: Pat McCarthy http://www.conversionrater.com/2006/10/27/myspace-and-facebook-losing-ground-to-niche-networks/#comment-23871 Pat McCarthy Sat, 28 Oct 2006 03:53:13 +0000 http://www.conversionrater.com/index.php/2006/10/27/myspace-and-facebook-losing-ground-to-niche-networks/#comment-23871 Hi Joe, Great comment, and I like your point about the social network really being about your network instead of people who share interests. That is one point I missed a little bit, however most serious forum users start to really get to know and feel connected to other forum posters in a way that they'd list them as a friend in the normal social networking sense. Perhaps that's the way it will shake out, Myspace and Facebook remain your personal network, while "interest networks" can form as well. Hi Joe,

Great comment, and I like your point about the social network really being about your network instead of people who share interests. That is one point I missed a little bit, however most serious forum users start to really get to know and feel connected to other forum posters in a way that they’d list them as a friend in the normal social networking sense.

Perhaps that’s the way it will shake out, Myspace and Facebook remain your personal network, while “interest networks” can form as well.

]]> By: Joe Suh http://www.conversionrater.com/2006/10/27/myspace-and-facebook-losing-ground-to-niche-networks/#comment-23819 Joe Suh Fri, 27 Oct 2006 22:48:31 +0000 http://www.conversionrater.com/index.php/2006/10/27/myspace-and-facebook-losing-ground-to-niche-networks/#comment-23819 Some people view social networks as Forum 2.0. Forums are great for being affinity-based - connecting people from around the world around a similar interest. Given this community, is there room for social networks built from the ground up? Seems like existing forum software can easily incorporate some light social networking features (some already are as you pointed out). I think vertical and niched social networking will have to address community dynamics that aren't met or addressable by forums. Face-to-face interaction is key imho. A real-life network that gets represented online. This is a very different dynamic from a social network of say wakeboarders or cigar afficienados - both of which existing forum software with some light social networking features is more than sufficient to meet the affinity-based discussion. While I would love to discuss wakeboarding with my fellow wakeboarding enthusiasts, I don't really need to network with people I've never met in real life (and never will). I think a social network woefully misses the point if it tries to create a community around an interest and not a network. Some people view social networks as Forum 2.0. Forums are great for being affinity-based – connecting people from around the world around a similar interest. Given this community, is there room for social networks built from the ground up? Seems like existing forum software can easily incorporate some light social networking features (some already are as you pointed out).

I think vertical and niched social networking will have to address community dynamics that aren’t met or addressable by forums. Face-to-face interaction is key imho. A real-life network that gets represented online.

This is a very different dynamic from a social network of say wakeboarders or cigar afficienados – both of which existing forum software with some light social networking features is more than sufficient to meet the affinity-based discussion.

While I would love to discuss wakeboarding with my fellow wakeboarding enthusiasts, I don’t really need to network with people I’ve never met in real life (and never will). I think a social network woefully misses the point if it tries to create a community around an interest and not a network.

]]>