Local Online Social Networking
May 1, 2007
Today I read about Clear Channel starting an interesting experiment in local social networking. Read about it here.
As a big proponent of local networking, I'm really interested in seeing how this pans out for Clear Channel... Although I'm a bit skeptical - maybe it'll be great for kids who haven't gone to college yet (and don't know many people outside of their home city), as well as older folk who haven't really tried out online social networking, and don't have a network outside of their home city.
My skepticism is borne out of the appreciation for the appeal of Facebook, et al... users who aren't currently in the same city, can keep in touch easily no matter where they are in the world. And at the same time, they're able to keep in touch with people who do live near them. Just today on Facebook one friend who lives in DC posted that he'll be in Columbus, OH tomorrow in case anyone else will be there and wants to meet up. Another friend who lives here in NYC posted that she'll be attending the Salute to Israel parade on Sunday, if anyone wants to join her.
Stumble
ugh, nothing to worry about.
1. Radio stations have missed the whole 'web' game years ago, same with local network tv. Newspapers are the only traditional media that made a valuable addition to the web when creating websites. Have you seen a radio station website, they're garbage.
So adding a crappy social network on top of that is bound to go nowhere. Social Networks are a feature, not a product play. They'll understand that soon.
Vin, thanks for the feedback. You're dead on about social networks being a feature, not a product play. It seems as though many old media companies are trying anything that "appears" to work for any random company, without a full appreciation for what they're getting into. I see this as a product of these companies failing to develop a realistic vision for what their role will be in the lives of their customers tomorrow, or even a year from now. Too many simply aren't able to abstract what it is they're good at, and get stuck seeing what they're doing right this minute as the only thing they'll ever be able to do.
There is one tid bit that I learned at a recent conference I attended. Apparently the web sites for local TV news stations get tons of traffic - regardless of how crappy they are. They have good, reliable data that's easy to find (albeit lacking any nifty features). As long as they're able to keep up the traffic, the ad dollars will come in, and they'll fix that (I hope) - considering they've managed to survive this long.
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