I got an email that a "Troublesome" invited me to join a new social networking site. I think it was called "Zorpah," but I deleted the email. I have nothing against social networking sites. I have profiles on MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn. I think social networking sites can be very useful in their proper context. Of course, when I get an email from an unknown social networking site that somebody I don't have any idea if I actually know is inviting me, then my delete key goes on push closer to it's eventual demise.
It seems that every time something gets big, everybody wants in on it. When the "web bubble" was growing, everybody wanted to make money with a web startup. Some of them had no better business plan than "make lots of money running a website." I like to listen to Rabbi Daniel Lapin. He often says that the best way to be successful in business is to become obsessed with meeting the needs of other people. If you're meeting needs, people will come to you to have that need met. When I get invitations to new social networking sites, that's the first thing I think of: "Do I need a new social networking site?" Really, does it matter to me? Do I spend my days thinking "I wish I had a site where I could network with strange people and post my pictures and videos, besides, oh, my Blog, my other blog, my other blog, Flickr, Google web albums, or any of the other sites I may or may not currently have an account with?"
Meet some needs, people. When a site seems to be serving only itself I start to wonder what the point is. I even started getting spam in my Yahoo! email account (big surprise, Yahoo! mail is a big spam catcher anyway) about CHRISTIAN social networking sites. Really, do I need one of them? What would that buy me that a secular social networking site wouldn't? Is it even worth the time to register?
Anyway, condense this, and put it on a bumper sticker and at the top of your Web 2.0 company letterhead: Meet needs, make money.
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