Social networking websites have become a primary means of social communication, in both the
social and corporate world. According to Facebook’s Press Room, they have more than 500 millions
users. This is a shocking increase from its initial 1 million active users in 2004.
Facebook is just one of many social networking sites experiencing rapid growth. There are a variety
of social networks for all types of interests, and each network differs slightly. However, there are a
few key components that lead to success when designing a social networking site.
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Social Network Design Guide
Be Unique
You should learn from your competitors, but not copy them. You need to think of how you can be at
least 50% better than everyone else – innovation is the key to success. Twitter created a whole new
category; Facebook is MySpace on steroids. What will you do differently?
Keep it Clean
The aesthetics of a social networking website must be visually appealing. Colors or fonts that strain
the eyes will discourage the user from spending time on the website.
Use a simple, eye pleasing color palette to give the user a peaceful feeling.
Utilize white space and do not overcrowd the pages.
Use a font that is easy to read and use it throughout the site to create a feeling of consistency and
organization.
Unlike most websites, social networks expect the same visitors to return daily. That’s why something
flashy or quirky should be out of the question – choose a design that your audience will not get sick
of.
Simplify All Processes
Remember that with a new social networking site, new users don’t have a lot of site loyalty quite
yet. For this reason, you must make every action easy to accomplish.
Keep the registration process simple, and guide them through the steps. Add explanations to even
the easiest steps, so that the user never has to leave the page to get help. For example, incorporate
icons next to each field with a popup box providing further instruction when the user clicks or hovers
over it.
The Signup Landing Page
The signup landing page is a key element of a successful social network. When a new user visits your
website, they need to understand the benefits of signing up for an account.
“What’s in it for me?”
Tell the user why she needs this particular social networking site. What value will it add to her life?
How will it make her social activities easier? How will it better connect her to the world?
How to take action.
From the moment the user sets foot on the page, his next steps should be clear. Whether those
steps are to register, sign in, or watch a video tutorial that further explains the site, they should be
clearly displayed on the page so he knows what must be accomplished to move forward.
Get Them Networking
Immediately engage users by helping them find friends upon signup. Offer a variety of ways for them
to search for friends: by name, email address or network. Also, provide them with the option of
importing their email address book so that they can find registered friends by email address.
Also, build in a feature for existing users that encourages them to continuously search for new
friends, and invite non-members to join the site. Allow users to import their email address book, and
send invites to contacts that are not members yet.
Promote Organization
Build your networking site so that users can use their own organization system. Create functionality
that allows them to group photos and videos into albums, and group their friends into groups or
specific networks. This will help to make the site more user-friendly and accessible.
Use Email Reminders
Email notifications are a great way to engage users once they have registered for your social
network. Emails will encourage them to return to the site, when otherwise they may forget to check
back regularly.
Create a system that sends the user an email every time someone sends them a message or
comment, uploads a video, requests or accepts a friendship, or does any other type of interaction
that involves them. Provide a direct link in the email so that the user can navigate right to the
specific page.
However, be sure there are also options that allow the user to set their notification preferences. The
last thing you want is to be a social network that spams its members.
Use Onsite Notifications
It is also important to set up functionality directly on the social network that alerts members of any
new activity that involves them. These notifications should be clear, well organized, and easy to
access. The user should notice alerts the minute she logs in to her account.
Provide Customization Options
A member should be able to customize her social networking profile to cater to her needs. One of
the signature elements of a social network is the user’s ability to customize her profile to reflect who
she is as a person, and also to set up personal preferences on privacy.
When building a social network, it is vital that you include the option for members to customize their
profiles in some way. Perhaps you don’t want to provide full customization options, like MySpace
does, but you can still give members some freedom in the information they display.
Key customization options to consider:
Photos
Avatars
Display Name
Activities, Interests, About Me
Privacy Settings
Integrate
Thinks of how you can integrate with other existing social networks. While it may be unwise to be
too reliant on another social network, it can be a great way to attract visitors and improve utility for
your existing users.
SEO
Social networks sometimes have to create fresh demand rather than fill a demand that already
exists. For example: what would a potential Twitter user search for? For niche social networks,
however, there might be opportunities with keywords such as ‘dating’ or ‘golf’. Be creative and look
for opportunities, but always keep in mind that there might be more effective marketing activities
than driving quasi-targeted traffic to your homepage.
