A fair bit has been written about Ning in the last week and having thought about it (thanks for the kick goes to Jerry Bowles), I’ve concluded that despite certain limitations it could make an excellent addition to services professionals offer. Ning is a community building tool – free but ad supported – that some people think looks too close to MySpace to be a serious contender. I can see that logic but I don’t agree.
MySpace is associated with young people doing young people type things. Personally I find it a distraction. Ning on the other hand can be a dedicated, customisable community resource. Connoiseurs of Microbrews is a great example and particularly appropriate for the British beer drinker where, in certain circle, the preservation of Real Ale is a genuine concern. Why on earth would a professional get involved in developing something like this. Several ideas:
There are numerous Labour and Conservative clubs up and down the land, all of whom have members, all of whom are clients. Why not create a site for your local XX Club and let them build a community? The idea being that you’re the good guy trying to help them foster a sense of community – even if it is in the bar or the snooker hall. You certainly could not do worse than some of the stuff I’ve seen.
Take that one step further. Many firms have informal social gatherings with clients. It could be a day at Goodwood, a run round the local golf course or simply a BBQ. These are occasions that become talking points so why not set up a community site for this type of one off event? Invite your selection of clients, ask them to bring a camera or camera enabled phone, you take along a digital recording device and record snatches of conversation from the event. Have the community hosted as a Ning site.
You can then expose to your client base by a link from your website or simply encourage the community to add photos, blog posts, video clips – whatever they wish. With a little light PR’ing among clients, that might be the kernel for community that has a positive impact for both you and your clients.
Robert Scoble recorded a video interview with Marc Andreesson (he of Netscape fame) and Gina Bianchini, Ning’s CEO which provides some background. If you prefer to get straight into the nuts and bolts of the service, the video link at the top of the page shows Gina running the demo – also recorded by Robert. Well worth the viewing for the 12 minutes investment. IMO.
One of the best summaries can be found on Mat Ingram’s site which also contains links to other thoughts about Ning. Steve O’Hear’s quick run down is definitely worth attention.
Ning is a ‘closed’ box in the sense there is no direct access to any data you put on the Ning site. You should keep a note of the location of all RSS feeds, podcasts, photo and video links along with a backup of any text that has been specifically written for the Ning community – just in case it doesn’t survive the maelstrom of competition among social computing frameworks that are starting to pop up.
Technorati Tags: ning, Scoble, social computing
