How Would You Launch The Next Facebook?

Hasn't the whole social networking thing been done and conquered? Unless he is targeting a specific niche or group of people in a totally different way then he is going to find it hard, almost impossible, to get any traction.

Facebook was started by hacking into systems, right? Maybe expose a security hole in facebook and get users to make the jump.

Why don't you try to make a competitor to Google? Get some books on artificial intelligence and information theory. You may have better luck.

Steal my roommates idea and claim its my own. Hire the best lawyers money can buy to save my a$$ from lawsuits. Act like I'm the biggest rockstar in the world.

Oh you're talking about me? Nah, on second thought, I'll keep it old school and stay at Myspace.

If he's asking you how he should market or what kind of launch strategy, it doesn't sound like he would be capable of such an undertaking. I don't mean to put down your friend but he reminds me of someone at an all-you-can-eat food bar who's eyes are bigger than his stomach. More social networks have failed than you've never heard of. There have been hundreds. Usually under-capitalized, mismanaged or simply a bad idea from the start.

Well, on the flip side of the coin lets not discourage him. No one really knows what is on the horizon. AOL was MASSIVE at one time, and probably had a brighter future than Facebook. Hell, TimeWarner bought them! New technology came along and in the span of a few years turned them into a dinosaur. Classmates.com was around LONG before facebook, but never really materialized into anything.

What is going on today? I was in Radio Shack and by chance got into conversation with a regional manager about how the mobile market is changing everything. They were talking about a system where you scan a barcode in the store with your phone, and the average price is displayed on your smartphone. Then the store can make an offer to match the price or give a gift card. Also, the system will tell other merchants you are looking for an item, and they will send you their offers for the product. At that point you may decide to pay a bit more to have it right away, or wait a few days for Amazon to deliver. Something like that can truly change the way people shop.

Whatever the case, I don't think you can compete with Facebook, but you can reverse engineer why services like myspace and AOL failed. When anything changes on the landscape, you can be ready with a replacement. Again, that being a function of luck, who/what you know, timing, funds, talent, competition, etc.

If you're looking to be successful with starting a social networking website, you're going to have to find a way to offer something new that hasn't already been done. People aren't going to flock to a website that doesn't offer anything more than facebook or myspace.

Twitter is a good example of this. Facebook was leading the pack and twitter found a way to do it differently.

New, Unique, Good ideas will always be successful. The hard part is just thinking of those ideas.

The "next facebook" is somewhat ridiculous unless you are dealing with millions of investment dollars or have a sensational idea. The first step would be preparing a business plan that you can use to sell to venture capitalists.

Race, I think it was the "...Next Facebook" in your title that I was reacting to. Didn't mean to rain on your (his) parade.

As far as the niche ideas, again I don't mean to be too negative here (I'm usually real postive... must be having an off night ) but a niche social idea can still be duplicated by a big boy like Facebook or Google with ease (they have all the money). It's already going on with Twitter. So, I'm a proponent of taking a more innovative approach to entrepreneurship and going in a different direction altogether.

How about creating the first NOcial network. JUST SAY "NO" TO SOCIAL! - In the middle of privacy concerns and reaction from the SN movie, as people start to abandon Facebook, they'll have your alternative site to flee to. There you go. I just handed you a million dollar idea. Now run with it!

Ok guys... NocialNetwork.com is available! Buy it now, thank me later! Ha! Ha!

Now you'll have one more domain in your arsenal of a thousand to sit there and rot.

well we all agree that it's going to be difficult to launch a social network. However let's give them man some decent ideas (even while telling him that we strongly suggest against it).

1) Pick a niche (as previously stated)
2) Make it web 2.0

Web 2.0 isn't just geek jargon. It means create a platform that let users share things in a new way, or find things in a new way. It's about your site/tool/app being smart enough to help you create and find good content.

