Weekly Posting 5: Lost in networks

An interesting post on Mr. Anderson's personal blog made me think about social networks. So far we have seen the development of many mass-socialnetworking websites. MySpace, Facebook and Hyves are all huge friend networks. Then of course there are the more professional networking website like LinkedIn and some smaller networks which are more branch-specific. It is actually strange that in a time where marketing is more and more about niches, and favorably one-to-one, there are these mass social networks. Users define their preferences, hobbies and characteristics and advertisers have to find their potential customers in the mass.
Chris Anderson puts social networking in a different perspective. He says: "Social networking is a feature, not a destination." He believes that when social networking becomes a standard feature on any good website which is focussed on a niche, the community will work best.

I understand mr. Anderson's point; on a niche market's website, there are usually people with the same interest for that specific niche. The chances are big there is a match between those people and so a community can become reality. I also believe that up to a certain level, this can work. For example if we look at traveling. If there is a specific company who organizes fishing holidays, I can imagine a social network on the website where people can exchange experiences, make recommendations, find partners to go on a holiday with, etc.

But I do wonder though if this will really be as successful as mr. Anderson thinks it will be. I really think it's limited to very specific markets. People do not have only one interest and I wonder if they would like to sign up for 30 different communities. One for their favorite shoe brand where they discuss the new designs, one for their favorite rice where they can make friends with people who all like the same rice and one for all people who brush their teeth with ToothpasteX. Lost in networks.

The thing that makes social networking interesting, is also discovering about other people's preferences; either in music, art, clothing, traveling or any other thing. Isn't that partly what keeps the Long Tail going? That people constantly keep discovering new things they've never heard of before, but like anyway? Mass social networks make sure this happens. I'm not so sure this is also happens in social networks for every niche market...