Niche Networks Could Be Future Of Social Networking
Niche networks could be the way forward for social networking sites, according to some of the panelists speaking at yesterday’s MediaTel Group Media Playground event.
Bruce Daisley, digital sales director at Bauer Advertising, said niche networks “which can often be like minded strangers rather than friends in real life” could be a big growth area in the future.
Martin Kelly, co-founder of Infectious Media, was in broad agreement, saying that “niche platforms have a functionality that is not provided by the big networks”.
Kelly also pointed out that social networking allows you to start something very big with very little money – it allows you to go viral. However, he added that the wealth of data it is possible to collect on users is a “slightly murky area” and care has to be taken with the information that is gained.
Daisley also referred to the wealth of data on offer, saying “media is a classic market – if you have got scarce information, it’s worth money”.
However, Toby Beresford, of Nudge (Facebook Developer Garage), disagreed with the view that we will tend towards more niche networks.
He said that for a niche offering such as a golf social network to be successful it would have to be really compelling, adding that his company sees niche networks as “something that can be put into one of the big networks”.
Beresford predicted that “in the future there will be the three big networks [Facebook, MySpace and Bebo] and then a smaller tier of about 10”.
Fellow panelist Claus Moseholm, business director UK of GoViral, agreed with Beresford that when advertising on social networking sites, particularly those utilising UGC, brands have to become part of the part of the conversation, with interruption a big risk.
With regards to the problem of monetising social networks, Beresford said that subscriptions are one of several models available. However, Daisley warned: “Anyone running a web business has to be careful about putting a pay wall in front of customers.”
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