3 Qualities Of A Good Social Network

A common questions is, what makes a good social network or online community? Obviously there are many different things that vary widely depending on the type and subject matter of the community. But to speak very generally I wanted to share 3 broad characteristics that I think great social networks share.

Personality/Identity
The best of social networks have their own personality or identity, just like a living being. Spend some time on a social network such as Yelp or Vimeo, and you will start to get a sense that the site is fun, creative, and humorous. Visit a site like LinkedIn, and you get a feeling of blandness. Sites with personalities tend to have more engaged and loyal users. They can relate not just to other users, but the site as a whole. Obviously this isnt’ a very good description, so if anyone can put this in better words, please leave it in the comments

Fun
I most recently wrote about how online communities are all about fun. They are a place to socially interact with other people. Sites like Facebook, Yelp, and Vimeo are places where you feel like you can hang out, just like in a real life social situation. Fun makes people have the desire to visit the site, and ultimately interact with one another.

Genuine
The third element is that the best social networks attract users that are genuine in their interaction. MySpace is basically a place of selfish promotion. Most profiles have started to be companies trying to promote themselves. The friend spam is getting out of control. Even in the Music portion of MySpace you can see artists spamming each other in the comments section.

But for sites like Yelp and Vimeo, the user interactions are for the best of the community. If someone tried one of the above MySpace tactics they would most likely be shunned from the community. In my opinion, the more genuine the user contributions are, the more valuable it is to other members.

[tags]Social Network, Social Networking, Online Community, Community, Myspace, Vimeo, Yelp, LinkedIn, Brian Balfour[/tags]