What is the best platform for a niche social network?

Posted on February 14, 2011 by askmanny

A friend of mine posted this quesiton on Quora: What is the best platform for creating a niche social network on? Here’s my reply:

I would recommend one of three options:

1) Ning: if you want to scale your network. They offer three plans (all paid), the least expensive of which lets you really get a good feel for the platform at a very low price. You can go with the full feature set and premium support for just under $50 per month.

We have been running two networks on Ning, with nearly 19,000 and 13,000 members respectively, since 2007 with very good results.

Pros:

You can heavily customize your network.
You don’t need to worry about technology too much, since they run the backend.
They offer a good balance between features/service and cost.

Cons:

You don’t host your site. It is hosted by Ning.
An implication of the first con is that you are dependent on Ning for running your site. If networks on Ning are down or unavailable, so are you.

2) Buddypress: I can’t talk about scalability with this platform (I don’t have enough experience with it), but to the extent that Buddypress is a plug-in that ties in so well with the world’s best blogging platform, I can’t think of a better option if you prefer not to use Ning.

Pros:

If you host your Buddypress-plugged-in WordPress blog, you are dependent solely on your hosting service’s uptime to be available.
You are tied to an Open Source solution with a long history and a large # of developers behind it.

Cons:

You need to factor in development and hosting costs. I can’t speak to these compared to Ning, but it’s important to not think of this solution as a “free” alternative, because it isn’t.

3) GroupSite: If you don’t have plans to grow your niche network too much, I can share the experience I have seen with a 30-40 member network of artists that runs on GroupSite and works beautifully for what they need. It is a platform that is best for you if you need your members to not just interact and connect but also actively collaborate.

They still run under a Freemium model (a free option that is ad-supported… which I am sure will disappear eventually for the same reasons that Ning’s free option went away). The paid Pro option for small groups (under 50) is competitive in pricing with Ning.

For even more options, I suggest reading this list. In the list you will find many other options, most of which are variations on the same themes.

Ning in 2011: Transparent Evolution

Posted on January 31, 2011 by askmanny

Fresh into the second quarter of 2010, we were faced with news about the change in the Ning business model. It hasn’t been even a year since this news… yet I felt compelled to write about the way Ning looks moving forward.

This morning, I got an email from Ning titled What’s in Store for 2011, with information about features on Ning that have been rolled out in the past few months and plans for coming quarter or two. And something dawned on me: Ning is really laying out their product roadmap for users (and competitors) to see. In the words of their Chief Product Officer:

There are several reasons why companies don’t do this: It might reveal too much to the competition. It might force commitments and limit flexibility. It may feel like a burden. Plus, don’t customers like to be surprised when they sign in and spot a shiny, new feature? Under-promise and over-deliver, right?

There are several ways to look at it. But there’s one extremely good reason a company like ours should publish a product roadmap: Quite simply, it will make our customers happy. Making customers happy is a core part of our business.

Know what? I loved that they did it! It helps US (network creators) plan for the future, knowing what will and won’t be available and when (at least in the coming six months). As for competitors, they seem to be moving forward not minding as much that competitors may know what will they be doing or when. As long as Ning delivers on their promise (roll out functional features according to their product map), the moment features become announced on the Product Map, they are being put in the open, so… I don’t think they are losing that much competitive edge by opening up their six-month product map to the world.

Another thing they are doing very well is to help people develop the best networks they possibly can, through an assortment of Best Practices and a Getting Started guide combined with Troubleshooting Guides and a public Known Issues page.

All these elements speak to me of transparency and, combined with the features one can learn about through the roadmap, also tell me of evolution! 2011 promises to be a very exciting year for anyone using Ning or considering to do so.

Do you have any thoughts or comments on Ning in 2011 and beyond?

10 People to Follow in Social Media + Health

Posted on January 15, 2011 by askmanny

Healthcare is a broad sector and social media is even broader. But it turns out that not too many people “get” the two and make it possible for others to do the same thing. So I thought I’d share ten people on Twitter who I think do a very good job in different ways of explaining how social media and health go together.

