Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Thanks for the two cents. I will hear more input from others then I will close the question.

Hi Milton,

Firstly, let me say good luck.

The truth is - You are at least five years late.

Unless you have something highly targeted or completely new, then you are in trouble.

The social network explosion is over and the war was already won by Face Book, Twitter and My Space.

There are literally THOUSANDS of budding social networks trying to play catch up.

Initially networks wanted to be open to all, then some networks realised they need a spciality, a niche.

So now we have dedicated networks for nurses, for doctors for lawyers for gamers for just about any club you want to be in.

The problems that allof these social networks face are the same.

1. How to attract and KEEP members (90% of so called subscribers on all networks are inactive - just a registration only )
2. How to monetise the proposition. There are plenty of discussions and white papers on this but NOBODY has yet figured out how to make any money in this game including Face Book.

FB is selling advertising which is generating some income but they are very far from profitability if ever.

My advise, TAKE A VERY HARD LONG LOOK AT YOUR PRODUCT. Try to understand what differentiates it from other players in the market (take a look at Cerkle.com ).

Try to figure out the COMPELLING REASONS why a user would use your offer instead of twitter ot Cerkle or Linkedin or Plaxo etc.

If you have don

e some BEta testing with small populations and you can see that users are actually using your product (not just signing up) then try to fully understand WHY they are using it and why they like it.

Then you will understand your strengths and weaknesses.

After that, Market to your strengths.

Be prepared to invest many millions of dollars to build and audience and a brand - and be prepared to lose every dollar of it :)

If you can build sufficient Brand equity and BUZZ about your offering, then SELL it to a bigger player as soon as possible :)))

Don't make the 'Friendster mistake :))), Their heads got too big and they refused to sell. Now their value is almost Zero and no one wants to buy :)

Good luck,

Matthew

Hi Matthew,

You hit it bang on. This is actually our second stab at social networking website. The first one relates to medical professional - and after spending initial development work, there is a BIG rock in getting medical organizations on board. Here in Canada there are all sorts of rules and regulations - which are sometimes unnecessary.

Now we are onto our second project. We learnt from our mistake - getting users on board i.e. doing survey before coding anything is crucial.

Thank you very much for your input.

Milton

Matthew - the system errors out 'this question has already been answered' when I tried to award you points.
Dev team help please.

No problem Milton :-)

good luck with your project.

Don't worry about the points :-) I don't need them.

Let me know if you would like any additional help with your project. I am currently VP of CRM and marketing for a major european internet player.

We also operate a small Social Network in France (about 2M users - 200K active but we use it as a launching pad to sell our paying services.

Check it at www.aujourdhui.com if you like :)

We offer this portal/social network for free to bring the traffic and then we sell them Premium paid services which of course is where we generate the income.

I am currently generating approximately US 1 M per month and it continues to grow despite the 'so called' crisis.

I am always interested in new potential projects so who knows, maybe there is a synergy.

You can find my details on my profile here should you wish to pursue further.

Best regards,

Matthew