Since this is a one man and presently a non commercial blog, I don't know till what date this fact will remain true, but at present this is the truth and by the virtue of that truth this blog is one of my personal blogs. By personal blogs, I mean to say that sometimes few personal things will leak into it, and thats not a crime (since I haven't found any law book).
To start with, I have started doing yoga, and to mention I attended Baba Ramdev's yoga camp. But that was no camp if you go by numbers, cos' there were some 20k+ people who attended it daily for 6 days. But why am I sharing all this information on GG which is a geeky blog, about latest in technology, or web, or in other words anything techy to mention?
Web2.0 as I feel is more about sharing than about AJAX+Javascript+interactivity etc. But what sharing are we talking about, sharing to what limit. Am I supposed to share the names of girlfriends I have or the state of my stomach after eating a roadside chowmeen, which indeed I am not going to, and would prefer to leave it on your brain power.
Success of any new social network of any type known or unknown is based on few things:
Getting the alpha guy/girl : You can go on Mashable and find a new social network reviewed daily. Sometimes its for papa, sometimes for mumma, sometimes for dog lovers, some times for gays and some times for not so gays also, that you start feeling that you can open a social network of own for banana lovers. But key to success of any social network is to get the alpha guy/girl/gay/mom/dad/banana lover. You get them and you get their group most likely.
So to have successful social network you need to get alpha for your beta. And let me tell you best alpha to get is a blogger(guy/girl/gay/mom/dad/banana lover) to cover your beta.
Being an important part of communication : My prime motivation behind this blog post is Robert Scoble's daily rambling about Twitter. How? Go to his blog and as of present you may find every 3rd post mentioning Twitter and sometimes you feel that he is working for them(likely not). Twitter some how became an integral part of his daily communication, and to mention he is an alpha(guy/dad/and who knows, a banana lover). Falling on my experience on which I can certainly bank on is importance of Orkut in my communication. I dont find a new friend daily, neither I scroll through friends of friends of friends, what I mostly do is communicate with people I know, and thus it is an important part of my communication. But a communication will only occur if you have active friends in your list, and not like a girl who added me as her friend and never scrapped me back, and she seldom visit Orkut now. Hell, I really feel bad, for her not contacting me.
Keeping user motivated : To understand it, you can refer the last few lines of previous paragraph, about the girl. She probably lost the motivation and now she does not feel any need to visit Orkut any more, or else there is some kind of stigma regarding social networking. And some poor news for poor Orkut didn't helped the cause either. But all in all we can sat that user lost her or his motivation to stick to a particular network. This can probably occur due to stigma factor or utility factor. For any social network like any FMCG, its utility is very important. Social networks can easily be classified as FMCG of web, or as a pack of FMCGs. Now if I find another social network which is more useful than the one I am spending most of my time currently, then I may shift keeping other two points in mind, which once again weave all the points together.
One point which I mentioned but didnt included it in the main 3s was the acceptance of any social network in a society. Acceptance derives its roots from the upbringing, complete social outlook and many other factors which are are worth of a PhD research. I don't think that a banana lover's network would be successful in India, but it may be a super hit in Banana Island. Because Indians might not find apt to share their banana eating skills or habits. Or there can be a stigma attached of 'What if?' if tell others that I eat two bananas at one go and like this there can be more and can be different for other social networks.
To sum it all, I can only tell you one thing, try as many social networks as possible but do keep a list of them, because you never know that one of those social network start fulfilling all these points one day, and become a hit between you and your friend. And yes one more thing, best way to check that whether you are alpha(...) is to join a social network and then send invitations to your friends and then see how many of them joined it.
To start with, I have started doing yoga, and to mention I attended Baba Ramdev's yoga camp. But that was no camp if you go by numbers, cos' there were some 20k+ people who attended it daily for 6 days. But why am I sharing all this information on GG which is a geeky blog, about latest in technology, or web, or in other words anything techy to mention?
Web2.0 as I feel is more about sharing than about AJAX+Javascript+interactivity etc. But what sharing are we talking about, sharing to what limit. Am I supposed to share the names of girlfriends I have or the state of my stomach after eating a roadside chowmeen, which indeed I am not going to, and would prefer to leave it on your brain power.
Success of any new social network of any type known or unknown is based on few things:
- Getting the alpha guy or girl.
- Being an important part of communication.
- And keeping users motivated.
Getting the alpha guy/girl : You can go on Mashable and find a new social network reviewed daily. Sometimes its for papa, sometimes for mumma, sometimes for dog lovers, some times for gays and some times for not so gays also, that you start feeling that you can open a social network of own for banana lovers. But key to success of any social network is to get the alpha guy/girl/gay/mom/dad/banana lover. You get them and you get their group most likely.
So to have successful social network you need to get alpha for your beta. And let me tell you best alpha to get is a blogger(guy/girl/gay/mom/dad/banana lover) to cover your beta.
Being an important part of communication : My prime motivation behind this blog post is Robert Scoble's daily rambling about Twitter. How? Go to his blog and as of present you may find every 3rd post mentioning Twitter and sometimes you feel that he is working for them(likely not). Twitter some how became an integral part of his daily communication, and to mention he is an alpha(guy/dad/and who knows, a banana lover). Falling on my experience on which I can certainly bank on is importance of Orkut in my communication. I dont find a new friend daily, neither I scroll through friends of friends of friends, what I mostly do is communicate with people I know, and thus it is an important part of my communication. But a communication will only occur if you have active friends in your list, and not like a girl who added me as her friend and never scrapped me back, and she seldom visit Orkut now. Hell, I really feel bad, for her not contacting me.
Keeping user motivated : To understand it, you can refer the last few lines of previous paragraph, about the girl. She probably lost the motivation and now she does not feel any need to visit Orkut any more, or else there is some kind of stigma regarding social networking. And some poor news for poor Orkut didn't helped the cause either. But all in all we can sat that user lost her or his motivation to stick to a particular network. This can probably occur due to stigma factor or utility factor. For any social network like any FMCG, its utility is very important. Social networks can easily be classified as FMCG of web, or as a pack of FMCGs. Now if I find another social network which is more useful than the one I am spending most of my time currently, then I may shift keeping other two points in mind, which once again weave all the points together.
One point which I mentioned but didnt included it in the main 3s was the acceptance of any social network in a society. Acceptance derives its roots from the upbringing, complete social outlook and many other factors which are are worth of a PhD research. I don't think that a banana lover's network would be successful in India, but it may be a super hit in Banana Island. Because Indians might not find apt to share their banana eating skills or habits. Or there can be a stigma attached of 'What if?' if tell others that I eat two bananas at one go and like this there can be more and can be different for other social networks.
To sum it all, I can only tell you one thing, try as many social networks as possible but do keep a list of them, because you never know that one of those social network start fulfilling all these points one day, and become a hit between you and your friend. And yes one more thing, best way to check that whether you are alpha(...) is to join a social network and then send invitations to your friends and then see how many of them joined it.
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