3) make it so that your users are self motivated to share your site:

EX if it's a personal trainers network, make it so that people can post their own training videos, get signups and collect payments through the site.

4) Make it free to use, and only collect money for either discrete ad views or monetizing some superuser feature.

On our trainer site example, maybe its add free except featured trainers in your area, and trainer workshops, but if your clients use the free personal trainers marketing tools built in (email blasts, schedules) and clients sign up with them through your site, then you take a % of revenue.

you get the idea....

Actually during this brainstorm session for you i came up with a massively awesome idea for myself...lol. thank God for Karma!

That = Truth

I would target colleges and students. Nevermind, that is exactly what facebook did. He targeted a niche demographic and offered them something exclusive.

You want a million dollar social media idea? Here is it...

Myspace is still the only large social media site that is musician and band friendly.

Create a site that connects bands with their fans.

Of course, ideas are a dime a dozen and unless you actually know why myspace is popular with musicians over facebook and can improve upon it's flaws, this million dollar social media idea is worthless.

I will give you one idea and this is where a lot of things are going these days.

Over 10 years ago, I had a discussion with someone about the internet and the best idea I had is to create an online game. Now to an experienced game/internet user it may have been interesting, but to me it was bloody fantastic since my country was only just emerging into the internet era so to speak. These days the type of games that I visualised back then are in abundance. I am talking about when a Pentium 3 computer was the latest gadget and the coolest graphics card was an 8mb or 16mb AGP etc. Well I couldn't afford a 16MB or 32MB at the time.

So games that exist today was merely a dream back then. However, I still have this dream that this particular type of game will be realised.

But enough on that. Based on my original idea... I suggest to create a browser-based game as the main focus to attract users and then integrate a social network on the back side of the game.

You would have to target a specific niche. But not too specific. You want to attract enough users.

If you think of Farmville on Facebook...well that is as simple as it gets and yet really lucrative. Games like that have existed long before Farmville ever made itself known...so it isn't ground breaking or fantastic. It is boring and mundane but appeals to the masses. It is integrated with Facebook and that is the only reason it is so successful. So before comparing something like that to EA Electronic Arts or another big game publisher, just realise that a million kudos goes to them for getting players to games that are either stand alone or multiplayer (online).

A game like Farmville doesn't take a lot to play, yet is competitive enough for normal people to pay for extra items. People don't even know what they are missing with real games.

Example would be Aion. Just look at a video on Youtube at the game. This is the type of games I play myself.

YouTube - NCSoft 'AION 3.0' Trailer

This is graphic intensive therefore a lot of people don't play games like this. Browser-based games are more simple and not that hard to undertake. It takes the least amount of time to learn and navigate.

Hence why Farmville is popular.

So combine entertainment and a social network= money

Other games that have good ideas are Second Life. It's free to play, yet players can buy in-game currency and it adds up to real value. So people can buy items in-game. I don't particularly like the game myself (because I used to work for Linden Labs), but the community is what makes it so popular and lucrative. I remember some customers making an average of $500 a day or more. No joke. Some sell virtual estate, others just trade with Linden Dollars and some people own their own businesses in the game making items. This ends up being a full time hobby that pays real well.

Entertainment is the way forward in all reality. Remember, only a small percentage of people are active users. The rest are lurkers or just dwell in the shadows. I know a lot of people that are on Facebook, but that are not active by any means. Same with Twitter.

me being new to most of this, i guess the first thing would be to find out if anyone is really interested. then i would find a better app selection, games are taking over facebook. possibly offer video/im and a set of backrounds to choose from. let the people have a choice in layout and design.

Nope. Facebook sucks for musicians. It's great for people connections but you can't throw up a play list of your songs or videos or tour dates or sell merchandise etc... you can add some media stuff but it's not a very effective format.

It's a complaint that many musicians I know have about facebook which is why most of them stick with myspace. It allows you to promote your band with lots of bells n' whistles and custom look. Facebook just doesn't work as well or as easily when you want to break out of the wall format.

