Categories: Articles

Create Your Own Social Network With Ning

I always get a kick out of examining what works (and what doesn’t work) when it comes to the Digital Marketing landscape. Have you ever taken a second to evaluate why Friendster got scooped by MySpace and how Facebook is grabbing people from that scene now? What makes one online social network work while others fail? I think about this stuff a lot (that’s how I roll).
Many moons back (I’d say just under a year), I was introduced to Ning. Ning allows anybody (for free) to create their own independent online social network. Unlike Facebook where you create your own personal file or group within the Facebook environment, Ning gives the individual the power to design and execute a centralized online community without being boxed into a larger social network structure. Think Blogger but for online social networks.
Here’s how Ning describes what they do:
“From eBay sellers in Upstate New York to bead store owners in Maine, aspiring hip hop artists in New Jersey, pop culture junkies in New York City, college professors in Germany, young deviant artists in North Carolina, and even a few big media companies in LA, with Ning anyone can create the perfect social network for them… When we started, we wanted to enable a diversity of social networks the same way the web browser enabled millions of different websites.”
The big question (and I hope you’re asking this) is how is this not the biggest, hottest and most used platform on the Internet? Why would anyone want the constraints of a Facebook profile and be limited to only having access to other Facebook members for their online social network?
There’s nothing inherently obvious about why Ning is not out-pacing Facebook (although, we could argue that they need to beef up their marketing and PR for more mass attention). After having played with Ning and being deeply engaged by most of the other online social networks, I’ve come to the realization that giving such openness and freedom might be too much for the mass population. That giving people the full flexibility to build, deploy and grow their own online social network might be way scarier than filling out a personal profile and uploading a picture of oneself to Facebook.
Bottom line: I think Ning is on to something pretty big and I’m more than little concerned that they might just be a little too early for everybody to realize it.
Whether it’s for myself or Twist Image clients, I’m dedicating some time and resources to leaning more about Ning.
Our good friend, Chris Brogan, has set up an online social network via Ning that is worth checking out here: Grasshoppers.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.