Social media hot or hype?

I remember attending American Business Media's annual Digital Velocity event in March 2007 and seeing some really interesting social media presentations. At that time, I thought social media was white hot. They had a speaker from Gather.com -- a consumer social media site, not B2B -- tout exponential growth curves, with his presentation ending with a dire: "Think this is just consumer? It's coming to business."

Caught up in the hype, I returned convinced that launching social networks in our space (packaging and manufacturing) was an absolute must. We had vendors lined up, strategies in place, editors girded and ready to go. We were going to trounce the competition and be first to market in our space with a comprehensive social networking app.

Then I did my quick reality check that I do with any new project. I ask two questions: 1) Is this something readers are asking for? 2) Is this something advertisers are asking for?

While we did conduct some web surveys to readers that indicated some interest, it's always difficult to tell with such surveys how widespread the interest is and whether people would make a social networking app part of their work life. And certainly, no advertiser has ever come to us and said, "Hey, we want you to offer social networking." The only thing advertisers want is leads. Does social networking provide leads? Not really.

So we pulled the plug.

If social networking seemed white hot in March 2007, it now seems super white hot in February 2008. What's interesting is the proliferation of vendors whose social networking platform can be white labeled for B2B media applications. A year ago, there was Leverage Software, whose platform is used by Infoworld's IT ExecConnect. It was really cool, and really expensive. Initially they wanted $25K per year. We just couldn't justify it for what amounted to an experiment. Then they came out with a do-it-yourself model for $300/mo for up to 100 users. But today there are dozens of companies that offer a social media platform for media companies like us, that we are now enjoying extreme downward price pressure.

I remain dubious of social networking's value in certain markets--such as ours, namely, where people are very private and exist in corporate cultures that restrict outward communication food, drug, beverge manufacturers). If people meet at a conference or event, I can see them maybe using a social networking site to stay in touch--maybe. That said, I am watching this space closely, and I'll jot some notes of vendors to watch (in addition to Leverage Software).

IntroNetworks -- this was brought up to me by some Web gurus at Rockwell Automation, one of our advertisers. Has a very similar cool feature to Leverage software, a visual people finder, that maps your interests onto a circular target with graphical depictions of other people in the circle who are either closer or further from you--depicted in the center--based on their matching interests.

Neighborhood America -- This is one to watch namely because Steve Ennen, one of the sharper folks in this business, was impressed enough to leave what had to have been a great, cushy job at American Business Media to become their business development guy. Steve has called me to schedule a demo, but I haven't seen it yet.

GoingOn -- This is the social networking app from AlwaysOn, the Silicon Valley tech uber-blog founded by Tony Perkins, former publisher of Red Herring. If it has all the functionality of AlwaysOn, it would be quite robust and definitely worth evaluating.

Pluck -- Although this is used by McGraw-Hill Construction, I found it too consumer-oriented. But who am I to argue with McGraw-Hill? Last time I checked, they were doing okay.

Ning -- Powers the social networking function of American Business Media's new site. Why did they select Ning? I asked Joshua Kuvin, their CTO. In his words: "We had interviewed everything from a $100K build-out to the smallest. Ning offered the most professional look and feel, [and] premium service is only about $35 a year and takes all ads out. I investigated it further to make sure that all info would remain private if a person wished to do so… and this was something that very important thing for us." I logged in and experimented with it, and it seemed to provide all the necessary functionality.

KickApps -- Love the name, but it's more consumer-oriented. Worth looking at for enthusiast media.

Near-Time -- This is more of a community Wiki and blogging platform, I found it weak in organized discussion groups when I evaluated it a year ago. Today, who knows, it probably can cure cancer.

CollectiveX -- This site doesn't explicitly bill itself as a social networking app, but that's what it does. And best of all, the free version does all the basic things you'd expect in a social networking site (member discovery, discussion groups, file library). For $9 per month you can have the ads removed, but to tell you the truth, they're at the bottom so you don't even notice. We're experimenting with using CollectiveX as the social networking app for a new packaging line performance workshop we're launching. It's a two-day workshop, and the theory is, if you've spent 2 days in a sweaty room in Tampa with someone at a workshop, chances are good that a strong-enough bond will be formed that a social networking app may have a chance to be used.

Of course, in my opinion, the biggest social networking app is one that's free to everyone with internet access: e-mail.

If you've found some others that would be suitable for B2B, post them here! Better, share your experiences with launching and running social media sites. I'm collecting those as well.