Ning Might Outpace LinkedIn in Gestation Phase

According to their site,

“Ning offers an innovative and easy-to-use technology platform for people to join and create new social networks for their interests and passions and meet new people around the things they care about most in their life.”

I could tell you what Ning.com is all about, or I could just post this video featuring co-founder Gina Bianchini (who says, “Ning is a platform for creating your own social network for anything”):
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Ning gains valuable user insight as it gestates

Ning is definitely learning a lot in the Gestation phase of its New Media Life Cycle, and perhaps its more moderate and measured growth demonstrates that it has a better, long-term growth strategy that may ultimately prove to be more successful. Looking at monthly visitors, Ning has followed a similar rise and fall pattern to the social networking site LinkedIn. The channels have a lot in common, but I have found Ning to be much more valuable. Like LinkedIn, Ning thrives on networking groups to generate content valuable to its subscribers. But, unlike LinkedIn, the interface is useful and robust. Instead of only visiting and viewing individuals’ “profiles,” each network group can be a fountain of useful, relevant, valuable, high-quality content that users can easily comment upon. So while LinkedIn is very good at providing valuable connections, Ning is taking it to a very logical and valuable next step: providing the connections and a forum to learn from and engage with these connections. I predict that as the quality content on Ning continues to grow, it’s entirely likely that it could surpass LinkedIn.

Ning, failure as a form of government?

After trying Ning for awhile I was reminded of something I learned in 9th grade Social Studies about the failure of the Articles of Confederation (thanks Mr. Crouse; I knew it would come in handy). The central problem of the Articles as a system of government in the USA, as explained to me, was that it provided for a very weak central government and gave the individual states too much freedom. What resulted was too much competition among the states. Individual currencies were developed that you couldn’t use across state lines — kind of like a States-not-terribly-United-by-anything-other-than-Geography of America.

Yes, I do have a point.

Ning has little central government. It promises to allow its users to create their own social networks, and then they’re on their own to promote and grow. But each individual network is independent of others. The onus of promotion and drawing a crowd falls squarely on the network’s creator/moderator. There’s next to no help from Ning’s central leadership. In this situation, similarly themed networks compete for an audience. It is incredibly limiting, and this is the big challenge that Ning faces.

I think I’ll run this idea by the National Council for the Social Studies Community Ning Network.

But

Ning might be onto something: the users themselves must create, build, and moderate their own networks, not simply their own space in an existing network. Unlike Facebook and MySpace networks, Ning networks are rarely personal. That is to say, they are often much more than “Dave’s Ning, check out the things I like.” Rather, they are designed to be collaborative and thematic in nature. As such, users aren’t necessarily stuck in one network that can get repetitive, boring and lead to the dreaded ‘what now? factor‘.

The Ning experience is very customizable. Ning offers brands a much more open forum for customer insight than a brand fan page on Facebook. I think the potential return on insight is much greater on Ning, provided that a company openly and honestly engages in the network it creates. (Burger King could learn a lot on Ning.)

The takeaway

Ning offers a robust interface that allows users to create engaging social networks on the topic or event or project of their choice. Unlike MySpace (which leans heavy on social), and LinkedIn (which sways a bit too much to networking), Ning is finding a solid middle. However, the site can’t just rest on its achievement of quality channel content. They only recently added featured channels on their homepage, a most basic necessity on user-generated content sites.

To reach the Escalation Phase, Ning will need to do a much better job of promoting itself and its best content. As is often the case, if Ning is adopted by some major brand names and promotes those networks on their site, it will go far to prove the viability of the channel and initiate escalation. And the major brands who are adopters during this gestation phase will likely gain valuable insight and invaluable positioning in this channel.

My question to you

Is Ning’s network-creation model too limiting? Is mass adoption discouraged by Ning’s emphasis on individual social networks within narrow subjects?

About the author

Andrew Davis -

In 2002, Andrew founded Tippingpoint Labs with journalist James Cosco. Since then, he's spent countless hours exploring the online universe and building a methodological approach to developing digital strategies that drive revenue or reduce costs.

Andrew's always asking big questions and analyzing data to understand markets, online forces and even business models. Andrew's research has resulted in the creation of innovative online metrics including Online Brand Value and Category Brand Value, eye-opening graphical representations of website evolution through the New Media Life Cycle and even using online data to predict offline revenue.

When he's not surfing the web, Andrew's traveling the globe speaking to a wide-variety of audiences about everything from social media to the future of print. Andrew is a frequent contributor to the Tippingpoint Labs website and has been creating valuable content since the early 1990s for The Jim Henson Company, CNN, The Today Show and MTV.

He's contributed to a book of short stories, called The Way Things Were and produced and co-wrote Roadside Ambition a documentary film about one small town with two huge balls.

"In a world where content is consumed as rapidly as it's created, companies need to develop a sound strategy to creating valuable online experiences that can, and should, be leveraged enterprise-wide. There is a content solution to every business challenge."