This is by no means a comprehensive list (it means, I am sure I left someone out so please don’t feel offended if I did) but it’s just a list of folks I particularly find useful to follow and read when it comes to Social Health, the intersection of Social Media and Health. I took the liberty of copying their Twitter bios as they stand today.

@jonmrich – Jonathan Richman, “Former pharma guy now preaching digital to every pharma & healthcare company that’ll listen. Happily spending my free time w/ my amazing wife & daughter.” I had the chance to meet Jonathan in 2009. Today, in my opinion, he is the go-to person for any group that seeks to “GET” social media and health.

@SusannahFox – SusannahFox, “Internet geologist. Health care gadfly. Social to a fault.” As Associate Director of Digital Strategy at Pew Internet, her title is nowhere near as cool and knowledgeable as she is to meet and listen to in person.

@KevinKruse – Kevin Kruse, “President, Kru Research & Editor, E-Patient Connections newsletter, focused on how to reach & educate digital health consumers. ePharma mktg, health 2.0.” I had the chance to meet Kevin in 2010. His ePatient Connections conference is a must-attend for all people interested in impacting this sector.

@whydotpharma – Silja, “Passionately believe pharma can create better patient-focus through social media Co-founder of#hcsmeu Healthcare and Social media in Europe tweet up.” I had a chance to meet Silja in 2009 in Switzerland. She gets it WAY from before the time she was helping others get it!

@swoodruff - Steve Woodruff, “The real-time, 360-degree Steve Woodruff. I interact here. Want pharma/healthcare?@impactiviti. Business? @connectionagent….” Not too many people listen as attentively as Steve. He really has mastered this art and turns it into lessons for all around him to learn.

@iftfhealth – IFTF Health Horizons, “Health Horizons at Institute for the Future scans for signs of change over the next 3-10 years for a deep understanding of global health. Creators of BodyShock.” I first heard of IFTF while I still lived in Palo Alto, where they are based. They are a brilliant think tank of people that think about the future.

@wegohealth – WEGO Health, “WEGO Health is home to Health Activists. These influencers, organizers, leaders and contributors are passionate about helping others lead healthier lives.” I first met Jack, their CEO, in 2009. They provide an extraordinary space for health activists to do what they do best.

@boltyboy – Matthew Holt,” THCB, Health 2.0; Chelsea fan; husband; father in a few months.” I have known OF Matthew since 2007, when then the first Health 2.0 conference took place. I finally met him at Health 2.0 in San Francisco in 2008. I still struggle understanding when he speaks so I prefer to read him.

@EndoGoddess – Jen Dyer MD, MPH, “Stylish pediatric endocrinologist, researcher, former Texan who loves NYC, beginning foodie who believes in the power of balanced nutrition to prevent disease.” Not too many doctors (yet) get the importance of social media in healthcare. Jen is WAY ahead of the curve. She’s out there on Twitter and I was glad to meet her in 2010!

@shwen – Shwen Gwee, “Founder: Social Health (sxsh.org), Social Pharmer (SocialPharmer.com), Med 2.0 Blog (Med20.com)” As knowledgeable about this space as he is a nice guy to chat to. Had the chance to meet him at the 2010 ePatient Connections conference. Update (05/12/11): Shwen is joining the health practice at Edelman as VP of Digital Health.

P.S. Other than Jen Dyer, I have intentionally left out people from the DOC (Diabetes Online Community). I wanted this list to be useful to everyone, in the diabetes space or not.

Read a list of People With Diabetes to Follow on Twitter.

Quora: blending the best of social media

Posted on January 4, 2011 by askmanny

Seems like I have been living under a stone… at least, I certainly haven’t been keeping up with new social media platforms for a few months. It turns out 2010 was the year when Quora came out of nowhere and is now presenting itself as an incredibly valuable place to connect with one goal: ask or answer questions.

