To Ning, or not to Ning…

It seems like everyone is still hot on the idea of their own brand social networking website. Internal social networking platforms (like Ning.com) allow for the integration of social tools within a website unique to the hosts desired interest, passions, and services. There are great benefits to doing this but the question needs to be asked, what is the ROI?

The answer to this question is very subjective; there are reasons to and not to take on the task of creating your own internal social network. (Be alarmed if the words get uttered, “because [enter other brand] has one, we need to have one as well!”) When you get down to it, because of the costs and investment in time required, the only reason to transition your site into being its own internal social network is if you have something truly unique to offer your audience and you have an audience who has a need for this content.

If you can get everything done on the current platforms (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter…) there really isn’t the need to turn your website into a lesser mash-up of these immensely popular destinations but with fewer users. Instead, for a much smaller investment of time and money you can achieve a similar sociability by linking to your social profiles, adding a blog to your site, and implementing Facebook Connect.

Something that gets thrown around our office that speaks directly to this: “Sharing is the new creating”. You no longer need to control users profile information, and that includes a database of email addresses, because the internet has moved far past outbound marketing.