Social networks usually control vast amounts of unique content, which creates a great opportunity
to attract long tail search traffic. You could rank for your users’ names, Q&A section, forums and
user blogs. Some social networks provide a small amount of ‘teaser’ information through search
results, then ask their visitors to sign up for an account to see more.
Multi-Dimensional Hierarchy
Most social networks adopt a multi-dimensional hierarchy, which leads to optimum usability and
navigational benefit for your users. Let’s say you have a social network for tennis players. A user can
browse by tennis club, by geography, by competition winner and by many more options. You can
move from one profile to another directly, if they are friends. In this model, profiles inherit multiple
values and are ‘filed’ in several locations. This provides optimum flexibility to your users as they
navigate your site.
Search
While a multi-dimensional hierarchy will enable better website navigation, you should develop a
search function to make your website perform better. You could consider using an option such as
Google’s, but it’s better to develop your search functionality in-house over time. This will allow you
to embrace the benefits of structured data.
Mobile
Make sure your website is usable on mobile devices, preferably including a lighter website version. It
might also be worthwhile to develop an application for Blackberry, iPhones and other devices.
Testing
You should perform testing. With social networks, it’s important to take a sophisticated approach to
how you track performance: sign ups alone may not be enough. A certain landing page may lead to
improved sign up rates, but those users may not necessarily turn out to be the most active or most
likely to invite their friends.
Do not limit your testing to sign up pages. You can also use split testing to improve the usability and
performance of your network: does a green or a white background lead to the most user loyalty?
Develop Metrics
Decide upon key metrics for your social network. Here are some ideas for metrics you might wish to
use to judge your success:
Users:: the number of people signed up for your network.
Active users:: the number of users completing an action within a period of time.
Revenue per user:: how much money (directly or indirectly) each user generates.
Page views:: the total number of page views over a certain time period.
Unique visitors:: the number of visits to your website over a certain time period.
Marketing
Once you know your metrics, you should be able to evaluate your marketing spend more effectively.
You should know the cost of generating a new user from each marketing source. In making your
calculation, do not forget to include the amount of new users each new user successfully invites.
Picture this: a young woman goes to a party. She doesn't know anyone but it's fine because she has
her mobile with her. A few clicks and she accesses the profiles of a dozen people at the party,
including their pictures. She's in luck: two of them turn out to be friends of friends. She messages
them and they start to chat.
Or this: an entrepreneur is at a conference. He is on the lookout for a new marketing director. Within
minutes he has identified ten people in the hall with the right CV, two of whom are looking to change
jobs. His mobile tells him one of them is standing 20ft away. That evening, a record of all the people
he has met is automatically displayed with their profiles on his home computer.
This is not science fiction - it is the future of social networking and it is just around the corner. After
the explosion in internet-based social networking (MySpace, Facebook) doing the same thing in real
life instead of in front of a computer became an obvious next step. Much of it is already happening on
a small scale as dozens of companies seek to exploit social networking on the go.
So how does it work? The key is the coming together of internet-connected mobile phones and
location or proximity technology.
It’s not all just geek talk and texts
Twitter is the kind of mobile social networking application that is shrinking the world to the size of a
small screen
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You can browse the internet quickly and easily on most new phones. Phones know where they are,
thanks to in-built GPS satellite technology or triangulation from mobile phone masts. They can then
tell if other phones are in the same area. Bluetooth short-range radio technology is also standard on
most mobiles and with this phones can pick up the presence of other Bluetooth-enabled phones
within about 20 metres.
Effectively, by linking these two developments, your phone can tell if someone is near you and can
access lots of information about them - the perfect ingredients for real social interaction.
The possibilities are endless. Can't ever put names to faces? Want to check the background of that
chief executive officer so you can remind him that he owes you a favour? Want to avoid all
accountants/lawyers/journalists? Keep seeing that handsome man at the bar and need a common
interest to get the ball rolling? All these scenarios are being solved by the new wave of mobile
applications.
One company based in Berlin has just gone live with its mobile social network. More than 3,000
young Germans have signed up to the aka-aki service in just over a month.