The value of Quora for some may be to get question(s) answered in a relatively rapid way while for others it may be to further consolidate themselves as experts on certain topics. Sounds like nothing new, you may say, but these guys have gotten the platform right in many ways:

Soft connections rule: Quora is less like Facebook or LinkedIn, and more like Twitter but richer and deeper (length of content AND content quality). You can follow anyone w/o them having to accept you as a “friend” or “connection”.
Q&A value for everyone: remember Yahoo! Answers? Quora is on its way to blowing them out of the water, along with LinkedIn Answers. Why?

What… quickly becomes evident while clicking around Quora, is that serious heavy-hitters are answering questions there. Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz offers his opinion of the movie The Social Network. Google Images product manager Nate Smith explains how color image search works. Foursquare’s head of business development talks about what it’s like to work for founder Dennis Crowley. Twitter’s Pierre Legrain explains the cost-per-follow principle for Promoted AccountsM. And AOL co-founder Steve Case answers how much it cost to mail everyone those CDs back in the 1990s.
More…

Social sharing galore: the seamless integration into Twitter and Facebook to help disseminate questions and answers grow legs is impeccable. This helps content travel further, by leveraging the existing networks of friends and followers that Quora users have.
Wiki tools enrich the experience: the platform incorporates wiki features that allow anyone to edit any topic and give more context to new topics in ways that simply all other platforms missed.

Downsides? The main downside I have found so far: I noticed some visible delays in terms of emails sent from Quora, for validating my email address and notifications of people starting to follow me (just adjusted my settings since I don’t need more emails in my inbox).

I have also seen a fair share of 500 Server errors appear (even on the Quora home page). But remembering back to Twitter #failwhale times, I imagine these delays are the result of natural growth strains and look forward to accelerated backend improvements to make sure these become the exception and not the norm.

Also, I can imagine spammers tricking the platform to favor a particular product or web site… it seems that the voting mechanism (giving “Thanks” and marking as “Not Helpful”) will help with this, but it is not impossible to imagine a scenario where these very tools are gamed to give thousands of Thanks to a spammy answer… anyway, there are smart people behind the product and as long as they can keep on scaling over time (they now have over 500,000 users), I am sure they will find smart ways to handle spammers and keep them at bay as other sites have done to some extent.

For more comments on Quora, I recommend this great post by Svartling, a Swedish social media evangelist.

Anyway… 2011 has started and I am happy to have discovered this fascinating platform. Just need to make sure I don’t spend TOO much time on it.

Follow me on Quora at: www.quora.com/Manny-Hernandez

Re: Ning: Phoenix or Fizzle?

Posted on November 19, 2010 by askmanny

Earlier today, my friend Amy Sample Ward wrote an amazing follow-up post to the changes announced by Ning back in April that led to the elimination of their free option.

It is always good to go back and assess the impact changes have had on us. In the case of social networking platforms, the change in business model Ning announced certainly sent shock waves through the nonprofit and education world. Since then, a few things have happened and I thought I’d take a moment to share in this post what I’ve taken away from it:

In May, Ning announced the details around pricing levels for their new model. As I mentioned to Ning back then, I was glad to learn the details about the new price options. They do cover a broad range of Network Creator needs, including an option running at $2.95/month for networks up to 150 members.

A similar path has been followed by Grou.ps, as Amy pointed out in her post. They had been following the footsteps of Ning to give users tools to create their own social network. The cost of running the service appears to be too much to sustain free networks indefinitely at the expense of networks paying for premium services/features, so the freemium model doesn’t seem to work in cases of large scale/data intensive platforms that help users run entire social networks, as opposed to “simply” hosting photos (Flickr) or managing their social network updates/tweets (HootSuite).

As self-evident as it may be, it’s worth remembering once more that technology is not free. The change announced by Grou.ps shortly after Ning, eliminating their free service is a testament to this:

“The big lesson for nonprofits and education technologists alike would be to keep in mind that if you want absolute control over the way a certain platform or solution works, the only way that can be accomplished is by housing it yourself,” he said. “Unfortunately that comes at an additional cost, and that cost has to be taken by someone.”

