Alright, we’ve gotten past the initial stage of Web 2.0. Here’s a few big hitters of this stage: MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc (you get my drift). What is coming in the second stage? What will the big hitters of this stage be (if any)?

First off, let’s state the (semi-)obvious. It’s becoming increasing hard to create a social network. People are trying, and some succeeding, but it just doesn’t seem worth it. With large sites like the ones that I listed above, why would anyone want to use your social network?

Let’s examine a few aspects of a few current social networks to answer this question. I’m just going to stick with Facebook and Twitter, since I use them a lot more than any others.

Facebook

Facebook is a generic social network – it allows you to connect with friends, talk to them, share photos, etc. The integration of applications is what makes Facebook different from other social networks. You can get an application for just about anything.

The chances of you being able to create something better than Facebook are extremely low. Aside from its UI, Facebook has a pretty good backend. If you check out Facebook’s developer documentation, you’ll discover that Facebook’s backend is pretty powerful.

How would you beat Facebook? I already stated that the chances of you being able to create a network better than Facebook are quite low. Instead, you create something that works seamless with Facebook. This could be a Facebook application, perhaps. I’ll talk more about this after I talk about the next network.

Twitter

Twitter, like Facebook, is pretty generic. It allows people to update thier status, reply to other peoples’ statuses, search for status, and stuff like that. There’s nothing specific. People tweet about anything that’s on their mind – they aren’t restricted to a niche.

You probably won’t be able to beat Twitter. I mean, if Google can’t, what makes you think that you can?

Like I said about Facebook, you should make something that works together with Twitter. It’s a lot easier to do this with Twitter than Facebook. Facebook’s API is directed towards Facebook applications, while Twitter’s API is directed toward just about anything.

Niche is key

Instead of trying to beat a large social network, why not try to work with it? I mentioned this point as I outlined both social networks.

Most of the huge social networks these days are general – they aren’t specific to one niche. There are a few exceptions – Last.fm for one. I’m not even sure if I would consider Last.fm specific. It’s about music, but there’s a lot to music. What about all of the different genres of music? I’m not sure.

Here’s an example of a site that takes Twitter and adds a niche element to it: TweetTunes. I’m not trying to promote my own site, I just had it in mind while writing this post.

People tweet about a lot of things on Twitter. Why not narrow that down to a specific topic (such as music)? There are literally thousands of opportunities to do this. The data is easily accessible through Twitter’s API.

Take something general and make it specific. And then make it specific in a different way. Repeat as many times as you would like to.

You won’t make the next Facebook with this technique, but you can still make a site that does well without too much effort.

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, or if you would like to share your opinion, please leave a comment! Also: I’m looking for a few other sites that are similar to TweetTunes (they combine a social network and a niche). If you know of any good sites like this, please leave a comment.

Tags: Facebook, Social Networks, TweetTunes, Twitter, Unique Niche