Users of the service download an application on to their mobile phones free. The software uses
Bluetooth, and when another member's phone comes within range, it pings. The user can then check
who it is and choose to access that person's profile, message them and, if they want, go over and
have a chat.
In just over an hour on a sunny day in the centre of Berlin I had more than a dozen “encounters”
with aka-aki members. Everyone was buzzing with the possibilities of the network and eager to chat.
Stefanie Hoffman, 30, one of aka-aki's founders, said that although she met her boyfriend through
aka-aki it was not just about dating. “The business applications are real,” she said. “I went to a
conference the other day - one girl and 80 guys - and normally I would feel very reluctant to go up to
someone to talk. It can be very difficult if you are a woman in those circumstances. But my phone
told me there were half a dozen aka-aki members there and so I could introduce myself.”
That privileged sense of belonging is both the key to the success of mobile social networking and the
greatest barrier. People will want to join because they can be part of a connected community. But
until enough people join, these mobile networks will not take off. It is probably going to take one of
the big beasts of internet social networks such as Facebook, which already has many millions of
members, to achieve this.
The other big question mark is privacy. Why would people want total strangers to have access to
their details?
In the Mitte district of Berlin, Sehnaz Sensan, 27, a student and aka-aki member, was unconcerned.
After I had messaged her to ask if we could talk, she said that she “encountered” mainly men (the
ratio for men and women signing up for aka-aki is about 70/30 - early adopters of new technology
tend to be young men). “I can control what is on my profile and what people can know about me,”
she said. “They message me to say hello and I can message back and we can meet up or I can
ignore it. It is a way of breaking the ice.”
What about being bothered by strangers? “Men can come up to you anyway without knowing
anything about you,” Ms Sensan said. “That's much more insulting. If I don't want an encounter then
I don't switch it on.”
Michael Arrington, one of the most influential technology bloggers in the world, says that the days
when people are not happy to broadcast their CV/personal life electronically are over. “People always
trade off privacy for removal of friction,” he said.
As he notes on his TechCrunch blog there are more than a dozen mobile social network start-ups in
Silicon Valley. “A few years from now we will use our mobile devices to help us to remember details
of people we know. It will help us to meet new people for dating, business and friendship. Using your
phone to create or enhance real world interactions is a killer application, but no one has cracked the
nut yet. Once it happens, look out.”
Arrington has blogged that Apple's hugely successful iPhone would be a great place to start. He has
seen an “awesome” application being developed and says that iPhone users are the perfect group for
a mobile social network - they are technological, elitist and identify with their brand.
Analysts and commentators are predicting huge growth in the sector. Aka-aki, which was developed
from a university diploma project, now has serious funding from a leading German venture capitalist.
It is not difficult to see how networks like aka-aki might make money. Anyone who has watched the
film Minority Report with Tom Cruise will have seen how shops could message those on the network
with offers when they pass by.
In another scenario, businesses such as restaurants could pay to access the service and when a
member walks in, the store's profile appears. The member chooses to add the restaurant to a list of
favoured brands and the next week receives a two-for-one meal offer. The restaurant gets targeted
“permission” advertising and more diners on a slow night.
But in the end are mobile social networks not just a nerdy replacement for people simply talking to
each other? As one blogger put it: “I am pretty sure that an actual conversation will do the same
thing. Is this the evolution of geek dating?”
Roman Hansler, another aka-aki co-founder, says that seeing other people's details on your mobile in
real life is a conversation-starter not a replacement. “This is about opening doors for real
communication, not sitting in a virtual chat room,” he said.
www.aka-aki.com
Editor’s note: This is the third of a three-part guest post by venture capitalist Mark Suster of GRP
Partners on “Social Networking: The Past, Present, And Future.” Read Part I and Part II first. This
series is an adaptation of a recent talk Suster gave at the Caltech / MIT Enterprise Forum on “the
future of social networking.” You can watch the video here , or you can scroll quickly through the
Powerpoint slides embedded at the bottom of the post or here on DocStoc. Follow him on Twitter
@msuster.
In my first post I talked about the history of social networking from 1985-2002 dominated by
CompuServe, AOL & Yahoo! In the second post I explored the current era which covers Web 2.0
(blogs, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook), Realtime (Twitter), and mobile (Foursquare). Is the game
over? Have Facebook & Twitter won or is their another act? No prizes for guessing … there’s always a
second (and third, and fourth, and fifth) act in technology. So where is social networking headed
next? I make eight predictions below.