This has not changed: the nonprofit and education sectors continue to be at the expense of changes in business models and will have to remain agile and flexible, ready to adapt on a moments notice (if possible) when/if the company hosting/running the service they offer changes or (even) goes out of business. The alternative is to run and host your own service with the additional IT costs this entails. So, as my friend Luis would say “there’s no free lunch!”
In July, Ning and WEGO Health announced a partnership through which WEGO started sponsoring qualifying health-centric networks. Seeing up-and-coming Health Networks benefit from a program such as this and Education networks on Ning made possible by Pearson feels great. But there are still far too many sectors that make social good possible that are waiting for their WEGO or their Pearson.

My hope is that we will see more companies and social entrepreneurial spirits step up to the plate and help cover the cost of running these services to make them possible for groups that cannot still afford them.

Last, one area that I have seen Ning make some strides in is helping Network Creators (nonprofit and for-profit alike) is helping generate revenue through your network. I highly recommend anyone running a network on Ning to check out the detailed resource page they put together on this topic, stemming from collecting donations, to running your merchandise storefront or serving your own ads (leaving Google Ads by the side) within your own network.

From our experience running TuDiabetes and EsTuDiabetes, I can tell you that even running Google Ads (which I am personally not a fan of, I admit) in a network of more than 100 members with a moderate activity level will help you generate enough revenue to easily pay for the lowest level on Ning, most likely helping you get the nearly $20/month plan so you don’t have to be limited by the 150-member ceiling.

So, are we out of the woods yet? Far from it… as Joan Manuel Serrat sings, “Caminante, no hay camino: se hace camino al andar” (Walker, there’s no road: you make your own road when you walk… -or something like that).

Why Malcolm Gladwell is Wrong!

Posted on November 9, 2010 by askmanny

A few weeks ago, Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point, wrote in The New Yorker about Twitter, Facebook and social media. In his article, near the end he argued:

[Social media] makes it easier for activists to express themselves, and harder for that expression to have any impact.

I have enjoyed many of Gladwell’s books and highly respect him. But I think he got this one wrong. The best example of this is this year’s Big Blue Test video:

We asked the community (the diabetic blogosphere, nonprofit geeks, friends, family… you name it) to watch this video and share it, because (literally), each view equals a donation that will help a child with diabetes in need.

How is this possible? Roche Diabetes Care will make a donation of 75 cents for every view the video receives between Nov. 1 and Nov. 14 (World Diabetes Day) up to 100,000 views, for a maximum donation of $75,000. These funds will be donated to the Diabetes Hands Foundation and they will use the donation to help the Life for a Child program, run by the International Diabetes Federation, and Insulin For Life, two global, humanitarian organizations that provide diabetes medication and supplies to children in the world’s poorest countries.

What kind of impact can $75,000 make for these programs? Ron Raab, President of Insulin For Life told us:

“Every time someone watches this video, it will make a real contribution to someone actually staying alive. These donations go a long, long way. In places we assist, like Ecuador, less than 50 dollars keeps a person needing insulin alive for an entire year as it covers the transport cost for us to send the donated insulin.”

What has the response to the campaign been so far?
Amazing! We’re about to hit 70,000 views, 700 likes and 300 comments and have five more days ahead of us to reach the 100,000 views goal. On Twitter, there have been more than 2,200 tweets including #bigbluetest in the past 7 seven days.

By the time, the donation is made, the lives of thousands of children with diabetes in need will have been saved. If THAT is not making an impact, then I don’t know what to say to Gladwell… So, if you have not watched the video yet, please check out the Big Blue Test video. If you have watched it, take a couple of minutes and watch it again. Regardless, watch it and share it.

And if you are Malcolm Gladwell and you are reading this… please watch it and share it too!

Update:
As of Nov. 19, 2010, the video had been watched nearly 120,000 times. We reached the goal of 100,000 the evening of Saturday, Nov. 13 and Roche will be making the donation of $75,000 they pledged to help children with diabetes in need.