Un-Social Networking?
Silent Rob and I recently started an ambitious project to review many of the major social networking sites in the next few weeks. Part of it is strictly personal interest, but there is a certain “research” aspect of it as well. Of course the point of a social networking website is to make contacts. At this point, net-friends and dating/hooking-up seem to be the majority of contacts that come from these sites, and it does become important to wonder, can these sites ever create real-world, business or industryÂ? contacts, or does it really take away from being social and actually meeting people.Â?
One of my first thoughts was of Meetup. A different spin on a social networking site, Meetup actually arranges real meetings - quite an amazing concept on the web. It seems the site has been around for about four years andÂ? has a couple million members, but I think it has an interesting angle to work.
Interestingly enough, SiliconBeatÂ? happened to be talking about Meetup, as well as Socializr, the new site from Friendster founder Jonathon Abrams. Socializr may come out with a bang, and it could be the next big thing, and of course, I will continue to watch the site, but I wonder, what will make it different? The majority of people you will interact with or that will interact with you will ultimately remain someone you never actually meet. It’s like a work-friend. You may talk to them all the time, spend hours a week with them, but if you don’t actually do anything together outside of work, is that a realÂ? friendship?
With Meetup, it’s obvious what makes the site different. Imagine you’re a young, recent graduate. You have energy and enthusiasm, but you don’t have the contacts or credentials to make things happen. A site like Meetup could provide a means to gain some valuable contacts and maybe learn something from someone who’s “been there, done that” for a couple years. Instead of a simple net-friend, you could actually attend one of the functions and actually meet this person in the real world! The chances of bumping into powerful executives or CEO’s may be unlikely, but if done right, it’s got huge potential.
For now the site seems to be geared towardsÂ? leisureÂ? groups, but a search for groups in my area did turn up a Business Support Network, and I might even check it out myself. I have a feeling this is something that will become more widespread and an important tool for building REAL contacts. This site could very easily exceed the $40million value it’s currently been tagged with.