New Business Ideas: Social Networking Niches
Have you heard of Friendster? How about MySpace or Facebook? If you haven’t, you run the risk of being called a hermit in this new Internet age of social networking community sites.
Social networks like MySpace and Facebook are changing the way we interact with the other online users, particularly among teens who are avid users of these sites. There’s huge money to be made in social networking.
Not to be outdone, entrepreneurs worldwide are launching new social networking sites targeted at different niches in the market:
- Xianz is a social network for Christians. Calling itself the faith-based MySpace, Xianz offers its 35,000+ registered members a place to connect, pray and share encouragement with family, church friends and co-workers.
- Spout is the first online film community focused on connecting film lovers with great films and the people who have something to say about them. Likened to a MySpace for film buffs, the site allows members to search for, organize, recommend and buy their favorite films, as well as interact with each other via an agile and easy-to-use online interface.
- Need a place to show off your art pieces? Try STUART. STUART (”Student Art”) aims to connect busy art collectors with students who need help finding an audience for their talents. Students create profiles and upload their art, and can then chat online, giving each other feedback and of course, network with art collectors around the world.
- If you enjoy sports, Mesh Tennis may be for you. Mesh Tennis is a new social networking site which aims to connect tennis players online. On the website, you can search for other tennis players of their own skill level, in their own area. You can also record scores and matches, review tennis gear, schedule tennis events and read the latest tennis news. Joining a competition? Groups can be formed for club teams, school teams or doubles.
- Yes, there’s a place for car fanatics to hang out as well. Boompa (pictured above) is a new social network focused on connecting car fanatics together online. Users can enter information on cars they own, or want to own. Other users can tag and comment the vehicle, and contact the owner and/or add him or her as a friend. Great place to find other MINI Cooper lovers.
Do you know of any other social networking sites which are focused on specific niches and communities? Share them with us!
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This New Business Ideas Report is compiled specially for Small Business Trends from the editors of CoolBusinessIdeas.com.
October 14th, 2007 at 10:50 pm
[...] Original post by Steven Teo [...]
October 14th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
Shameless plug here but we are launching a niche networking site called Banktastic that is hoping to bring bankers together. We want it to be a place where you can go to get financial institution-specific info. Check it out!
October 14th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
[...] particularly amazing here, but it is more validation to my thoughts that you’ll see social networks appearing related [...]
October 14th, 2007 at 11:04 pm
Check out Passions Network. It’s an online dating social network consisting of over 100+ individual niche community sites, with the idea being that it should be easier to break the ice with someone you share something in common with. There is a single login and account management area, and then the members pick and choose the niche sites they want in their single account. The sites can be used solely as social networking/community sites, although the underlying focus is on bringing together like-minded people for friendship and (hopefully) romance. The list of 100+ individual sites can be seen on this page: http://www.passionsnetwork.com/c_resources.html
October 16th, 2007 at 1:10 am
Hi Steve
There’s a great new social network called MyWomenOwnedBusiness.com. It’s for women entrepreneurs and entrepreneur-wannabes to share their experience and support. It started a few months ago and is rapidly growing into a cohesive community that is expanding every day.
Liz
October 16th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
Anita,
Do you have any insight as to social networking expertise in our local market (Northeast Ohio)? I work with entrepreneurs and have a current client that has a social network business model that looks promising. She is having trouble getting funding for her idea. One issue is that the model is very new to most of the funders in our region. However, we are also running into an issue where we cannot find any expertise. In particular, we would like to track down anyone that could help build the ad revenue architecture for the site and validate the rest of the business plan assumptions.
If you have any insight as to who could help locally, please forward.
Congratulations on the success of your blog.
October 17th, 2007 at 9:38 am
Hi Dave, I just sent you an email offline with two recommendations for local people who might be able to help shape and validate an online revenue model.
As far as funding, she’s probably already tried the usual suspects, but I’d be happy to suggest a few of those offline, too.
Best,
Anita
October 17th, 2007 at 10:31 am
One of the new sites we visit frequently, may not technically be a social networking site, but serves a lot of the same purposes…. athletic.net. This site allows coaches, parents and athletes to post track and field and cross country data in order to compare, contrast and even design hypothetical competitions across conferences, regions, states — even the country.
October 19th, 2007 at 7:55 am
I’ve used several sites which ultimately helped me decide to develop my own site. Take a look and please comment as I am in the process of planning phase II. Thanks!
ChamberFish.com is a brand new online community for business professionals. Establish real business connections and develop relationships with other professionals across the country.
Manage your own personal business network, pass referrals online and introduce your network to other users.
Membership is free and will always be free.
Subscribe to the weekly newsletter to read articles about business networking, tips, success stories, life and work balance and more.
http://www.chamberfish.com
October 23rd, 2007 at 9:52 pm
Thank you very much for your post. We have included it in our current Carnival of Small Business Issues - “The Canarian” - Edition #25 — Mary S. for fcon21.biz
November 20th, 2007 at 1:37 am
Facebookster - We can provide a full range of facebook application strategy, design, development and marketing for your business. Our service offerings will allow you to maximize and leverage the facebook social graph of 32+ Million users.
We have been providing new media strategy, consulting and development for Fortune 100 Clients & Start-ups for several years. Our team of consultants, project managers and programmers are intimately familiar with the DNA of facebook and how to build an application that meets your business requirements.
http://www.facebookster.com or http://www.facebookster.net
January 9th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Check out BizToo.com Site. BizToo is a social networking site for entrepreneurs worldwide. BizToo is an online community that lets you meet new business contacts. It’s also an online business marketplace and social business networking site where you can ask and get business advice form global entrepreneurs. Also BizToo helps business reach new frontiers by increasing Social networks.
http://www.biztoo.com
January 10th, 2008 at 10:12 am
Business networking is growing, but is still a far cry from social networking’s size. We started a business networking website last year which is gradually morphing into more of a business portal. The site is http://www.GlobalBusinessNetworking.com and is growing very nicely at the moment.
As well as business networking we also cover recruitment, buyers and sellers, news and events, recommendations and several other areas. We also have a blog at http://blog.globalbusinessnetworking.com which updates users on new additions to the site. We’ve been lucky enough to have several high-profile guest posters on there as well, all of them posting on business networking.
Business networking is growing at the moment, and I must admit I was surprised at the number of business networking sites mentioned in this thread. Simply indicates how active this space it at the moment!
January 20th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Tennis Bug is also newly released tennis social network. Check it out…
January 20th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
Oh and here’s uRL http://tennisbug.com
June 9th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Liz Fuller
MyWomenOwnedBusiness.com is a malware site.