What Must Social Networking Sites Have?

I got an e-mail recently from a group setting up a new social networking site asking for input. I'm not so vain I actually think they view me as some kind of expert, no doubt they were searching for blogs on the topic and stumbled across mine. Still, I sent them the best reply I had off the top of my head (for better than that, please inquire about my hourly rate). Putting the message together led me to think on the topic, and in this case, I am so vain as to think someone else out there might actually be interesting in what I have to say.


Here's what I think a winning social networking system must have:

1. The Hook: it has a single unique feature that no one else has. This is its lockout spec, it's purple cow. This feature should be novel, easy to use, and truly useful. It should make people amazed that no one has thought of it before, and once they start using it, they can't imagine giving it up.

Good example: MySpace (people love the embedded music and video)

Bad example: TagWorld (the tags have potential, but they're not really useful yet)

Worst examples: Yahoo 360, Friendster, Orkut (no clear hooks at all)


2. Stability: it must work. A great hook will keep early adopters around despite bugs, but you'll never achieve mainstream success if the site crashes all the time. Make sure everything is rock solid before coming out of beta, and be certain you can scale up if you get popular. Stability won't bring new users, but it will keep current ones from leaving.

Bad Examples: MySpace, TagWorld


3. Self-Organization: it should be easy for users to form groups and connections around common interests. You should have some kind of "club" forming function, with private or public message spaces (forums), and easy ways to find those groups, join them, and invite others. Currently no site does this very well, though MySpace may come the closest. Ideally, the site would combine the features of Yahoo Groups and Meetup.com.

Good example: Meetup

So-So examples: MySpace, Friendster

Bad examples: TagWorld


4. Design/Personalization: this is a balancing act. The site should be laid out well, and easy to navigate, but profile and group pages should be highly customizable. The best way to handle this would be with a profile wizard that allows narrow changes in a very intuitive manner, along with a custom CSS loader for more savy users. I can't think of a current site that does both well.

Example of customization: Pageflakes, Netvibes

Example of bad design: MySpace


5. Interaction: a site must have a way for users to interact with each other publically. Not just e-mail, it must be possible for people to leave messages that are visible to everyone (though users should be able to limit or disable this). This creates a feedback loop where users constantly reinforce each other with public demonstrations of their friendship and connections. Most sites currently do this well, with guestbooks, blogs, and comments.


6. Recommendations: people want to know what people they trust like. By allowing a system of recommendations, you can expand the usefulness of the site, and possibly gain affiliate sales money. The simple way to do this is static links to favorite movies or music, a more sophisticated way would be to link to Amazon or other internet retailers from each user's profile. The best way to do it would be to create a library of cool-looking ads for products that users can browse through and select to appear on their profiles. That would create an incentive to place the latest and coolest products on their pages, which in turn would drive click through and sales.

Good example: Squidoo


Those are the features I think are required for any social networking site that wants to beat the established players that have already laid their claims on the market. But they're not the only features I think a site should have. Below are my recommended features:

7. Guidance: with all the users creating profiles rich with information, your site should do something with it. Take all the favorite movies listed, and let users click a button to find out what other movies they might like by comparing their favorites to other users with similar favorites. Make the friend search automatically sort by compatibility to listed interests. Create tag clouds around each of their interests, to make it easy to find new ones.

Good examples: Pandora, Last.fm

8. Content: the more content, the better. If you can add blogs, photos, music, RSS feeds, eBay links, Google Maps, local weather, and the kitchen sink, then do it. Just make it customizable and good looking.

9. Graphic Creation: users love to decorate their pages. Give them a way to generate custom graphics and you will become ultra sticky. A little clever CSS and/or Flash should make this easy to do.

10. Games: sometimes you can't just check your messages and chat all day. Providing games, especially ones that multiple people can play together, means your users are staying on your site instead of going somewhere else.