New Vertical Network? Learn from Twitter

I am working with a client to build new e-Health networks for employees from many of the client's customers. For those of us that have embraced micro blogging and the utility of Twitter, there are many lessons which should be applied.

#1 Less is more -- Building big is not the way to go when you are starting. Costs to build big are high and there aren't limitless budget dollars with which to build a monster community with all the bells and whistles. Focusing on the core products needed to bring value to the network should be your focus.

#2 Give and Receive -- Remember that when you build a social/professional network you must give utility to the users as well as get them to contribute utility to the growing network. A network of 50000 users of which 95% are ghosting, reading and never posting or interacting is a not a social network. It is a newspaper. Networks need activity and participation. Get 5000 people to participate in a network, get them to post, to comment, to answer surveys, polls, read emails, forward emails, read blogs or Twitters. Get them to engage!

#3 Open source, Open source, Open source -- When I meet with new and old clients they are always talking about building using someone else's super software solution for building online social networks. They are also concerned about the cost of licensing the solution and how they will monetize the network to pay for the software. My response is always the same. Look at open source solutions. Don't pay big bucks for someone else's proprietary crap.

#4 Engage, Don't Spam -- Anyone that talks to me about monetizing a network (professional or consumer) always starts off with a discussion about advertising and using that as a primary means to generate revenue. The lesson I bring to them is that quantity does NOT equal quality. While lots of advertising is useful and has its place, I recommend building collaborative programs with companies that want to connect and interact with the building network.

Get a sponsor to pay to place high quality, in-depth content within the network for people (note: they are people not users, and we know a lot about them) to interact with. This also means that sponsors (not advertisers) often have to be educated as to why they should forget about the banner advertising models of the last decade and look to build high value content engaging the smart people using the network. The value of 500 engaged people from the community participating in a survey is infinitely higher than the value of 50000 assumed impressions on a banner in an email or on a website.

#5 Build Personality Into the Network -- When people build communities or networks online they often get a list of names and emails -- from their gaming guild, from their class, from their employer, from a client or from someone selling a list. They take that list, build a community then direct email everyone on the list to join. When people join they provide an email, first and last name and that is usually all. They join, read the homepage, maybe an article or two and then never return.

When building a network, enroll new people that add value to your endeavor. Don't go after everyone. Engage people that have a need to engage in the network. Have them build a profile and create an identity on the network. Get them to put some skin in the game. Get a profile picture, an introductory line or two about them and get them to post in an introductory discussion. Have an already engaged member or team member interact with all new people joining the network and make sure that everyone has a personality in the network.

A good example is a gaming community in which I participate. We all post on a discussion board and receive posting ranks depending on the number of posts we have posted to the forum. While that automated "title" is useful, it is the titles which people have received from the Admins which are the most rewarding and in return, those entitled people post to the forum more often. My title is "A man of many words, often too many."

Cheers!
Rob