Artists want something like No Doubt : Official Site which is just a custom social media template that interscope records uses. Check out any of the artists from http://www.interscope.com/ and you'll see that nearly all of them are using the same template but with custom graphics and colors.

Create a site like that for small and unsigned bands and it would take off. Bands want an easy to use and flexible place to promote themselves and call home. Build it for them and they will bring along their fans, those fans will make you rich.

I'd focus on what they said everything revolved around and that was the desire to find the opposite sex. Begin with a dating type social niche and expand upon it. Pick a domain name like SaturdayNightSingles.com and run with it.

Realize there are lots of dating sites but if you can carve your own piece of that pie with a better social twist on it you probably have a winning ticket on your hands.

Respectfully,
Tim

This is not necessarily in the realm of social networks, but if you're looking for the "next big thing", I think the Fiverr concept has a long way to go. The way it's currently run leaves much to be desired, and they don't seem to be making any (visible) changes. If they don't let go of their fears and embrace the good thing they've got going on... I think they will be in trouble in the long run.

As far as starting your own social network and making it big:

... it's easy.

* Get a new TLD created which ends up spelling out FACEBOOK... such as FA.CE.B.O.OK. Then, outsource the creation of the actual site, work with an attorney to see how much you can get away with without getting in legal trouble.

* Next, fake PageRank on your new social network to about an 8. Create fake screen shots showing you have 50,000,000 members.

* Now, order some video testimonials from Fiverr with your messages. Use all the hot chicks they got and some guys. The Ninja dude is pretty funny as well (though I believe he's on vacation at the moment).

Now you can go two different routes from here:

1. Sell it to an unsuspecting buyer on Flippa for high six figures. For income verification, use fake screenshots.

2. Write an eBook called "Social Networking Profits >> Now You Too Can Own your Own Facebook --- Learn How A Small Tiny Person Created A $100 Billion Dollar Company In His Undies From His One Bedroom Apartment, While Being A Complete Moron By Nature And Possessing No Common Sense Whatsoever --- IN THREE DAYS", or something to that effect. Use the above created screen shots/testimonials, etc, on your sales page. Sell it for $97. Tell people they are essentially paying ONLY $97 for their next $100 Billion company. Also, let them know if they don't end up creating a $100 Billion company within 60 days (assuming you're using ClickBank), you will refund 100% of their money. What's great is that they can still keep the bonuses.

Very Important: Build a list of your buyers and keep feeding them hopes, dreams, and promises. This will keep them sticking around in hope instead of refunding. This will also keep them buying more stuff from you. When you've got a list of 100k buyers, sell it all over the internet, make your last $$, and disappear from the planet.

You should have enough money by now to live comfortably for a good few years, if not more. Whenever you feel like it, rinse and repeat with a different name.

I know the plan needs tweaking but I think it's a good blueprint to get started and make some nice bank.

[/joke]

Simplistic, perhaps, but I'd start with an idea that's good
enough for one person to want to tell one more person about
- and then figure out how to make that idea appealing to a
wide enough audience!

All success
Dr.Mani

P.S. - Not my own idea. Got it from watching "The Social Network"
movie

The idea can be applied to any niche.

It's the Priceless Solution idea. In this case, the product is the website.

Take any group of people as your niche and figure out what they want and need out of a social media site and provide it to them in a way that is better than what already exists. Facebook is the king of social media at the moment but it's very generic in it's approach. It doesn't really capture any specific community very well or the needs of that community.

Look at what deviantART: where ART meets application! has done for artists.

The accidental billionaires.

It's a good book, or watch the film, The Social Network.

I've got a lot of ideas, unfortunately I can't give them to you as I'm developing them as we speak.

The reason for my post is to tell you that, don't worry about what anybody says. If someone says it can't be done, screw them, what do they know? Take any idea you have and got to work on it. You will be surprised at how many OTHER ideas you get in just taking action on the one you have.

