Think again on how relations are built and maintained.
[+] Challenges for social networking websites
The only thing that matters in Web 2.0 is relations and the build-up and maintenance of relations. However, to expect that relations will happen just by giving users relation-building tools is going to cause troubles. We need to have good understanding of human nature.
The most striking examples are some social networking (or business networking) websites like Linkist or OpenBC (currently Xing.com). These services, based on the well-known Six Degrees of Separation, are aimed to fulfill the needs of business people to extend their networking.
I know you and you know your friends, and these friends have their own friends. So by following these relation chains, I should need six intermediaries at most to get to know anyone in the world, according to the theory of Six Degrees of Separation.
People who have tried such services may be excited about their ability to help you get in touch with a huge number of strangers, who are your friends' friends, within a short time. However, when the number of people on my contact list of one of these services exceeded 200, I quit it.
A year or so passed, I found that there were only two or three names on my list remained active, and most of them rarely used the service. Undoubtedly, social networking is in great demand for business people. There must be some reason why these people became indifferent to the service.
[+] Think again on how "relations" are built and maintained
Think about your daily business life. You should see that "social networks" are build upon interests, which would normally exist where there are business relations. Take a look at your business cards holder or address book: those you contact most often should very likely be your clients or partners because you have common interests with these people.
Think about the various kinds of business gatherings you've been to. How many business cards you've got there are of any use to you in making business contacts? Some people would spend time and efforts to scan and file business cards (the so-called digital business network management), but at the end of the day the only thing they can do was forward jokes to these people once in a while.
Let's face the reality! When the relations between two persons would not last if they can find no business to do with the other. When accosting somebody, you would need a reason. The biggest problem for social networking websites is users can't find good reasons to start a talk and maintain relations with others.
Business people are very pragmatic. They will not spend time in building connections that are meaningless to them. The people you meet in social networking websites are practically total stranger who do not have any business to do with you, so your relations are doomed to be short-lived. Frankly, business people are already too busy managing their social networks in their off-line life.
Some social networking websites discover that their users have become lukewarm, so they develop tools like social bookmarking, which allows users to submit and digg news articles or videos for others to view and make recommendation. It indeed brings pleasure to some people during their boring working hours, but how much it can help establish relations is a question.
[+] Contact methods, a sure way to relationships?
10 years ago I was as a well-known "social butterfly" flitting from one industry gathering to another exchanging business cards. Now when I attend this kind of event, I would just sit quietly in some corner and leave unnoticed when it's over.
It is of no use even if you get 100 business cards in such circumstances because you don't have any business to do with them. Even if you keep these business cards very carefully and you do make a phone call to one of these names, s/he may never remember where or when s/he has met you. Is this the kind of relations you need?
If you want to meet certain people, you can always find someone to introduce you instead of attempting to meet them in public occasions. On the other hand, those who want to do business with you can always find some way to find you. The only thing that matters is whether there is any business to do or not.
There is also a scenario in such gatherings: you can always see some unimportant people busy exchanging business cards with big shots. Do you know how important people deal with the business cards stuffing into their hands? No, you don't want to know.
What will you do with the business cards of these big shots? Will you forward jokes to them? No. Will you talk about business opportunity worth of some thousand US dollars? No. Will you call him/her for some chitchat? No. Add him/her to your MSN, but are you sure it's not his/her secretary who is replying your message?
[+] Business networking: no business, no relations!
Same things happen on social networking websites where there are people busy in collecting business cards and knowing big shots. To a certain extent, social networking websites are very much like virtual business cards holders - though you may have as many as 700 contacts, none of them is in good use.
The variety of users on the Internet is practically the representation of the scenario you'll bump into in any typical public events in the business world. The kind of social contacts happening in such public occasions are not very helpful in establishing and maintaining relations if there are no business opportunities involved.
Yes, it is a bleak truth. Technology evolves but human nature remains the same. Web 2.0 entrepreneurs may create perfect websites sometimes, but they tend to forget that "Web 2.0 business is driven by human nature,' and all functions need to address to the wants and needs of the humanity.
