What was one of the first social networks I joined? It wasn’t LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or even MySpace. It was GoodReads. I’m a big time book nerd, and I love that Good Reads let me search and review books and see what my friends are reading. I can keep track of books I’ve read, sort them by “shelves” and mark books that I’d like to read in the future.
But as Facebook and Twitter continue their dominance among social networks, GoodReads has done a nice job adapting and integrating. I can login to GoodReads via Facebook Connect and add the GoodReads app to my Facebook profile, which lets me post my book reviews as a status update. I can send book recommendations to Twitter with one click and I can search across my Twitter and Facebook friends to see who’s on GoodReads and easily add them to my friend list.
The key with niche social networks is keeping activity levels high – if no one uses a network, it’s not very social, and will probably wither on the vine. As Facebook has clearly emerged as the platform of the masses, it only makes sense to ensure that your niche network is integrated (if users choose) with Facebook (and probably Twitter, too).
One-Stop Shopping
Need an analogy? The way the retail landscape in the US has changed over the last 50 years provides a parallel. In the 1960s, hardware stores sold hardware, appliance stores sold televisions and washing machines, sporting goods stores sold fishing poles. Along came WalMart and put everything under one roof. Sure, specialty stores still exist today, but a majority of Americans have moved all their purchasing to a one-stop shop. [Avoiding side treatise on small business vs. conglomerates and respective impacts on community.]
So, if Facebook is becoming the WalMart of social networks, then the niche networks need to figure out how to integrate and play along with Facebook, like GoodReads has done. Make it easy for your members and users to participate in the content on your network. If most of them are already spending a lot of time from Facebook, then figure out how to make your niche network thrive on that platform. Don’t make them shop around, because except for your most passionate members, many of them probably won’t do it. I probably would have given up on GoodReads long ago if I wasn’t reminded of the site each time I logged into Facebook and saw the tab on my profile.
What are your experiences? Have you joined and given up on niche social networks because they weren’t convenient? Would you rather hop around to different niche communities on the Web or use a common platform like Facebook to interact? Let me know in the comments.
Image via Flickr user Auntie_P
Great Blog Amy!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE Goodreads.
I agree with you. If a site doesn’t want to play nice with Facebook their not going to get too far now adays. I do wonder though, will there be another website that we all migrate too after Facebook? 3 years ago it was all about MySpace. Who goes over there anymore? I have two or three friends hellbent to stay there, but because of it, I miss some of their blogs. Friendster lasted all of about 5 minutes. Twitter seems to be fun, but honestly at the end of the day FB status updates are the same thing. I do prefer to use a common platform.
Rose, good point about the transience of Facebook. That’s why it’s important the niche networks maintain their home base – always a place to return to when/if another popular platform fades away. But integrating the data and participation with Facebook is at least a way to juice participation and “go where the audience is.”
“Along came WalMart and put everything under one roof” I might be wrong here, but didn’t they used to call these Department Stores? :-)
True, but WalMart took the idea of a department store to an entirely new level such that it became much harder for niche/specialty stores to compete.
Amy – great post. I have never heard of GoodReads, but will sign up now since I am a book nerd like you. The analogy of Wal-Mart is great as well since they came out with a truly competition-crushing business model that forced retailers into a with us or against us mentality. We’re also seeing someone like Target modeling their new stores after Wal-Mart. Also curious how their push to catch Amazon will go.
The only downside of the post is that your bowl of cherries has made me starving.
Haha, sorry to make your stomach grumble! You’ll enjoy GoodReads – one of my favorite places on the Interwebz.
The way Facebook is heading, everyone will be on there. Seriously. I had a discussion this weekend about brands making social networks hosted on their own website. Personally, I believe that’s a strategy destined for failure 95% of the time. The brand is trying to make a community, which is great, but without Facebook Connect, openID, and other Oauth things, it’s pretty inconvenient for most users. Sure, there are brands I love, but I can’t think of one for which I would actively engage in a separated social network. Why would you try to build a community when, in all likelihood, your community is already on Facebook. Go to your customers, don’t force them to come to you. The same works for website, like GoodReads. For example, if I see “5 of your friends posted a book review on GoodReads”, I’m much more likely to check it out as opposed to one friend casually mentioning it in passing.
Back to my main point- think of Facebook like the town. The houses (personal profiles) are already built. It’s up to brands, websites, etc. to build the town halls, coffee houses, gyms, and more <- the gathering places.
The key is to determine where your audience is – it may be Facebook, it may not, and then figure out how you can expand your niche network across other networks where your members might participate. I agree that if you’re continually seeing updates from Facebook friends about a particular app, you’re likely to check out that app. I know a few of my GoodReads contacts have found the site through reading some of the reviews I posted as FB status updates. But Dave and Rose also bring up a good point in that we need to be careful not to put too much stock into any one platform, as who knows what will become of it in years or months ahead.
I might be a contrarian here, but I urge caution about turning your social networking completely over to Facebook. Colby’s “think of Facebook like the town” sounds just like the conversation marketers were having about AOL ten years ago. Don’t give FB too much power or they’ll truly end up owning your web presence. I’ve blogged about this:
http://lightbulbinteractive.blogspot.com/2009/12/facbook-2009-aol-1998-with-one-big.html
Good analogy (with AOL) to remind us not to take the analogy too far. :) Thanks for sharing your post. I think you’re right in that organizations need to balance “going where the audience is” with maintaining at least a little control of their social outposts. That’s why I like GoodReads’ approach – they have kept their own Web ‘property’ but allowed for pretty robust integration with Facebook and Twitter, where a lot of their members also participate.
Great points Amy – you gotta fish where the fish are, but make sure you have a varied diet. :-)
I’m a book nerd too, but I don’t know anything about GoodReads. Rather, one of the first niche networks I joined was the Internet Movie DataBase, back in the late ’90s when it was hosted on an academic server before the guys took it commercial. The fundamentals of ranking movies and TV shows, and adding reviews, etc., haven’t changed. Despite no connection to other sites, it remains one of the most popular movie websites out there.
Good read you got there. Pun intended.
Thanks for the tip, Amy! I haven’t used Good Reads much since I signed up ages ago, but now that I know I can mush it together with Facebook, I might actually get off my butt and start getting through the towering pile of books I need to read!