Build Your Own Social Network with Ning

Social networking is big.  So big that everyone’s jumping in.  Or trying to.  But Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn just don’t fit with every organization’s means, methods, and mission.  In fact, for many the fit is downright awful. While every organization is composed of people, most aren't about sharing highly personal information, playing games (and pranks), and testing ego boundaries.  That’s where Ning comes in.

Ning at www.ning.com is a lot like a Facebook community you build from scratch to suit your business or group.  Highly customizable in appearance, function and applications, it can include forums, groups, chat, polls, photos, blogs, games, sales and marketing tools, productivity suites (Google Docs, Zoho) and widgets and gadgets galore.  Members have their own, customizable pages.  Wow!

Before I get to the rave, I’ve got to tell you this.  The basic, ad-supported version (unobtrusive right column tower ad) is free.  Premium versions using your own domain name, without ads, with more space and bandwidth are available at modest cost.  The price is definitely right.

But the two things that make me love Ning are (a) the ease of customizing from appearance to layout to adding and configuring features to privacy, and (b) the speed.  Ning beats every other social networking community hands down for speed of loading and updating.  This is a community for the impatient man (and woman).

I just set up a social networking community, Bryant Gardens Network, for the cooperative where I live, literally in less than an hour.  Anyone who can use a word processor, email and a browser can be a Ning network administrator.

It’s so much fun, you’ll probably wind up building more than one!

I Lied About Twitter

Yes, Virginia I did close my original Twitter account as I said in an earlier blog post. But, I've since reconsidered. I was looking at Twitter bass-akwards. It's not about how many of your friends are there, but about how many new friends you can make. So I'd be happy to have you join me (LouisBruno) on Twitter.

Do You Twitter?

I don't.  I did.  Long enough to find out why I don't.

As you know, I'm a business consultant providing management, real estate and technology services.  My address book, including a few dozen friends and relations, has over 500 contacts.

Would you believe only a half-dozen real people from my address book are on Twitter?  (Chris Pirillo isn't a real person, he's a self-aggrandizement industry.)

One Twitterer was a relative who'd set his preferences to prevent auto-hookup of followers.  I see this syndrome on LinkedIn, too, where I maintain an active profile.  Why, exactly, would anyone join a social network to be anti-social?  I mean we're not talking about Tom Cruise here, or the Pope.

Another was a life COACH. (He lives in CAPITALS.)  Looking for work, I guess.  Never did understand why anyone would him to think for them.

Two were legitimate people checking out Twitter.  Each sent a tweet 5 or 6 months ago.  Just one.  Never returned.  Not anal like me.  I deleted my account.

And two were just plain lonely, losers.  Clients of mine I've long since fired.  One of whom is still a real estate broker.  Probably still complaining about not being able to make a living at it.

Don't look for me on Twitter.  OK?