1. The Social Graph Will Become Portable
Right now our social graph (whom we are connected to and their key information like email
addresses) is mostly held captive by Facebook. There is growing pressure on Facebook to make this
portable and they have made some progress on this front. Ultimately I don’t believe users or society
as a whole will accept a single company “locking in” our vital information.
Facebook will succumb to pressure and over time make this available to us to allow us more choice in
being part of several social networks without having to spam all of our friends again. I know in 2010
this doesn’t seem obvious to everybody but it’s my judgment. Either they make our social graph
portable or we’ll find other networks to join. I predict this will come before the end of 2012.
2. We Will Form Around “True” Social Networks: Quora, HackerNews, Namesake, StockTwits
Since 2006 I have been lamenting what I see as “the Facebook problem” – they are trying to lump
me into one big social network. Nobody exists in one social network. I have the one with my friends
where I want to talk about how wasted we were at the party last weekend that I don’t want to share
with my family network where I share pictures of the kids with my parents and siblings.
I don’t want either of these mixed with the business social network in which I want to maintain the
appearance that I’m “all business” and certainly don’t want to see college pictures of me in Mexico
floating around. I don’t want to mix my “public network” with my “private networks.” Facebook has
jumbled these all together and then tried to bandage it by making groups available. I don’t think this
really solves the problem.
And young people aren’t stupid – they certainly aren’t as digitally naïve as their elders like to think.
To get around all of this jumbling of social graphs they simply create multiple Facebook accounts
under pseudonyms or “nom du guerre” for their real discussions and more pristine Facebook accounts
for their real names. I wonder how many of Facebook’s 500 million users are created for this
purpose? I’ve confirmed this trend with several young people.
I believe that people already form topical social networks as evidenced in places like HackerNews or
Quora. We are also seeing the growth of social networks around topics of interest like StockTwits for
people interested in investing in the stock market. There are new networks forming to try and
address the needs of specific social networks such as Namesake that is in its experimental stage but
sees a world in which people want to network outside of Facebook.
3. Privacy Issues Will Continue to Cause Problems: Diaspora
Facebook made a deal with us that our social network was private. When they jealously watched the
rise of Twitter they decided that it should be made more public, but that wasn’t the bargain we made
when we signed up in the first place. If I were Facebook I would have simply created two places
where you could network, Facebook “private” and Facebook “open.” The latter product could have
competed directly with Twitter and could have had an asymmetric follow model.
Sure, we would have had to choose which followers to have in that separate timeline and they
wouldn’t have gotten all the synergies that they have by just lumping them together. But if they
would have done it this way they never would have crossed the ethical lines that they did and we
could all just love Facebook instead of our love-hate relationships. I’m still there daily to see pictures
of my nieces & nephews – but I never connect more broadly with anybody in the business
community. So 95% of my social networking time goes to Twitter.
I know most people aren’t troubled by the loosening of their information – but I believe that’s
because most people don’t understand it.
What I realized in working with so many startup technology firms is that even if you don’t give
permission to third-party apps to access your information much of it is available anyways as long as
somebody you’re connected to is more promiscuous with third-party apps. Also, all of those
“Facebook Connect” buttons on websites are awesome for quickly logging in, but each gives those
websites unprecedented access to your personal information.
I believe that privacy leaks will cause a longer-term backlash against misusing our information but in
the short-term not enough people understand the consequences to be alarmed. Diaspora was created
in direct response to the growing concerns about Facebook privacy and lock-in. Whether or not
Diaspora will take off is anybody’s guess. But a lot of people would love to see them or similar
players emerge.
4. Social Networking Will Become Pervasive: Facebook Connect meets Pandora, NYTimes
As our social graph becomes more portable I believe that social networking will become a feature in
everything we do. You can already see it slipping into services like Pandora where my social graph
instantly appears and my friends’ musical tastes are displayed without my knowing this would
happen. On NY Times I’m getting recommended articles by friends and I didn’t explicitly turn this
feature on. This trend of social pervasiveness will continue.
