TNL.net

5 reasons why social networks can succeed

22nd
28

After explor­ing why social net­works fail, I also have to con­sider why peo­ple are still join­ing them, in spite of their fail­ures. So, going along the same approach, here I am with 5 rea­sons why social net­works can succeed:

5. Viral Nature

They key to social net­works quickly mov­ing up in size is their viral nature. Because peo­ple who get on those need to expand their net­work, they invite their friends. And those friends, in turn, invite their friends. The viral nature of a new social net­work is an impor­tant part to mak­ing it succeed.

Some net­works have taken the model one step fur­ther by being “by invi­ta­tion only”. Ini­tially, this rep­re­sents a cer­tain level of exclu­siv­ity, with peo­ple then try­ing to get in. This exclu­siv­ity breaks down, though, if the social net­works do not have a mech­a­nism to slow down or limit the num­ber of new invi­ta­tions going out. All it takes to tear down that sense of exclu­siv­ity is for one per­son to start invit­ing hordes of people. 

4. Online Identity

Not every­one has a per­sonal web­site. It may come as a shock to most of my read­ers but, for some peo­ple, social net­works per­sonal pages are the only place where peo­ple main­tain an iden­tity. Some, like MySpace, have cap­i­tal­ized on that effect by pro­vid­ing tools that allow to enhance those pro­files in ways that make them indis­tinct from per­sonal sites, beyond the fact that the URL is on the ser­vice instead of being a per­sonal one. 

3. Enhanced Knowledge

When used prop­erly, social net­works can be a great way to enhance knowl­edge. Tap­ping into one’s social net­work can allow for peo­ple to fill an infor­ma­tion gap if mem­bers of their extended social net­work have deep sub­ject mat­ter exper­tise in a cer­tain area. At the cur­rent time, few social net­work­ing sites have used that capa­bil­ity but, I believe this is one of the most use­ful aspects of social net­work­ing sites. 

2. Basic human need to share

The pro­lif­er­a­tion of blogs have shown that peo­ple love to share their opin­ion. The pro­lif­er­a­tion of the open source move­ment shows that some peo­ple love to share their exper­tise. I think there is a deeply rooted need among human beings to share, whether it is infor­ma­tion or opin­ions. Social net­works appeal to the altru­is­tic side of peo­ple by allow­ing them to share their con­nec­tion and intro­duce friends to other friends. 

1. Basic human need to connect

Most of all, though, human beings are social crea­tures. As such, the root of all suc­cess from social net­work­ing sites is based on a need to con­nect and expand con­nec­tions. For most of his­tory, con­nec­tions were largely lim­ited by geo­graph­i­cal or eco­nomic con­sid­er­a­tions. Social net­works allow peo­ple to expand their con­nec­tions around inter­ests. This first appeared with the rise of Usenet and bul­letin boards, where mem­bers formed com­mu­ni­ties around spe­cific inter­ests and has now expanded into the social net­work­ing realm, where peo­ple can find out more about peo­ple who are most like them. 

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28 Comments

  1. 1 | networking-social.com | Infos, actus et prospective du networking social — January 9, 2007 at 6:54 am

    Cela fait presque qua­tre ans que le net­work­ing social est un phénomèné de masse (aux US tout du moins). Tris­tant Louis fait le point en lis­tant ce qui marche et ce qui né marche pas… Une lec­ture indis­pens­able. Les 5 pistes pour aller au succès Les 5 erreurs à né pas faire Pub­lié réflections, social net­work­ing, analyse, vie privée, social soft­ware, Réseaux Soci­aux | Mod­i­fier | Aucun commentaire »

  2. 2Recuerdos del día de mañana — November 22, 2006 at 6:18 pm

    redes sociales son el indi­viduo más característico de la nueva edad dig­i­tal donde el cam­bio y la relación gana-gana es la reina porque de otra man­era sería imposi­ble. Las características de éxito de las redes sociales se basan en, según tnl: Por la nat­u­raleza viral de la información, por que no todo el mundo tiene una iden­ti­dad dig­i­tal y nece­sita una forma de entrar en juego, porque hace aumen­tar el conocimiento, porque los seres humanos nece­si­ta­mos com­par­tir y conectar.