Why can't there be a site that becomes more popular then facebook? I say there will be, it's just a matter of time. It'll be some guy who had a good idea and he actually took action on it. It could be someone in this thread. Who knows. Nobody does, that's why the online world rocks. You can do things and test things quickly and easily compared to offline.

Reading through, everyone is stating about the only thing you can do is find a Niche of some sort if you are trying to create a social network. I mean, heck, THIS is a niche social network right here! Warrior forum.

If you are thinking of a Social Network like facebook as though facebook weren't here and it was only myspace, then you'd simply build a version of myspace that did thing differently and see if it catches on. I sorta think that's what accidentally happened with Facebook. It clearly structured things in just a slightly different way than facebook did and it caught on, caught up, and overtook myspace.

I like the concept that maybe you build a social network for bands and build in features like myspace has but build it so it can easily be a plugin to facebook. Now that might be a decent idea that could take off. You aren't exactly building an entire social network, just something that doesn't exist in the current one and make it connect.

There's a lot to be said about now that there's facebook, there won't be very many if any new global social networks unless they are niche. Sorta like there's not many googles and there's only 1 internet. In some respects, once the best possible global concept of a product is created, it's hard for anything new unless it is niche and addresses a niche.

Or am I just being too obvious with my post and probably didn't advance the conversation any! lol

OK, gonna pick up that other facebook book. It'll be my WSO Case Study purchase of the day

Quietly, at least when in IM circles, because you know how some IMers get on these kinds of things and just start annoying people with spam to buy their stuff.

I'd first think about how you can improve peoples social networking experience past what they have access to through the Facebook platform. If you can't show people how your service will help them better there's really zero point. MySpace found out that there really isn't any business in being second place.

I was a member of another forum and every week in the Google section there was someone with the next "Google Killer". But 5 years latter I can't help but notice Google is still No1, and not only that but it's growing at a phenomenal rate.

You also have to remember the age of the internet, lot of the internet is built on hype and we all know what happened in 2000. History also has a tendency to repeat itself too.

Press release announcing the new site.

Okay, this is something I'm interested in. So the formula is to make a site that serves a niche, and then let the niche know about it? Hmm. The marketing part is the key here. The best sites are dead without visitors. This thread shows I've got some serious work ahead!

I'm pretty sure there'll be a "new" Facebook or "new" Google.

As long as there's a problem current solutions don't solve - there's room for new ideas, ie. solutions.

IMHO, the biggest unsolved problem is the lack of customization of products.

Every person is different and unique with it's own preferences and so on.

So I think that the next generation of websites and tools will emerge once artificial intelligence develops even more.

I think that "smart" software will be installed on websites that will adjust user experience according to the data they give about themselves.

Because the information is the only thing that's important to us online. The way we consume it and the way it's delivered to us should not stand in the way. And the more that process is adjusted to who we are as an individual - the better our experience will be.

(I had a discussion with my friends on this hehe, obviously.)

~Davor

Beyond the obvious difficulties from a competition standpoint, I think the bigger issue may be in your buddy himself. Unless he is very well capitalized, I think he is destined to fail. Here's why... First off, if you are going to build one of these type sites on a shoestring, you really need to be GOOD at the actual work. Don't forget that MZ was a coder and a really bright guy - as he was at Harvard. He also was in an environment where he could enlist other really sharp coders for free (or very close to it).

Since your buddy was asking your advice on the matter, I assume he does not have the skillset or environment that MZ had - therefore, he has to be a really sharp businessman who can hire and manage talent and has the financial resources to do so until the project (if you found a good idea) reached enough of a critical mass to attract VA funding - at which point he would then have the capital to really start growing it. Then finally, he has to figure out a way to monetize it without disrupting the experience (twitter is struggling with this).

And, that person is rare. He is not coming to a discussion forum looking for tips on marketing.