Niche Social Networking

Posted by Ken on October 10th 2006    under: Real Estate Directories    

Social networking sites like Digg, Myspace and many more are for the most part very general in nature. The next evolution of Social sites will be smaller Niche sites in my opinion. A great example of this is ActiveRain.com.

ActiveRain.com is a site that by the time it hits 5 months old it will have over 7,000 members and all of it via word of mouth advertising. If ever a site displayed the power of the web and niche social networking this is it.

The site is all about real estate and those that support the real estate industry. Real estate agents, loan officers, staggers, and others have a place to talk about the industry, network, and share ideas on how to better serve our clients. Also members have blogs that can be used to drive traffic to their main sites to generate business.

So who cares besides the real estate industry? Well it is my strong opinion that the growth of Active Rain will cause others to take notice and mirror their success by creating other niche social networking sites. Learn from the successes and errors of ActiveRain.com to apply this to other niches and maybe the power of web can help your next site become the next big thing in your industry.

About the Author: Ken Smith, e-PRO is the owner of Suburban House Hunters Team, one of Chicago’s top real estate teams.

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18 Comments

Laurie Said,
October 11th, 2006 @4:46 pm  

Thank you for the insightful information.

Toby Said,
October 26th, 2006 @5:50 am  

Social networking has grown and at unprecidentate rate to ecompass more than the the MySpace users ( I am one). But it goes to show the power of how social networking sites can have on SEO. Another great post my friend.

Las Vegas Guy Said,
November 1st, 2006 @10:40 pm  

Ken, you are absolutely right. There are already several sites that are trying to duplicate the success of Active Rain, but fall severly short. One is just link farming for its owner, the other is a paid membership. Both have quite a few members, but there isn’t much going on there at all.

Ken Said,
November 27th, 2006 @9:07 pm  

Anything that does well on the web will be duplicated. Trying to do so in the same field is hard, but taking ideas that work in one field and taking it to another is smart business. Basicly take AR’s model and apply it to another business field and you would have success.

Toby Said,
November 28th, 2006 @10:32 pm  

Benchmarking teaches that very concept Ken, see what works in one industry and apply it to another. Its makes we want to do one for the avaition community but there skill set is just not there to make it happen.

Gary Said,
November 30th, 2006 @4:48 pm  

You are absolutley correct on this Ken.

Phoenix Homes Team Said,
May 10th, 2007 @9:49 pm  

Add this to your list of achievements:

Realtor.org jsut picked up this particular post and sited it on their site. How cool is that? Congratulations Ken! :-)

http://www.realtor.org/libweb.nsf/pages/fg125

Ken Said,
May 11th, 2007 @10:36 pm  

It is nice to see that someone actually is reading what I write. lol. Thanks for pointing that out!

Phoenix Homes Said,
July 19th, 2007 @4:39 pm  

Nice blog post Ken. It’s kind of fun to look back at blogs like this and see how far social networking has evolved in the past 1.5 years or so. Things sure do move fast.

Congrats on the Realtor.org site!

Ken Said,
July 19th, 2007 @9:25 pm  

Matt I would love to see a post from you. One about your site conversion would be great…I love the look of the new PhoenixHomes.com site!!

Tim Netwton Said,
July 30th, 2007 @5:52 am  

Real Estate Social Networking websites are great for real estate professionals that don’t have the money or resources to establish an online presence. Many of the real estate social networking websites that I have found are free to use and have a great presence in the search engines.

I suggest finding 2 or 3 real estate social networking sites and create a profile and see which ones work best for you! My recommendation goes to WannaNetwork . com.

Check it out!

Ken Said,
December 22nd, 2007 @5:31 pm  

Tim why would you recommend WannaNetwork?

Cal Carter Said,
February 20th, 2008 @9:09 pm  

Hi Ken,
Active Rain is certainly a site of many Real Estate resources and quite a good place to network with persons of many different skills and knowledge bases.

Malok Said,
February 20th, 2008 @9:50 pm  

Its like you were looking into a crystal ball. :)

Social networking sites have exploded in popularity. And are becoming one of the more desirable activities to participate in for the online community.

Jay Said,
February 27th, 2008 @1:12 am  

I am an active member of ActiveRain and it is a great network website for real estate professions. I can see other fields developing the same type of network web site.

Westboro MA Realtor Said,
May 16th, 2008 @3:02 pm  

Active Rain is fantastic! It is one of the best things I have ever done for my business. I have been a Realtor for twenty two years and I have not seen a better site for sharing great information. I have received a tremendous amount of business from my blog there as well.

Pingback & Trackback
zxdj.org » Blog Archive » Web Marketing And Real Estate mention,
January 13th, 2007 @9:50 am  

[…] I found something new there, Ken has posted about a niche social network for real estate agents. This highlights the way that the whole web is developing - who would have thought a year or two ago that there would be an online social network for realtors. […]

centralreview.com » Blog Archive » Real Estate: News For Realtors mention,
January 13th, 2007 @10:16 am  

[…] Ken at News for Realtors has built up a knowledgebase useful for any realtor marketing on the internet. He discusses traditional SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for real estate, as well as opportunities arising in new areas such as online social networking for realtors. […]

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