• by May 9, 2008

Working for a vendor of these white label or "DIY" social networks, my next statement might surprise you: Creating your own social network is NOT for everyone. While "niche" social networks are definitely going to be valuable business tools, the days of creating your own Myspace of Facebook are pretty much over.

At the heart of a social network is a sense of purpose or relevancy to the audience.... (Note here that I didn't mention size here since a successful community could be small if it delivers a big value to its users). If you are just looking to increase brand awareness you'll be a lot better served by creating your own Facebook profile, group, and/or app.

My advice to brands and businesses thinking about adopting a social media strategy that involves a white label social network is to: 1) Think about their ultimate goal first. This goal should be delivering a value of some sort to their customers (and just knowing about your brand does not count). 2) Create a business plan around this community. This isn't a "Field of Dreams" scenario -- you have to have a plan to market this property and incentivize users. 3) Think a year down the road. Just because this is a "niche" community maybe closed off from other networks doesn't mean they can't interact. Figure out a way that your users can port data back and forth across other social media sites.

Finally, one world of warning... Make sure that whomever you choose does not control your users' Personally Identifiable Identification. The users are your diamonds. If your social network vendor gets to keep user information when you leave, then you don't really own your users and your value as ad network goes down exponentially.

Hope this helps!