I have recently noticed a new trend in social network development that is facilitating social connections in a simple, but more focused way. Group-centric networks have taken the broad “everything and everyone” concept of Facebook and Twitter and whittled it down to a specific niche and are not only offering, but fully focusing on group creation and membership. I think this speaks to the reality that you can only post general updates into a status update space for so long. At some point, it does get boring and where do we go next? Well, it would make sense to find a way to communicate with other people who share specific interests, with whom more in-depth conversations can be had.
Here are a handful of social networks that are engaging their communities with unique, interactive groups.
YourGroups is an original social network allowing members to create one or more private groups. The site structure and group privacy ensures that your group experience will give you the privacy that Facebook lacks. Whether its your closest friends, family, work group, sports team or school connections, yourgroups provides a private place to support those day to day communications. Here are some of the features it offers:
- Immediately contacting all or a part of your group via push messaging
- Sending a location and time for the group to meetup via push messaging
- Setting up future events for the group to attend
- Check-in to events once you arrive and see who has checked-in
- Posting a message for your group to see
- Sharing pictures relevant just to the members of the group
- Using your phones GPS to set destinations to meet
All of your communications are private to just the group. There are no public profiles or sharing of data among groups. yourgroups puts your social circles privacy as our #1 priority.
Golfswingfreak.com is the first website of it’s kind, focusing specifically on the viewing and rating of one’s golf swing by web and mobile video. Members simply upload their swing, join and submit to online tournaments, and rate other user swings to see how they can be the best ranked site-wide, within their personal network, or by their specific golf swing groups. The purpose of GolfSwingFreak.com is to use video and the connectivity of a social network to improve your swing and your game, have fun, and pursue your quest to win with your swing.
GolfSwingFreak.com is for anyone that is passionate about the game of golf or cares about someone else that is a Freak about Golf. As a member you can capture your swing on video, connect with other golfers, and compete in Tournaments by receiving votes for your swing. Tournaments include Opens, Invitationals, and Fight Club (Head-to-Head). You can also purchase freakish deals on GolfSwingFreak.com.
Returning Home is an online interactive resource that creates a welcoming space to share stories of our men and women in uniform—from those who served in the first World War to those returning from the current conflicts.
The resources provided on the Returning Home site will allow family and friends of our uniformed men and women, as well as those supporting our troops during the war effort, to have a place of their own—to be honored and remembered. One key resource on the site are the Community pages, which are essentially online groups that celebrate, commemorate and support specific groups within the military community. Members can join, follow and contribute to these pages for an experience tailored to their areas of interest.
Returning Home is a politics-free site designed to help troops and communities open the lines of communication and begin to heal and support each other. Medical professionals, historians, and schools will be utilizing this site as a resource to help others heal as well as teach others about the duties and sacrifices of those in uniform.
Wise Old Men was created specifically for the 60+ community to find each other in the ever-widening social space. Groups are central to the site’s purpose, allowing users to search and join specific interest groups and related sub-groups. Users can also suggest additional groups to be added by the website’s administrator. Once within the group, users can receive updates new group wall posts, submit discussion topics and comments. Users can also submit links to related external websites as well as post events associated with groups.
While the site is equipped with many other core social network functions, most of the user’s experience surrounds the community’s interest groups and facilitating the relationships within those
