Portability will open new doors
Currently there are no tools that enable users to share friends from one network to another. This is beneficial to the bigger networks; if all of one's contacts are on MySpace, they are invested in the platform and the added challenge of finding new friends on other networks.
However, this is changing. Google's Open Social initiative provides a common API for social networks, facilitating user's transitions from one arena to the other. It stands to reason that once this barrier to adoption is lowered, social networks will live or die on their differentiators. The right combination of tools and experience design, tailored to a specific audience, will be able to grow quickly as users port their friend lists over.
For marketers considering opening up social networks of their own, carefully consider the needs of the core audience, and be certain that the planned feature set will engage them while remaining different from other networks out there. Selecting niche markets makes it easier to differentiate in the short term, and while a good design will always incorporate multiple ways to grow virally, this will become easier as user data becomes easier to share.
Mobility will change everything
In the U.S., there is a shift towards mobile social networking. Some major brands, including The Coca Cola Company, have taken the first steps into offering exclusively mobile content.
As devices become more sophisticated, data plans are becoming less expensive, and users are increasingly engaged with their digital lives on the go. It is no surprise that mobile social networks have significant buzz. Major networking properties such as MySpace and Facebook have mobile interfaces, while platforms such as Twitter are optimized for mobile devices.
Building for mobility has a significant impact on the experience design of a social network. Twitter is optimized for the mobile platform; a graphically light interface loads quickly, and a limitation on characters per post ensures ease of data entry as well as reading on a small monitor. As mobile devices become increasingly powerful and easy to use, it stands to reason that the mobile experiences will also become more layered and nuanced.
Mobile social networking is currently the domain of teens and young adults, but will be adopted by the adult market. In the interim, best practice for U.S. users is to create an online experience and a sister mobile site, versus doing exclusively one or the other.
Conclusion
One could argue that the first online social networks began in the days of IRC and rudimentary email -- when the Pentium 386 was blazing fast, and the first color monitors from Macintosh were still years away. Watching the space makes it very clear that it is evolving quickly, and is being adopted by an increasingly broader audience.
The vanguard of users -- young and technically sophisticated -- are moving onto mobile platforms, and leave their networks when other, less cool users show up. Advances in technology will help spread the growth of multiple platforms, as it becomes increasingly easy to move friend data from one place to another.
Ultimately, social networks will become an increasingly useful tool for the brand marketer, provided that they use careful research to distill business objectives into a platform of interest to their specific audience.
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Evan Gerber is principal experience design consultant at Molecular.
