Social Success.

So I just briefly looked at a post about online communities and how in different areas companies are hoping to become the facebook for that market. This was specifically talking about a company that wants to be the “facebook” for  churches.

- I don’t think it will work, I don’t think it would work for any venue or market,  at least not going about it with that strategy. Its too broad. Think about how facebook grew. It became popular on a small market (Harvard) and then was slowly released onto more and more campuses. At first it added to the prestige of it; our University has facebook - separating your school as a cutting edge school, not academically but culturally. Now in just a few years facebook is known and used world wide – in my opinion (and within my limited knowledge) it is the best example of the interwoveness of the world wide web. It worked. So big news, facebook was popular. BUT – How did they go about it ? – they mastered a small market, saturated i, used that momentum and then grew from there. Rather than hoping to start broad and pull from lots of people, they mastered a market, excelled there, and the idea grew.   SO for those of my readers that are interested in starting their own social network – think about it before you start. But in actuality I think this general idea (not principal, just idea) is worth thinking through; it could help when you are thinking strategically about anything to do with influencing people.

~ by matthewv on August 4, 2008.