Presently, social networking websites allow users to categorize and manage their connections, enable them to get in contact with certain persons by means of search functions or though common acquaintances and provide online forums for exchange of opinions. The point is this is never the way business people establish and maintain their relations.
If social networking websites cannot assist users to "establish" and "maintain" relations, and they are but virtual business cards holders with no storage limits. Such contacts are not connections. Our observation is that, for the very pragmatic business people, "no business, no relations!"
[+] Bottlenecks of friends making services
Social networking services can be divided into the following categories - business networking, friends making, interests communities and dating websites. Among these friends making websites may be familiar to you for such websites have existed since the time of Web 1.0.
Typically these websites would have a search engine for users to enter criteria such as gender, age, locations and so on, along with advanced search functions to filter results based on specific terms like education, personal interests and hobbies. They are to provide friends making service with very specific targets.
Yet as we all know, friends making websites are constantly faced with the problem of retaining their users, so they need to budget for "buying" new users by means of advertisements. Website operators are very clear how much they need to spend to acquire a new user.
This is the destiny of friends making websites. Singles come to these websites to look for their Mr./Miss right and leave when they get the contact methods. There are even more people who invest two months leave disappointedly with no gain.
Typically, a user would first register at these friends making websites, enter their personal information such as interests, occupation or even income level, search for someone "with photos uploaded to the websites" and then attempt to start a talk. How likely can s/he succeed in building up relations in this way?
[+] Sharing common feelings is the first step to build up relations
When you search for a female aged 25-30 in the bustling downtown area, you would have some idea about what kind of figure and look she should have in your mind. When you finally find one, you may just come forward and ask to make friends with her. Yet this is not a very effective approach and you are very likely to be rejected.
Yet a tougher situation may be what you should do if you get a green light from her. Many men are hesitant to accost women not because they are afraid of being turned down but because they don't know "what to do next if they succeed." This is the problem friends making websites need to work out.
You need a reason to accost a stranger. Advanced search engines may provide users with specific results from, but at the end they still need to know "what they should do to make the first move." It does not promise a happy ending when accosting someone simply because you know what she looks like, her birthday, age, interests and occupation and so on.
This is why many friends making websites are thinking about providing Blog services. These operators find that matching service won't work by just relying on external criteria, which alone are not enough for developing relations.
In fact, personality may be a stronger factor when in comes to relations building. The key is how to present the personality of each user. Blog services may be a good idea - let users share their diaries online! You may be able to find something in common to start a talk with others by reading their blogs.
"Sharing common feelings" is the first step for users to build relations with each other and a good way to maintain relations.
[+] The issue of relations building for traditional online services
A friend who's running an online learning website for years asked me about Web 2.0 the other day. He sensed that this should be a trend and he was thinking to introduce online community features to his website. In addition, friends in the e-commerce business also wrote me about the same issue.
Still, we need to look at "relations!" What kinds of relations are there between the shoppers on a B2C shopping websites? Is it necessary to build up relations? What would lead to the first contact between them? What kind of relations would there be? Can such relations last for long?
"Relations" are the key that demands our attention when talking about Web 2.0, including online learning websites. As a matter of fact, online learning service providers may think it a good idea to build up online learning communities for their websites. Yet we are yet to see successful examples for such communities.
Similarly, we need to ask is there any need for students attending to the same class to establish relations? On what circumstances do they feel the need to do so? What about forming relations with lecturers? How long can the relations last? Only when the linkage between these questions is found can we expect the emergence of online communities.
The same logic can be applied to many other scenarios. For example, do the people looking for similar kind of jobs on job search websites have the need to establish relations? Do those who watch the same video online feel the desire to form relations? How can they do so and how the relations can be maintained?
Not all Web 2.0 services will have to provide social networking features, yet it is true that the establishment and maintenance of relations are the basis of Web 2.0. At the end of the day, it is surely helpful to spend more efforts in figuring out how relations come into being and what lies behind relations.
2007/06/03 - By Digitalwall.com - Way to
China Internet/Telecom )
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New Landscape in China's Telecom Market (1) Winner Takes All - 2008/06/08
Web 2.0 Think Again (3) A Reason to "accost" Someone Online - 2007/06/03
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