FT charges $3,350 for social network
Social Networks and free don't necessarily go together always. The Financial Times is planning to launch a premium social network for executives according to PaidContent.org. Annual membership will be $3,350 and it will allow members to “maintain contact with peers and luminaries ... and to stay in touch with the key issues facing fellow members.” For $3,350 members get free subscriptions to FT.com, admission to any of the FT conferences, 20 percent of further tickets, face-to-face members' events and a 12 month FT.com subscription. The forums will also take advertising.While this may seem astronomically expensive on the surface, it may not be. Conferences alone can cost the same amount and readers will probably be excited about the exclusivity. I believe social networks that cater to niche audiences and have points of passage (meaning not anyone can simply join them) will get stronger in 2008. We're not interested in joining more and more networks anymore. Quality matters more than quantity. It seems like the Financial Times may understand this. Lets see how successful it really is though.
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I think the growth will be in the use of smaller, more focused, niche social networks that cater to a particular interest, hobby or vocation. These smaller sites will allow like-minded individuals and groups to connect, exchange ideas and receive genuine and useful support.
These kinds of sites will also be attractive to advertisers as they get targeted demographics to spend their online advertising budgets on.
Thanks to sites such as ning, anyone can start a niche social network about anything. There's also a search engine to help find niche social networks that lists thousands of networks for a whole range of subjects, http://findasocialnetwork.com
Brimah,
Thank you for your feedback. You're absolutely right. Furthermore, I also believe that we're going to continue suffering from social networking fatigue. This means that for every niche interest of ours, we may not necessarily join an online social network. We'll only use those online niche networks that complement our physical interactions. After all, we only have so much time in a day.
So choosing which interests to support online via networks, will become a primary concern for consumers over time.
Shiv