The word Cyberspace always makes me chuckle for some reason. Not sure why. Anyway, I noticed an article recently in the FT - "Business urged to woo social network figures" - about a report from Experian and Hitwise saying, well, that business should make sure they look after influential people online. Cool. My headline would be "Influential people are influential people, online or off".
But it was the box-out in the article that I wanted to highlight here, particularly as it relates to this MarCom Professional network. Not sure about the examples though. I quote....
Gated Communities in Cyberspace
The report on the future impact of social networking identifies another new direction that the phenomenon is taking – the “gated community”, where like-minded people engage in well-informed contact about very specialised subjects, but exclude others, writes Ben Fenton.
Niche social networking sites, although not necessarily “gated”, include:
- Meshtennis.com – a site that sets people up with playing partners for tennis matches;
- Tripmate.com – a site that allows serious travellers to swap tips and link up to find someone to share journeys;
- Sneakerplay.com – an invitation-only site for people with a fascination for athletic footwear;
- PPrune.org – one of the earliest big forums, a get-together address for professional pilots and others in the aviation industry to exchange gossip and practical information;
- Electricians’ Talk – part of Screwfix.com, a DIY forum that at the last count had more than 300,000 messages on it