  3. 3Joel Cere on Reputation Protection And Brand Promotion In The Blog Era — October 8, 2006 at 7:50 pm

    Tris­tan Louis gives us 5 rea­sons why social net­works fail and 5 rea­sons why social net­works can suc­ceed. I would add that social net­works can fail or suc­ceed depend­ing on whether they attract the right type of crowd at the first place, then bal­ance mem­bers qual­ity and quan­tity. Exam­ple: if you and your friends joined a social net­work, only to find out

  4. 4WHOLLYDEV — September 11, 2006 at 6:28 am

    5 rea­sons why social net­works can suc­ceed 5 rea­sons why social net­works fail Top Ten Under­served Web 2.0 Mar­kets Posted in Social Net­works, Web 2.0 | 1 Comment

  5. 5Boinblog — August 7, 2006 at 7:26 pm

    Cela fait presque qua­tre ans que le net­work­ing social est un phénomèné de masse (aux US tout du moins). Tris­tant Louis fait le point en lis­tant ce qui marche et ce qui né marche pas… Une lec­ture indis­pens­able. Les 5 pistes pour aller au succès Les 5 erreurs à né pas faire Mr Boin | Social Soft­ware | [IMG Date:] samedi 1 juil­let 2006 à 10:19 | [IMG Com­men­taires:] 0 | [IMG Track­backs:] 0

  6. 6La Pastilla Roja — July 21, 2006 at 6:21 pm

    Tris­tan Louis pub­lica un par de posts en su blog al respecto de las redes sociales: 5 rea­sons why social net­works can suc­ceed y 5 rea­sons why social net­works fail. 1. Para los humanos es esen­cial­mente nece­sario de conec­tarse entre ellos. 2. Hoy en día es nece­sario com­par­tir el conocimiento para hacer pro­gre­sos significativos.

  7. 7 Svejo.net: Един от първите Social Network сайтове у нас? | NovaVizia.com - Издание за мениджмънт, бизне — May 16, 2007 at 5:03 am

    Десет глупави начина да попречим на пазарното навлизане на нов продукт 5 причини защо се провалят социалните мрежи 5 причини защо социалните мрежи могат да успеят Ситуационна приложимост в социалните мрежи Дълъг списък със сайтове тип “социална мрежа” Share This

  8. 8Boinblog — August 7, 2006 at 7:26 pm

    Cela fait presque qua­tre ans que le net­work­ing social est un phénomèné de masse (aux US tout du moins). Tris­tant Louis fait le point en lis­tant ce qui marche et ce qui né marche pas… Une lec­ture indis­pens­able. Les 5 pistes pour aller au succès Les 5 erreurs à né pas faire Mr Boin | Social Soft­ware | [IMG Date:] samedi 1 juil­let 2006 à 10:19 | [IMG Com­men­taires:] 0 | [IMG Track­backs:] 0

  9. 9jim's blog — January 1, 1970 at 12:00 am

  10. 10Fred — June 29, 2006 at 1:40 pm

    Tris­tan, really nice posts. I thought you might find inter­est­ing sit­u­a­tional rel­e­vance in social net­work­ing — here’s a link.

  11. 11C. Enrique Ortiz — June 29, 2006 at 10:47 pm

    Tris­tan, great sum­mary… Note that what you’ve described is the essence of social net­works… yes why they would suc­ceed, but it is more than that. Very good.

    ceo

  12. 12Elroy Jetson » Blog Archive » Why Social Networks fail and succeed — June 30, 2006 at 9:36 am

    […] I stum­bled upon two inter­est­ing blog posts dur­ing my morn­ing read­ing. The first titled “5 rea­sons why social net­works fail” and the sec­ond “5 rea­sons why social net­works can succeed“. These are two well thought out lists of ideas. I am not sure that I con­cur with each of these con­clu­sions, but here is the lists. […]

  13. 13Gobán Saor » links for 2006-07-01 — July 1, 2006 at 10:18 am

    […] 5 rea­sons why social net­works can suc­ceed (tags: social net­works suc­ceed reasons) […]

  14. 14Marketing Routes » Blog Archive » Social Network: punti di forza e debolezza — July 2, 2006 at 5:11 am

    […] Ora, tornando ai punti di forza e debolezza di un social net­work, tra gli ele­menti che pos­sono deter­mi­narne il suc­cesso c’è la loro natura virale, la pos­si­bil­ità di svilup­pare la pro­pria iden­tità online, accresci­mento del pro­prio sapere (su questo aspetto dis­cordo in quanto gen­eral­mente in un social net­work non si appro­fondisce nes­sun tipo di topic speci­fico), la neces­sità di un indi­viduo di con­di­videre e relazionarsi agli altri. […]

  15. 15Denken Ãœber » 5 razones para el éxito o fracaso de las redes sociales — July 3, 2006 at 10:33 pm

    […] Bas­tante intere­santes los artículos que escribió Tris­tan Louis sobre las redes sociales, uno es 5 rea­sons why social net­works fail y el otro es 5 rea­sons why social net­works can suc­ceed (noten el “pueden” que usa en esta parte) […]

  16. 16Web Strategy by Jeremiah » Social Networking Analysis — July 4, 2006 at 11:07 am

    […] Essay Two: 5 rea­sons why social net­works can suc­ceed –Tristan Louis 5. Viral Nature (Jere­miah, Agreed) […]

  17. 17Jimb — July 6, 2006 at 12:09 pm

    ROI has been elu­sive in the social net­work­ing arena except of course for Ad based and mem­ber­ship sites. As more and more com­pa­nies adopt social net­work­ing as a tool for cus­tomer ser­vice, enhanc­ing the mem­ber­ship expe­ri­ence, inter­nal com­mu­ni­ca­tion, and other appli­ca­tions, we will begin to see more and more writ­ten about ROI.

