Hello guys, i started a new social network (http://www.whoayou.com) and i asked me how other social networks get such a big userbase . For example friendster, myspace and facebook got a big userbase - but how do they got it ? Just from mouth-to-mouth marketing ? Maybe someone is here who was at the beginning from one of these social networks there and can tell me how it grows .
First you'll need to redisgn it. It doesnt look good at all. Second, you should know by know since you've started a social networking website that all of the others you've mentioned are: useful, fun, enjoyable, catchy and foremost interesting I see you have adsense on it, and since you wanted to know something about facebook .... well they started to display ads i believe 2 or 3 years after, not straight away just like yours. And the main advantage was that the users were able to join if they were invited by a friend, otherwise they couldn't register.
Hmm..in which case should it be redesign ? what doesnt look good ? Adsense is just a small box - and no , facebook had advertisement too at the same place a year after launch i think. Maybe i should only make the ads visible when users logged in. The "invited by a friend" feature is implemented at who are you too - but i disabled yesterday for some days , as i see the problem that first there must be more users who can invite peoples Btw. many thanks for your tips - if you have some tips for design, i would be very happy
Ok... lets forget about the design for a sec. * Search for other Peoples worldwide * Look for old Friends, Students, Shool Mates or Job Mates * Create Fanpages for every Interest you want or join Fanpages * Create and join Groups that you like * Find out who likes the same things as you * See what your Friends are doing at the moment * Share Photos, Videos, Links and your mind * Be a part of a friendly Community * Find new friends * Who Are You is the socia network for everyone around the world All of these and few other features are already available on Facebook which is the number one social network right now. I'm not a member of your community thus your website, so here i am and convert me Tell me why should i join your website?
Yeah i know what you mean - you are speaking from Unique Selling Product Feature right ? Ok one thing is (but it is still in development - but i am on lol) that the fanpage can become more customized. For example : on facebook you can create a fanpage and have a struct that cant be changed. On Who Are You you can add content pages which you can fill with text or an RSS Feed URL (which catch news from the source). So the fanpage feature will become more functions in the future. Second thing is that we will care in the future more about privacy as facebook - i dont say that it is 100% done atm , we are working on it but as german provider we have harder privacy laws here as in USA for example. One example for this (and which is still implemented) is : - if you register an account you must provide your real name , BUT you can choose if for the public (non-registered users) the name can be visible or not. If not the nickname you choose will be displayed instead of your realname. This should prevent to get found on search engines if you dont want it. Second thing is : facebook is big and makes things that users dont like (removing the dislike button for example). One of our future feature will be to bring "dislike" to it and other options (and no simple "like" buttons). This should give Users the possibility to better express what they are thinking about something. And at last: if someone have good ideas for features, we have an ear for it and if it is a feature which could be interesting to other users - we want to implement it
Well there is your advantage over Facebook!! Its not a USP (Unique Selling Proposition ) but its way better than copying them. About the dislike button... i think you will make a big mistake if you have it, because nobody likes to be disliked especially not in public. How would you feel right now if one of your friends dislike you for whatever reason they have and state that on the internet? It can lead to a verbal fight instantly. Also you should consider to add chatting and video chats if possible. I've seen many new websites that offer video chatting and they become instant hit, so you should try it. But, keep in mind one thing: Everyone is not your potential member. Chose the audience that you would like to have there... teenagers, singles... be more specific who you would like to be your customer / member.
hmm..okay thats a good point at dislike button..i just thought about things like if someone tells things that are sad ...maybe i should not say "dislike" more "is sad about" or something - well its in dev too Many thanks for your feedback Gosh - especially the point about teenagers and singles. One thing that i forgot : we have a german version online too (its online since December 2009 and has a 3D Chat) and i plan to translate the 3D Chat to english too . It is nothing special , its a 3d chat with 4 lobbys like a Park , an University , a small city , a bar and so on and you can do emotes and talk in the lobbys. I am not sure if this will attract peoples, so thats the reason why i wait with the translation I have one question as i didnt have a good overwview about the US Market : which website on USA would be good to book advertisement to reach teenagers , singles and shool mates ? Have you an idea ?
That can be interesting too. Whatever you do keep in mind that you need to be different than Facebook. You can attract people hence new members only if you have something that is interesting to them. Its not an easy task nowadays to grab someones attention and keeping it, but you can test, test, test things and see what people like. Also i suggest that you should go after female audience. Attract females (teenage girls, women, married women, singles etc.) Focus on attracting the females, make it interesting for them to hang on and after that all you need are few ads and BOOM the place will be flooded with men, and lots of new members. If you go after the males first, you'll have problem keeping them coming back since the place will be like .... well you know how it will look like About the ads check this section http://forums.digitalpoint.com/forumdisplay.php?f=90 lots of cheap ads
Many many thanks to you - it helps me a lot. Yeah i have several ideas how can i make things better that attract people - like little features as sharing documents and files in groups and with their friends for example (well i have a list with abot 50 Feature on my todo list lol ). But the idea first to attractive womens..is ...brilliant . Why i dint came on it by myself lol ? Okay i think i have now a better direction how i should do it. Many many many thanks to you . you dont know how it helps me So further plan will be : - improve the site with interesting features (not all at once , but the features that could attract). - think about how a better layout could be that doesnt look too much imspired by the old Facebook layout . - analytics and creating a strategie to reach most female persons as possible.
Word of mouth is powerful advertising - you make a good product, people will talk about it. If it sucks, nobody will check it out. Why do you think so many people left Myspace for Facebook?
rofl GoshM i am on my way @Forgotten : Yeah good point. That is my goal to build a good product which is interesting . Word of the mouth is good and you are right : this is a good marketing strategy. But before that it is necessary that the product is interesting enough that people automatically talk about it I am now going to improve it as fast and good as i can and besides try to reach as much womens as i can