My main focus as an analyst is on online communities and social networks, if you’ve the same focus, I highly recommend you attend the Graphing Social Patterns conference, started by Dave McClure. The conferences runs deep into the developer discussions, as well as is blossoming with more and more business and marketing discussions. View my blog posts from previous events, including an interview with Dave.
This upcoming east coast version will have at least a few discussions focused on white label social networks, in fact, I’ve been asked to moderate the panel. I’m really looking forward to this focus on these important vendors, as there hasn’t been any conferences that have done a sole focus on the discussion of corporate communities in the context of these tools.
The upcoming GSP East (The West Coast conference was in San Diego a few weeks back) will be held in June 9-11, 2008 in the Washington, DC area, readers of this blog can register with a discount (Save 15% Use Code: gspe08fo). As a partner, attendees will receive a copy of one of my latest reports on “Online Community Best Practices” so please watch for that
I’m giving away 2 free tickets (valued at $1195, each)
Update: 12 hours later While I encourage additional comments, I”ll be selecting the winners from the first 24 comments. I simply don’t have enough bandwidth to compare and contrast all the great answers. The winners will be contacted and announced on this post.
O’Reilly has offered readers of this blog two tickets, during this week, going to select from the comments, simply answer the following question:
Where you think the future of White Label Social networks is headed over the next 5 years, and why you back up that prediction?
If you’re planning to leave a comment, but know you can’t attend the conference, please indicate so, so someone else who is interested in attending will benefit, thanks.
The number of communities built on white label social networks will grow significantly. There has already seen a lot of growth in platforms such as ning, PeopleAggregtor and CollectiveX.
As the market grows, it will reach a consolidation point, where many of the innovators of today will be overtaken by the giants such as Google or Microsoft as the differences will become smaller. This trend is seen in many tech markets, but will take 3 or 4 years to occur. However at the same time other platforms and approaches become available and are used, so the definition of social network comes into play over the course of 5 years. For example, products like Google Friend Connect, can disrupt this growing market by widgetizing the social network component. Distributed Social Networks also come into play were everything is centered around the user, by using a unique identity such as OpenID. Luckily the web is large enough for all types of social networks to grow each filling their niche.
As an end user, it is great to desire a single social network, such a Facebook, to be your one stop for everything. However most organizations are more than 5 years away from letting existing social network take over, and that is why white label social networks are so important. Privacy, Branding, Lock-in, and Control are some of the main issues. A white label SN makes it easy for companies to get value from a social network while still providing the organization control over how the site changes, looks, and who is using it. It may not be ideal for the user of multiple social networks but having different friends on different niche networks is common and data portability standards can help end users manage this.
Here are three trends I believe we will see in the future of white label social networks:
1. Ease of use will trump feature set
Developers often believe that having more features is better than less (http://tinyurl.com/5mhdzl). And software consumers are known for wanting features that they will not use, often because the interface simply does not provide an elegant way to accommodate them all. This leads to bloated software, poor interface design, and buried content. Social networking platforms in the next five years will focus on core functionality (profiles), while including add-ons that support them in a downplayed way.
EVIDENCE:
Basecamp by 37things offers much simpler solutions to project management, democratizing what used to only be available to gantt heads. They go on to sell this ideology through seminars and their book (http://gettingreal.37signals.com/).
Techies opt for Moleskines for notes, rather than complicated and cumbersome PDA solutions (http://tinyurl.com/6lkjou)
Blogging platforms focus on posts above all else, and everything else in the sidebars.
2. Value-adds make the difference
When social networks become a commodity, technology will not create the leading edge. It will be people and marketing. The big questions are 1) will people actually use your site? and 2) how will people know about it?. Therefore, the white label companies that provide add-on services such as SEO optimization, outsourced community management, pre-loaded content based on industry, and built-in customer support functionality will ultimately prevail.
EVIDENCE:
The book “Four Hour Work Week” shows how everything can be outsourced
http://www.getsatisfaction.com shows the power of people-powered customer service
3. Game functionality will be built into the platforms
Gaming elements are already within the successful social networks. Concepts such as collecting, points, leaders, feedback are built into facebook, myspace, flickr and many others. Games make an activity fun, put something at stake, and encourage repeat use. The white label social networking platforms will include options to give points based on activity that the site owner wants to reward, the ability to give members rankings (both manually and automatically), and the power to open up exclusive areas of the site for power users.
EVIDENCE:
Amy Jo Kim’s presentation on gaming dynamics in applications and social networks (http://tinyurl.com/6cxbcn)
Thank you for the great contest. I really hope to join you in Washington!!!
If there is truly a future for whitelabel social netowrks I beleive that a few key things will have to be met. The following types of networks will survive and grow:
1)Networks focused on key verticles or hobbies where the participants are passionate and invovled in their passion on a daily or weekly basis
2)Networks around niche causes and issues that provide significant incremental value by bringing together like minded individuals that would otherwise have a hard time find other similar like minded individuals: eg: Alzheimer’s caregivers, kids with Kidney Reflux issues, Triplets, Emergency Room Nurses, etc where there are issues and topics that these individuals would find value in disucssing and sharing
3)Networks that can exist as a stand alone product but those that can also easily plug into larger networks such as facebook, LinkedIn Hi5, Bebo etc-
4)Networks on a B to B level that again focus around niche industry verticles and bring significant value to the participating individuals and groups as mentioned in # 2 above
The statements above are already proving our in some of the trends we are seeing in the Web2.0 world today and in the way that people are using social networks for both business and pleasure.
I would love to go to the DC event
I think a lot of these comments are right on, but they’re missing one point. Firstly, let me say that I do think there is a future for white label social networks.
I’ll add to some of the comments above and say that part of the reason I think there’s a future is that, despite many of the great points above about how businesses SHOULD be using social networks, a lot of businesses will continue incorporating these platforms into their existing offerings.
That’s not to imply that this is a BAD thing, but to address many of the points above is addressing an issue that I view as outside the direct rise or fall of WLSNs (that was much easier to type). They can be useful and effective if used properly. I believe they’ll continue to be used regardless. The better question might be HOW they are used, and if there’s some way to couple WLSN expansion with effective marketing techniques instead of just offering a platform with it. I believe some of these companies do that (I did some work with Vitrue a while back, and I believe they offer marketing consulting along with their platform).
By doing this, it will only encourage even more expansion. By not doing this, I still think the next five years looks good WSLN, but with some adopters not knowing what they’re doing. Yes, there are a ton of social networks out there… but if you can make yours important enough to the consumer, that’s the key.
And yes, I’d love to go to DC.
I think Ken is dead in and deserves the free ticket! If you need a companion, feel free to holler!
24 is so arbitrary, how ’bout 26 for a fresh perspective?
WLSN’s are going to the browser.
The browser is the gateway to the internet, where social networks are surfaced, so it’s the logical place to find the WLSN.
Migration path from today to 2013 when the browser becomes the norm:
Step 1 was to build the networks–both branded & white label.
Step 2a will be products like Google Friend Connect as the starting point to aggregate branded (facebook, LinkedIn) networks and WLSN’s.
Step 2b is Open Social and the like that provide the vehicle to add valuable features/functionality to the resulting social graph.
Step 3 will be to layer affinity & community predictors (like me.dium) on top of this aggregation so the social graph becomes smart enough to recommend the next connections & interactions.
Step 4 is the migration to the web browser. At the browser level, enterprises can control the pieces of this new “WLSN”. At the same time general consumers can customize the browser to surface the pieces of the WLSN that are relevant.
WLSN’s are going to the browser…