5. Third-Party Tools Will Embed Social Features in Websites: Meebo
One thing that is obvious to me is that while many websites want to have Facebook Connect log-ins
to know more about you, they don’t really know what to do with you once they have that
information. They’re mostly now thinking about serving demographically targeted ads to you, but
that’s not very interesting. Third-party software companies will start to offer features to websites to
actually drive social features. This will take a few years but players such as Meebo are already
innovating in this category though their toolbar.
6. Social Networking (like the web) Will Split Into Layers: SimpleGeo, PlaceIQ
One of the most interesting trends in the last few years has been watching the Internet split into
layers. At the bottom end of the stack is storage (S3) and processing (EC2). At the top end is the
business logic created by startups and established technology companies. I’m going to write a whole
post on BothSid.es in the next few weeks on the layering of the Internet and the most important
layer that will emerge in the next few years. We know that the layering of the PC era led to huge
innovation at each layer in the stack and I expect the same to continue to emerge on the Internet.
But for now suffice it to say that we’re already seeing this happen in social networks.
One interesting layer is the “mapping layer” that is emerging in mobile social networks. If every
startup had to figure out the locations of every business, what type of business they were and where
they were located on a map we’d have very few startups. SimpleGeo is designed with the idea that
startups can create new mobile products without having to each build their own mapping
functionality. This is an awesome trend and will further lower the cost of startup development. I
predict that SimpleGeo will do well in the mapping layer but I see more innovative companies
emerging at the data layer.
And there are other companies racing to create horizontal platforms. One I saw recently was
PlaceIQ. Their goal is to create a horizontal platform that allows marketers or developers to know a
lot more about the geo-locations and not just the specific businesses / points-of-interest. They’re
capturing information about the demographics of map tiles, levels of LBS activity, what certain zones
are known for (i.e. romantic spot, financial district) and want to make this available to others.
7. Social Chaos Will Create New Business Opportunities: Klout, Sprout Social, CoTweet, awe.sm, (next
gen) Buzzd
The explosion of data is creating opportunities just in the management of the data in and of itself.
Once we’re uber-connected and getting information online from people we’ve only met online we
need to know more about the “authority” of the people we’re following. Enter Klout, a service that
tracks the influence of individuals in social networks. It can be imported into other products (e.g.
StockTwits) where you really want to know more about the person giving you advice.
We know that Twitter is leading to customer service opportunities for businesses but the opposite is
also true. If you don’t manage what is said about you in social networks it could be detrimental.
Products such as Sprout Social and CoTweet are emerging to help businesses better track and
communicate with their customers and leads. Products like awe.sm (I’m an investor) will help you
manage the efficacy of your social media marketing campaigns.
And one of the cooler new products that will emerge in 2011 is being created by Nihal Mehta, who
has pivoted from his previous company Buzzd, but I’m sworn to secrecy on what he’s up to until he
releases it publicly. I saw the product recently in New York and loved it. It will address the world of
what happens when businesses and consumers are increasingly mobile & social.
8. Facebook Will Not be the Only Dominant Player
I know that in 2010 it seems ridiculous to say anything other than “Facebook has won—the war is
over” and I know that it feels that way right now. Facebook is so dominant it is astounding. In a
complete return to where we all began with AOL—the world is “closed” again as Facebook has
become this generation’s walled garden. When you’re on Facebook you’re not on the Internet—
you’re on the InterNOT. It is an amazing service and I use it regularly myself (although much less
than I use Twitter). But it makes me laugh to now see so many brands advertising their “fan pages”
as they did their AOL Keywords back in the day. Plus ça change …
Well, here’s a quick history primer that may change your mind:
In 1998 the Department of Justice launched an anti-trust case against Microsoft. People feared they
were going to have a monopoly over the Internet due to “bunding” Internet Explorer with their
operating system. A bit laughable in 2010, just 12 years later. These days people would sooner fear
Apple than Microsoft, proving that reality is stranger than fiction.
In April of 2000 there were fears that the AOL / Time Warner merger would create a monopoly on
the Internet. As you know, Time Warner eventually spun off AOL for peanuts. AOL is in the process
of rebuilding itself and emulating a little-known LA-based startup called Demand Media. AOL seems
to be doing great things to reinvent itself under the leadership of Tim Armstrong, but monopoly?
Never.
