A niche to socialize: Specialized social-networking sites offer way to connect
Early last year, two roommates at the University of Idaho decided to create an online project to make money.
Frustrated by a lack of Web sites with decent user-written travel reviews, they devised a site targeting college-age travelers. That idea became GoSleepGo.com, a site with social-networking features allowing members to create profiles, describe their adventures to offbeat locales, upload pictures and meet fellow travelers.
GoSleepGo now has an international membership of about 1,600, said 26-year-old Scott Falconer, CEO. Entries range from descriptions of Chinese nature reserves to hole-in-the-wall bars in Portland.
“There’s so much stuff on there now that I can’t even keep track of what’s on there,” said Falconer, who founded the site with 24-year-old J.R. Pelkola.
While established social-networking sites MySpace and Facebook claim tens of millions of members, GoSleepGo and fellow niche-oriented sites are carving out followings. And with new tools like Ning, a social network hosting site for people without technical expertise, it’s become even easier to connect with like-minded netizens.
“Niche social networking sites can often provide what the broader social networks do not – specified content and a network of people highly engaged in that particular area of interest,” said Andrew Lipsman, a senior analyst for comScore Inc. “Broad social networks and niche social networks are not mutually exclusive. Many Internet users will belong to a broad network for more general networking purposes, but also spend time at niche networks that tailor to their specific interests.”
Nick Murto found similar success with Wakefirst.com, a Ning-based social network devoted to regional wakeboarding he started this spring. Its membership recently passed 100. Members post photos and videos of their water sports exploits, and the network helps coordinate wakeboarding events.
“It’s somewhere where people who are likeminded individuals can go hang out,” said Murto, an owner of Spokane online marketing firm Seven2 Interactive. Hosting more than 80,000 networks, Ning has added about 50,000 since February, said Gina Bianchini, co-founder and CEO of three-year-old Ning Inc., based in Palo Alto, Calif. Ning sites span topics from coping with type 2 diabetes to bathroom graffiti and firefighting. Four-year-old MySpace, however, still dominates the field, logging more than 114 million visitors age 15 and older in June, a 72 percent increase from a year ago, according to comScore. Facebook visits spiked 270 percent to 52.2 million visitors for the same period. While estimates peg Internet users at more than 1 billion, social networks reach less than 15 percent, Bianchini said.
GoSleepGo contains Yahoo ads and offers budget rates for airfare and hotel bookings through a larger travel company. The founders recently moved to Seattle to focus on the business full-time and try to compete with larger sites, but GoSleepGo is losing money, Falconer said.
Yet they won a $5,000 first-place prize at a UI-sponsored business plan competition in April. They caught the attention of judge Gregory Brown, a Seattle venture capitalist and entrepreneur, who is now an adviser. “I think companies like GoSleepGo represent the next generation of travel content that’s based more around user communities and interesting locations than around a large company trying to sell something to its captive audience,” Brown said.
The redesigned GoSleepGo plots users’ entries on an interactive map. Users also can accumulate points for posting reviews and other actions to build their credibility.
The GoSleepGo name represents the philosophy of going until you drop, finding a place to crash, and going again.
“It’s that whole mindset that I think so may people in our generation have,” Falconer said.
“I think everyone has some sort of experience where they’re just hanging out with their friends, and all of a sudden they’re a state or two over.”