I Love Ning Infinity + Infinity

To Ning or Not to Ning - that's the question around here. Who has the time to join (or start, for that matter) another social network? I have enough trouble finding time to twitter.

The subject did come up in a marketing meeting the other day and while some of us thought Ning was dead there were others who thought it just might be gearing up to take over as one of the best advertising opportunities out there.

I may just be one of them.

Some have called the viral expansion loop "the most advanced direct-marketing strategy being developed in the world right now." For the uninitiated, there are three types of Viral Expansion Loops:

First, there's the basic Viral loop which can be defined as the steps a user goes through when a user enters a site and then invites the next set of new users to the site. So a site or a video becomes "viral" when there is tool in place that facilitates spreading the information. Examples range from the "Sign up for a free account" link in every Hotmail email, to embedded YouTube video links, to the "digital bling" widgets being developed for MySpace and Facebook.

Then you have Viral networks - sites that grow via invitation with each user inviting his or her own set of contacts, which in turn do the same, and so on and so on - Facebook and MySpace are prime examples. Viral network sites rely on users to create or aggregate masses of material supporting an environment that is infinitely scalable. "The viral adoption model" is the "cheapest way to grow an audience," says Union Square Ventures' Fred Wilson. At no time in history has it been possible to market to so many by starting with so little.

Ning combines the first two and adds the kicker - the Double viral loop. A viral network is one network with multiple users, but there's still only one network. The power of Double Viral Loops is that "every network creator is a user and any user can be a network creator," says Ning chairman Marc Andreessen. A "double viral loop" spreads two ways at once.

By New Year's Eve 2010, Ning estimates, it will host some four million social networks serving up billions of page views daily.

Say someone sets up an UT Austin net with 10 members, which grows as each person draws in others. Then an adoption site breaks off, a Dallas Alumni group rises up, and a Houston Alumni group forms. Meanwhile, an UT Sport Club net launches, spawning a legion of Greenbelt Biking and Lake Travis Sailing group spin-offs. Soon you have 2, 3, 10 networks -- all expanding simultaneously. Meanwhile, the original group is attracting even more users.

As Nicholas Economides, a professor of economics at New York University's Stern School of Business points out, "being big doesn't necessarily mean you will make a profit." Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Flickr have huge paper valuations, but none has a revenue model as its core business. Ning does. Instead of trying to grow one huge network, it supports millions of unique networks positioned to receive streamlined, targeted ads based on group demographics, psychographics, and location.

That's enough for me to give Ning another look. If you're interested, you can read more in FastCompany.com's May 2008 article Ning's Infinite Ambition.

Each white dot represents one member of a specific social network on Ning. Each starburst defines the extent and pattern of that member's invitations to new users to networks across the platform.