In May 2007 there were fears that Google was becoming a monopoly. It controlled two-thirds of all
Internet searches in the US and as we all knew—search was inevitably going to be the portal to
finding information on the Internet. Or was it? We now know that social networking is having a
profound impact on how we discover and share content online.
So . . . now it is November 2010 and Facebook has more than 500 million users. They have more
page views than even Google. More than 10% of all time on the web is now Facebook. They have
become a juggernaut in online advertising, pictures, video and online games. And now they want to
revolutionize email. It is no doubt that the next decade belongs to Facebook. But the coincidence is
that 10 years out will be 2020 and when we look back from that date I’m certain that people will also
find a Facebook monopoly a bit laughable.
If you do voice overs or you’re an actor or you create a profile and that can be searched
find the partner / lover / clients
find people who want to do the same activities
If you have really good ideas or important information to share this should be shared with people
who care
You should be able to have important meaningful conversations with people
A way to let people know what you are good at and what you enjoy doing
You only want to see interesting relevant information from your contacts
Permanent contacts, temporary contacts, you decide how much or your profile they can see
Information is presented to you depending on relevance and how interested you are in it holidays,
my current location (Your best friend John is on a date with Jessica at xyz location which is near you),
current tastes, likes, loves, breakups etc etc
Travel back in my social time. Meaning lets say a friend of mine posts something on his feed that
says he loved an "example" event (could be a restaurant, country he visited etc), I will be able to
click on that "event" and see all my past activities and my friends and family activity on a map where
I will be able to see stuff like photos taken around that event, photos of my parents that took in the
70s at that restaurant, or a video my friend took at that specific location, basically every and any
event that's related to me. I will then be able to go through those events around that specific
location and go back in time as far as the data out there makes it possible
better way to meet strangers
A recommendation engine that will recommend people to become friends with based on my
interests, and when I add that new person he will get a notification like: Reasons why you guys
should be friends:
Social crowdsourcing: ask our community to help us: answer questions, take social actions, help us
solve problems, help us find our soul mates, help us find a job etc etc.
Dimensions of friendship: On Facebook, you can already tag people into different networks (family,
work, climbing pals, church, etc.) but actual relationships have varying levels of depth that change
over time, they can grow stronger, weaker or be revitalized (like old friends who rebond once they
both start having kids).
There should be more ways for you to not just have one level of acquaintance like "friend" or
"follower" but to introduce different levels of sharing based on the current state of the relationship.
the system would have to be asynchrononous and invisible to other people, just like it is right now,
with all of the connections in your brain & heart. You don't need to write down your social graph on
paper to understand your network of relationships but if called upon, you could probably define the
strength of your tie to another person.
permanent connections with a small group of people
temporary connections with lots of people
context based connections where activity ebbs and flows
super simple product
Edit other peoples profiles
Create other peoples profiles
Easily control privacy levels by giving contacts a different status
value quality over quantity, I don’t care your sat on the toilet or that you are eating a sandwich
Advertise your skills and services for free
Custom pages
Drag and drop
Status bar, the page is always open
streaming video chat,
multiple profiles. For example, let's say I want to group all of my co-workers together and have them
see one version of my profile, have my parents see another, and have my college class-mates see yet
another.
I don't want my co-workers to see pictures tagged of me, it's that I only want them to see certain
pictures tagged of me. What if I could create separate profile for all 3 groups that looked entirely
different? My coworkers would see a profile in which I had a picture of me dressed in a suit and
looking professional. They would only be allowed to see comments posted on my wall by other co-
workers.
search for a restaurant, product, book, location, news item, etc., and see what the people I know
have to say about it.
Locations
What am I about to do, where am I about to go
Surprises, users, group things related to you, find you.
Events
Health and fitness, maps training shedules train with others from afar
If I pass a music shop and they have a new guitar or pedal or something I have expressed an interest
in, tell me. Let the shop staff know I'm there. If I was into clothes, tell me when the new seasons
styles are in and that you have my color, style and size in stock and offer me a deal.
friend discovery component. So, the system match me with people with similar interest and passion.
It will totally improve my social network experience.
easy-to-use user-controlled privacy settings.
Some sort of intelligent filtering that would automatically hide all the discussions and comments that
I'm not interested in and leave only the meaty ones... ahhh that would be Nirvana.
conversations