I'm participating in an online event hosted by TechSoup that will help non-profits understand Social Networking and what it can and can't do for them.
TechSoup is a cool organization that brings together technology companies and non profits. They've helped a ton of non profits by not only bringing free/cheap technology to them but also by helping them figure out how to use it.
Erik Laurence made an interesting comment on my last post. He says:
What she fails to realize is it media companies are not about great content. They're about monetizing great content.
I agree with Erik that you do need to monetize the great content but I think we'd both agree that great content is the starting point.
One interesting thougth I had is can you have a site where the Ads are the content? So if you look at a magazine like Vogue - 90% of the content is advertising. Could you have a website that was the same?
I guess you could argue that the Million Dollar Homepage is an example of this but the problem is that once you've filled up the page you've made your million bucks and are done. How can you scale that?
Danah Boyd who is one of the pioneering researchers in the field writes about why Friendster failed and MySpace succeeded. Based on my time at Tribe.net I agree with much of what she has to say.
Here's a section that I agree with wholeheartedly and which I don't think many people in the Social Networking space understand:
It is not about technological perfection.
Portability of identity doesn't matter. Easy-to-use interfaces don't matter. Visual coherence doesn't matter. Simple navigation doesn't matter. Bugs don't matter. Fancy new technologies don't matter. Simple personalization doesn't matter.
Before you scream "but it does to me!" let me acknowledge that you're right. It does matter to you. The question is whether it matters to the masses. And it doesn't. Especially for teens.
Anyone doing a social network must realize that they are in the media business and NOT the technology business. Think of yourself as a magazine. What's important in a magazine? Is it a really easy to use table of contents? Is it color coded pages that let you find content more easily? No - it's all about really great content.
Why don't more people in the social networking business realize that?
