How To Bootstrap Your New Social Network

What Can We Learn From Facebook and
Disappointing Google Wave and Buzz?

These days I seem to hear new social networking sites launching every other day: Social classified ads site Neezz.com, social site for college students CollegeOnly (I touched on them in my earlier blog), social group site The Fridge, open source privacy-sensitive social network package Diaspora, personal network site Path, etc. If you look at location-based social network (LBSN) only, there are dozens of them starting out following initial success of Foursquare. It seems like every website is either thinking about starting up a new social networking site or incorporating social networking feature into existing site.

This got me wondering. Is there any lesson that we could draw from failed social network attempt, such as Google Wave and Google Buzz? What strategies can we imitate from Facebook and LinkedIn's success? What should be the strategy for new social networking site to bootstrap themselves?

CollegeOnly: Sorry, Parents... You Are Not Invited

Economists report that a college education adds many thousands of dollars to a man's lifetime income - which he then spends sending his son to college


- Bill Vaughan

When I look back at my thirty something life, I think the most confusing time was when I graduated from high school. There are just too many things to worry about on your own. You have to figure out what to do with your life. If you are in college, you'll have to decide your major; if you are not in college, you'll have to decide how to start making money. I for one didn't know what I was going to do with my life when my high school principal handed me my high school diploma.