Developments in Social Networking Sites

Recent Developments in Social Networking Sites

Musicians Starting Their Own Social Networking Sites

Artists such as Kylie Minogue, 50 Cent, the Pussycat Dolls and Ludacris all have plans to launch their own social networking sites. The idea is to give fans a place they can visit often while online.

Unlike a website devoted the artist in question, a social networking site gives Internet users a reason to visit on a regular basis and to spend more time on the site. As an Internet marketing strategy, this is a very wise move: ideally you want to have a stream of regular visitors visiting your site who spend time visiting multiple pages.

The artist has the opportunity to sell merchandise directly from their social networking site, as well as advertising space. They don't have this option on either Facebook or MySpace. The social networking site also allows the artist to collect e-mail addresses from site visitors to add to their mailing list. This is another opportunity to sell products and promote the artist to the public.

Networks Accused of Not Checking Identities of Visitors

A common complaint about MySpace, Facebook and other social networking sites is that the people running them aren't doing enough to ensure that the people posting profiles are who they claim to be online. There have been incidents where someone has created a fake profile for the purpose of contacting someone they have a grudge against to embarrass them.

In other cases, social networking site users are getting fake accounts using real people's names and then making false statements. One notable example is of a student who set up an account using the name of a student at a different school. The person posing as the other girl then posted information about her supposed sexual preferences and posted the other girl's phone number online.

Hopefully, with time, Facebook and MySpace will follow the example of eHarmony.com. This site offers members the option of paying an additional fee to have their identity verified. The interested person is required to provide their full name, address, and date of birth. An independent company then conducts a background and financial check on the name provided.

This information is used to prepare a multiple choice quiz for the person to answer. Quiz questions may be about the names of the person's relatives or recent banking activities. If the person passes the quiz, then an authentication badge is place on that person's online profile. This "seal of approval" makes other eHarmony.com members more willing to contact that person.

WAYN.com Offers Free Travel Insurance

This United Kingdom-based social networking site has recently announced that its VIP members will be eligible to receive European multi-trip insurance at no charge. Basic members can purchase trip insurance at a discounted rate.

WAYN.com now claims to have 11 million members and six million unique visitors coming to the site. Site administrators wanted to find a way to give something back to their subscribers and chose travel insurance because that was something they felt that niche market would be interested in.

This strategy appears to be working well; the site is currently registering up to 20,000 new members each day. No doubt other sites will be following this example of a good development in social networking sites; it simply makes good business sense to offer your site visitors a better rate on a product they would be interested in buying anyway.