  18. 18netzkobol.de blog — July 14, 2006 at 4:23 pm

    valu­able new ones. they can show how peo­ple in your extended net­work are related to each other but with a lack of infor­ma­tion — the qual­ity of the con­nec­tion. tris­tan louis recently posted some con­tin­u­a­tive thoughts how social net­works can fail or suc­ceed. an very inter­est­ing topic and i’m still anx­ious to see what is going to fol­low … (via a friend’s email and guy kawasaki) update: some inter­est­ing papers on social net­work­ing by danah boyd

  19. 19Web 2.0 — July 19, 2006 at 10:48 pm

    W tema­cie social net­workingu warto zwrócić też uwagÄ™ na dwa ciekawe linki (jeden podesÅ‚any przez kubusz’a w poprzed­nim wpisie o SN). ArtykuÅ‚y to “why social net­works fail” i rozwiniÄ™cie tem­atu “why social net­works can suc­ceed” (nie można z jakiegoÅ› powodu wejść na tego bloga, ale treÅ›ci artykułów można wygrze­bać w google cache). PodajÄ™ w skrócie: Why social net­works fail: Walled Gar­dens — sieci net­workingowe nie sÄ… otwarte — co rusz pow­staje nowa sieć, ale

  20. 20GuiM.fr — July 25, 2006 at 12:50 pm

    Les 5 pistes pour aller au succès Les 5 erreurs à né pas faire Tech­no­rati Tags: net­work­ing, réseaux, social, soci­aux 25/07/2006 dans Lu sur le web, Social Net­work­ing | Lien per­ma­nent | Com­men­taires (0) | Track­Back (0)

  21. 21GuiM Weblog — July 25, 2006 at 12:56 pm

    Les 5 pistes pour aller au succès Les 5 erreurs à né pas faire Tech­no­rati Tags: net­work­ing, réseaux, social, soci­aux 25/07/2006 dans Lu sur le web, Social Net­work­ing | Lien per­ma­nent | Com­men­taires (0) | Track­Back (0)

  22. 22Newbie 2.0 » Blog Archive » Creating a successful social network — August 9, 2006 at 3:01 pm

    […] Why social net­works can succeed […]

  23. 23VIABUZZ » Blog Archive » Social Networking hubbub — September 20, 2006 at 5:45 pm

    […] 5 rea­sons why social net­works can succeed […]

  24. 24Succès et échecs du networking social, Tristant Louis fait le point — January 8, 2007 at 1:52 pm

    […] Les 5 pistes pour aller au succès […]

  25. 25networking-social.com | Succès et échecs du networking social, Tristant Louis fait le point — March 8, 2007 at 5:49 am

    […] Les 5 pistes pour aller au succès […]

  26. 26Marketing & Strategy Innovation Blog — March 27, 2007 at 9:36 pm

    [IMG iStock_000000413234Small.jpg] Here are three inter­est­ing essays about how social net­works work. Highly rel­e­vant read­ing for any­one in a social net­work­ing company—or invest­ing in one. 5 rea­sons why social net­works fail 5 rea­sons why social net­works can suc­ceed Sit­u­a­tional Rel­e­vance in Social Net­work­ing Web­sites Orig­i­nal Post: http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/06/social_networki.html Posted by Future­lab at 2:08 PM | Perma­link | Com­ments (0) | Track­Backs (0)

  27. 27Of Interest — May 10, 2007 at 2:49 am

    Top 10 oppor­tu­ni­ties in vir­tual worlds (in 2007, I actu­ally did some pro­jec­tions on the growth of Sec­ond Life, one of the more pop­u­lar vir­tual world). In par­al­lel, I exam­ined oppor­tu­ni­ties in social net­works, rea­sons for their suc­cess, and poten­tial for fail­ure. One of the issue I see as poten­tially aris­ing is sur­round­ing what hap­pens when vir­tual and real world col­lide? Along with all the other entries I listed here, I started to develop a new view of the future, which I

  28. 28:: The Marketing Fresh Peel :: — September 18, 2007 at 6:00 pm

    To put the main focus on mak­ing money, espe­cially in the infan­tile stages of a social network’s devel­op­ment, misses the true essence of what a social net­work thrives on. Infor­ma­tion Week with 5 Keys To Social Net­work­ing Suc­cess and TNL.net posting5 Rea­sons Why Social Net­works Can Suc­ceed. Both point out impor­tant traits and aspects of social net­work sites that are impor­tant to their suc­cess, but nei­ther directly iden­tify the one aspect that believe is the cor­ner­stone to a suc­cess­ful social net­work site.

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