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What chance has a new social network got at succeeding if it launched in a phase manner only for colleges like Facebook did initially?
technologyunderstand
Facebook was a success because it placed the focus on personal information instead of multimedia content like what Myspace did. Mark Zuckerberg wanted to make a website where everyone from a particular university, could find out who else went there, and read up personal information about them. That was the purpose of the website. When it launched, there was no Wall, Photos, Pages etc. It took 2 years since the website's launch before people could actually post on other people's walls.
If you believe that the mere act of launching a social network in a phase manner for colleges will be enough to make a social network successful, you have a lot to learn. It was the fact that people could find information about each other that made it successful. The website is called Facebook, and the website is designed to look like a book.
I joined Facebook in 2006, and back then it was amazing. There was nothing like it. I couldn't post on walls, and there was no Applications. There were Pages and Groups though.
If you want to make your social network successful, you're going to have to come up with a unique approach that will set it apart from other social networks. And Google is not a unique approach. It's just a group site like Ning and Groupsite are, and those don't work well as far as social networks are concerned. Look at Friendster and Bebo.
What people do now is take Facebook for granted in a way, as they do not understand that it's about reading personal information about people, a book about people's lives. The new Timeline profile is going to make people remember that.
https://www.facebook.com/about/timeline
Facebook calls itself a social utility instead of a social network, as it's a tool for connecting with the people we already know, rather than for networking with people we don't know. "Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you"
What you have to do, is come up with a unique usage for your proposed social network, so you might want to start by making a slogan for it that represents to people what it can be used for. Once you've done that, you can go on your way.