Problems with Social Networking sites and Suggested Approch

"Social networks will get better as we figure out what problem they're intended to solve."

- Eric Schmidt, Google

Problems of ‘Social Networking’ sites

Some of the problems are:

Ø Dwindling user base/problem of members retention

Most of the social networking sites picks well initially and later collapse due to depleting user base. Normally users come and register, use the services on the site for some time, loose interest and stop visiting the site, e.g. Friendster.com.

Reasons:

o Nothing new to do (common repetitive features) – most networking sites offer the same kind of common and repetitive features.

o Interesting content

o Coming of new sites with more user friendly features.

“long-term success of social networking sites will depend on their ability to retain the interest of their members.”

- David R. Bell, Wharton

Ø Similar Target Audience

Most of the social networking sites are struggling to grab a pie from the same audience group i.e. people of 16 to 35 years of age.

The Web is becoming an elitist sort of space. If social networking sites are a way to bring the masses together, advertisers want a way to prune those masses into smaller, easier targets.

Ø Takes too much time
The purely social sites are interesting but less information rich than news sites, blogs, or any of the other sites the visitor could visit on the Web.

Though it’s interesting to blog about the experiences a member had on a given day, it's tedious to make sure her personal stats, favorite books, and current reading list are up-to-date.

Ø Lack of good commercial & viable business plan

Most of the sites come up with non proven & shaky business plans.

Ø Traffic alone not the success criteria

Marketing strategies of most social networking sites are focused on increasing the traffic but they neglect to focus on ROI and conversation rates for their sites.

Advertisers today are looking to send targeted, rich-content messages. Reliance on a generalized supply of banner ads is not a sustainable model, because no matter how much data you collect about your audience, if the audience isn't specific, the ads can't be, either.

However MySpace is an exception. It is well on its path to the projected $20 million in ad sales. It's working because MySpace attracts primarily what it refers to as "16- to 34-year-old hipsters."

Ø Security issues (both technical and social)

With the social networking sites gaining popularity, privacy issues become important. Most of the sites are not backed by secured, robust and scalable database hence they are hacked or crashes with heavy traffic load.

Besides, social security issues are also cropping up now as a few states in the US are planning to come-up with a legislation to ban social networking sites in schools and access to minors.

Ø Not an effective social structure

It becomes tedious when you get bombarded with date offers or all-too-frequent postings about the unsavory or uninteresting habits of the strangers you suddenly know in social networking sites.

Ø Social Networks Fail To Expand Internationally Due to Local Competition e.g.

MySpace wants to make it in Japan and China, but local sites like Mixi already dominate these markets.

Suggested Approach to Overcome these Problems

Ø Interactive, fast, secure and user friendly applications to attract and retain users in the social networking site it is important to develop and integrate secured Rich Internet Applications. They should address the needs of the target audience and offer interesting user experience.

Ø Modular and audience specific content, services & tools

Ø New and innovative features are the key of user base and retention. If you want based on your target audience we may suggest some features.

Ø Mobile Social Networking – Mobile Becomes a Standard Social Networking Feature

Ø Create a community – Create a thriving social network of like minded people. A focused approach should be there to create a healthy network rather than to just increase traffic.

“People choose community over features or niche-orientation”

- Fred Stutzman (Co-founder of claimID)

Ø Human element is the one which most sites missed. It is advisable to develop tools which required to display and mimic emotions and sentiments.

Ø An approach to solve the problem by using technologies

We need to think about what problems we should be using these tools to solve, and then build the tools accordingly, rather than building the tools and then adapting them later.

Ø An economically viable business model for revenue generation – SNS have power beyond advertisement revenue to act as a customer relationship management tool for companies selling products or services. One should have to apply the information from researched data to a logical application for the business planning.