In a recent Businessweek article, The Big Trends in Small Social Sites, it says that there is good news for marketers, Facebook has opened the way for focused social networks. Sites like goFISHn, Dogster, Eons, and PatientsLikeMe, each cater to people with a common interest. The niche social sites depend on Facebook to get users educated about networking online, but offer the user an experience that gets away from the Facebook me-centric noise to more of a we-centric experience.
These sites are small, but, according to Comstore, in July more than 280 million people logged on to niche social sites. Advertisers have a willingness to pay higher rates for page views because of the targeted audience. The appeal is obviously the focus on the subject matter, so the question to answer, will this segment of social networking grow and be of value to the consumer and advertiser?
For me, I am new to social networking - joined Facebook a year ago. Frankly, I stay away from it because it is noisy. Although I found specific brand and product Facebook pages of value, I have to say the interest specific social network does appeal to me because I believe I would get more from it. How do you feel about a niche social network experience?
I kind of see both sides of the coin with this one.
ReplyDeleteOn the one hand, the idea of a focused social network - let's take a health care site like PatientsLikeMe. People have a direct path to a discussion which they find relevant (the WebMD of social networks), thus as Carl said, saving themselves the headache of sifting through irrelevant chatter.
On the other hand, let's peak at their privacy policy. Specifically, a few sentences:
"To create the best possible tools, research and functionality for patients, PatientsLikeMe may use your personally identifiable information internally as needed."
"Other members, and sometimes Partners (pursuant to written agreements designed to limit the use and disclosure of your personally identifiable information), will be able to view your Profile Data. Additionally, so that others can learn from your experiences, your Profile Data will be aggregated and made available to other members and non-members."
Sounds good, with some quips about build-in privacy security mentioned. However, I do wonder about the adoption of social networks (as I do with EMRs) from the perspective of data ownership.
Am I being paranoid here???