NBC Launching New Social Network

Seems NBC is launching their own social network.

I saw this small text link on the NBC.com site while looking for some info for Vaspers. It read "social networking - coming soon." So, of course, NBC will offer blogs, personal profiles, friends (or "buddies" in this instance), message boards, etc. But people really care about the shows, not the network.

And as long as they remember that, this could be a powerful move. As annoyed as I am with the onslaught of new social networks (and really, just stop. you won't be the next myspace, I promise), It really depends on where the focus is. If it's a place for people to gather and talk about Heroes, or the Office, or whatever, that does makes some sense. While I may still be more inclined to focus my time on MySpace or Facebook, it is a chance for me to get some dedicated Heroes talk from time to time.

At some point, there will need to be some aggregation. Obviously, groups on MySpace and Facebook just aren't satisfying the obvious need for interaction and segmentation on the micro level while retaining the one-stop-shop on the macro level. Unfortunately, it'll take a pretty big leap for these companies to start allowing a single home to cater to all my social networking needs. And that sucks for us. Now, can we quit with new ones? It's enough of a pain in the ass to keep up with already.

Comments

[Tim Jackson]

You're not old enough to sound that cranky already...

I doubt NBC will really let go of control or truly enable an open user experience, but I haven't looked for myself, so I can't really say anything. Still, I've yet to see somebody as large as them let go and let the community just have their way. I'm looking forward to that day... but I don't think we're there yet.

[Robert John Ed]

I'm actually all for the proliferation of new social networks. I haven't joined one of the new ones. Currently on Myspace, Facebook and LinkedIn (which I know NOTHING about, but will get around to utilizing sooner or later).

All these mousetraps and sooner or later one will be better. Which pushes on to worthwhile ideas like Twitter. We won't stop making new cars and we won't stop making new social networks. Eventually someone will break new ground with an idea and we'll be better off for it.

It's evolution AND intelligent design. Weird huh?

[vaspers the grate]

you are witnessing the upheavals and turmoil that are characteristic of revolutions.

there will be many players, entrepreneurs scrambling to launch services, tools, products, schemes (the worst of which is "monetization") and most experiments will fail miserably.

into the dot com garbage pit.

we are mostly bloggers who are morphing into New Super Bloggers, which I have prophesied for 3 years now: microblogging, networking in esoteric or public channels, multi media, each person being a portal.

[vaspers the grate]

I use Jaiku as a personal presencing stream feed aggregator, a central hub, with Twitter and del.icio.us as the content flows, with occasional unique content created in Jaiku exclusively.

Twitter/Jaiku as link archiving and whisper-transmission channel.

[vaspers the grate]

http://twitter.com/vaspers

for the Deeper Vaspers

[CK]

"In June, we're launching the NBC.com social network, allowing all of our fans to connect with each other and interact with our shows in exciting new ways. Some of the features you can expect when you join the NBC.com social network include..."

Can anyone tell me their blatant first mistake? You get a cookie (chocolate chip)cuz I'm outta books right now.

Btw, other than your on-spot "make it about the shows not the network" (though I'd go one further and say "make it about the fans/viewers" but you meant that, there is a (brilliant? too darn sensible?) way to make this work. But they won't do it. and yet they coulda done it and been PHENOMENAL.

Ok, this has turned into 2 questions (2 cookies):

The first is what's the first blatant mistake? (hint: it's obvious)

The second is...what could they have done to make this PHENOMENAL? (hint: it's obvious)

Oh..and what should they do but so totally won't (hint: every decent blog does it, does it without thinking twice and delights in so doing)?

OK, no more questions. Cuz I'm outta cookies and I'm intrigued to find out how deep Vaspers can get (since we now have the deeper Vaspers...thank goodness, he was always too shallow for me ;-).

[CK]

To clarify, here are the 3 questions (since I actually am giving away cookies as I've stated in my own corner):

"In June, we're launching the NBC.com social network, allowing all of our fans to connect with each other and interact with our shows in exciting new ways. Some of the features you can expect when you join the NBC.com social network include..."

#1: The first is what's the first blatant mistake? (hint: it's obvious)

#2: The second is...what could they have done to make this initiative PHENOMENAL? (hint: it's obvious)

#3: Oh..and what should they do but so totally won't (hint: every decent blog does it, does it without thinking twice and delights in so doing)?

[Steve Woodruff]

I'll take a stab at #1, CK. They should be asking the users what THEY want, instead of just presenting some bullet point list of stuff readily available elsewhere. This has all the feel of another corporate "production" instead of real user-centric social media.

[David Reich]

I think NBC's move is a good idea. Hopefully they will listen to feedback from users, even if they may not have asked users before they launched the site.

I'm sure they'll have to moderate comments from readers, to keep it family-friendly. I have no problem with that at all, as long as they permit open discussion that may include some negatives about shows and personalities.

I agree with you Paul; it's the shows and the personalities on NBC, rather than the network itself that draws viewers.

I have no problem with yet another site. Proliferation is just part of business -- compare it to the magazine industry. How easy is it to keep up with content of every magazine out there? Pretty hard, right? So the reader makes choices from the hundreds of titles on the newsstand.

Same thing with sites, blogs and all the other things coming at us online. We go to what interests us personally and what seems to deliver consistent content that we like and feel we can trust.

CK, I'm not going for the cookie offer till I find out if they have nuts in them. I don't like nuts.

[Cam Beck]

Paul, this is just a "gateway social network." The next thing you know, these people will start using more hardcore social networks, like MySpace, Facebook, and even blogging.

We need to stop this NOW -- for the sake of the children. ;)

I haven't worked out the details yet in my head, but I have been considering the possibility of having some common platform, protocol, or language through which all of these different networks can interact.

I doubt all companies will want to allow that kind of cross pollination of brands, but I haven't thought of another way to overcome the difficulties you describe here.