Building the social network

The broad approach is likely to garner a broader appeal. News Flash, huh? MySpace, and a new addition to the field, Tagged, continue to add new users. But one has to question if this is really the best way to go? Certainly an ever increasing userbase is a good thing. Every business wants to continue to see their customer count grow. However, there is a flip side to this. Why is it that Microsoft continually battles with new and more vicious security problems? Because they have the broadest appeal and userbase. I have no doubt that as a broad social network grows, so will the responsibilities of keeping it safe, appealing, and reliable. Therefore, as the network grows, so will the maintenance and costs of maintaining it.

Attracting users
Social networks tend to grow on word of mouth. While the fortywhat!!?? crowd isn't beating a door to myspace, I still run into people that ask me if I have a myspace account. I do. I signed up and started one just to see what all the rage was about a year or so ago. Personally, I wasn't impressed. However, I still went there and signed up. My point being that attracting users will largely be dependent on how well the word spreads and incites people to at least try it.

Keeping users
This point, directly relates to my previous point. Although I still went to myspace and signed up, I probably will not return for any reason. The reasons are simple:

• I have no interests in the offerings of places like myspace or they are fulfilled otherwise
• I have little in common with the general demographics - The myspace crowd is, generally speaking, the 18 - 25 set.
• There is little reason to be there beyond maintaining lines of communication - I know that's a fairly sweeping statement, but it does lead in to my next point.

I do know that it is important to realize that with myspace there are other things to do. Myspace has grown in its number of offerings like video, news, classifieds, etc . . .

To whom do we stay true
Another important point I'd like to add to the whole social networking business prospect is that of image. Recently, we've seen how users can revolt and how social network providers can stick to their guns, while others play the censorship card. While taking a stand on either side of the issues here is not within the scope of this post, it does factor into the decision. As a business owner the choice could be very difficult when faced with these kinds of problems.

Having a purpose The strength of a niche social network lies in it's ability to foster a community with a bigger purpose. A good example of this statement is Flickr. All of the general, social networking components are there: friends, profiles, and communication. But there is something larger that draws it all together and that is the reason why a person will go back - their interest in photography. Besides maintaining a network of friends, they have an abundance of photos to browse through, add to, admire, and comment on if they choose.

What it would take to build it
First and foremost I should point out that I am a programmer. So, while I might say that a particular piece of the puzzle may be trivial to implement, it can certainly be difficult to some or easier to others. Regardless, building a reliable, feature-packed and usable web service is no small undertaking - especially if you plan on doing it yourself.

There are some frameworks that can be purchased to lessen the amount of time a social networking site might take to implement. Here is one. Here is another. And another. And yet ... one more. These would be beneficial if the cost is not prohibitive. However, if there are ingredients that you may want to throw into the mix that are not typical, they may also prove to be difficult to integrate should you choose to use a pre-bundled, social networking framework.

Should one choose to build from scratch, the task would be quite large. While virtually any programming language of choice would be sufficient, the speed with which the project could be completed would be reliant upon the skill of the programmer(s) and the complexity of the chosen language.

A shared hosting environment would be sufficient at first, but as the site grows in popularity ( assuming it does well ) it would soon suffer performance problems under the weight of the userbase. Eventually a dedicated server environment would be required. Hopefully by this point the site would be profitable enough that this would not be a deterrent.

The last word
In closing, my general thoughts are that if I chose to build a social network, the best route to go would be to build one around a particular niche or interest. While this may limit the number of customers, that isn't necessarily a bad thing. For one, an initial onslaught of users could cripple the system. That's wouldn't really be the first impression I would want to make. Second, if I rely on word of mouth to spread the news the word may be spread thin allowing users to trickle in ( perhaps with an invitation-based process ) as opposed to a deluge through an open floodgate.

In order for the site to remain prosperous and attract new users, there should be a reason for people to come back beyond the simple act of networking. A common theme. A common interest. In my opinion, people will eventually leave sites like myspace in search of something more. It is that "something more" that needs to be the draw. A niche social network will have that. Additionally, difficult decisions may have to be made in order to retain users. A delicate balance may have to be achieved between the expectations of customers and other, external forces.

The technical part of this is common across the demands of building any sound, reliable web service. Good programming. Sound infrastructure. The wheel doesn't necessarily have to be re-built. There are pre-bundled software packages that can be configured, but integration with something new and different isn't really assured.

I welcome your thoughts and insight as I'm sure I haven't covered everything.