Passions connect

As social media gets bigger and noisier, filled with conversations from all demographics and countries, our natural instinct is to retreat to ever more specialised and granular communities. The best social platforms make us feel that we belong, and the easiest way to achieve that is to connect through a shared passion. This is why Flickr was one of the earliest social networking successes, and is still going strong – instead of encouraging relationships for the sake of relationships, it is based on the popular passion for photography. The community has grown to encompass a ‘flea-market’ of content and interests, but it has always benefited from its initial inspiring focus.

It’s therefore no surprise to see Ning – a site that allows people to custom build social networks around their own passions – doing so well, with their millionth network just set up. Open source spirit is at the heart of Ning, with a developer community creating apps soon to be launched across all networks, and CNN have been touting the site as the future of social networking. Their interview with CEO Gina Bianchini helps you understand why: have a watch below. 

The importance of passions as a social connector explains why we focus on the emotional value of conversation for brands. Emotional engagament is the true currency of both sharing in social media and offline WOM, and brands need to ensure that they are inspiring a range of strong emotions, not just spreading repurposed information or neutral blah. How a brand makes its consumers feel – and how strongly – is the key to its ongoing loyalty. Ever more so in the crowded consumer space.

Brought into the world on Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 and filed under Uncategorized.