Originally created by Jonathan Abrams in March 2002, this site was considered the top social networking site until MySpace took the wind out of its sails. There are currently 24,7 million active users on Friendster and Alexa ranks it as the 18th most popular sites in the world. Specifically designed to be user friendly and interactive, Friendster is easy to use and is exceptionally popular amongst the Asian community, in fact a whopping 89% of all Friendster users come from the Asia-Pacific region. In January 2007 Friendster was selected by AlwaysOn Media as one of the AO Media 100 Top Private Companies - a real honour.
Creating an Account
Registration on this site is also relatively easy, with a simple form to complete requiring details such as name, birthday, email and password. However you must be over 18 to join. After registering, there is a very easy to follow step by step process on loading your email address book, loading a profile photo and changing personal details. However they do require some details to be filled in such as relationship status and hometown that users could get annoyed with.
Friendstering
Friendster allows you to easily start your own blog with easy to use templates which is useful to new users. Friendster does, however try to persuade you to pay for your blog with the top option costing about $149 a year - there are free options on offer too.
Friendster offers very similar tools to other social networking sites which include: adding and editing friends (must be mutually accepted), creating a blog, adding photos, testimonials and comments.
It would appear that Friendster is aimed at a slightly different target market and has a much more "slick" feel to it with a simple, clean layout. Friendster does not make use of applications that Facebook and Bebo use such as widgets and virtual pets, but rather is used as a tool for sharing photos, finding people in groups with similar interests and creating blogs. There is quite a bit of emphasis placed on the classified section and video sharing, as well as the explore button which allows you to search the newest updates on the site.
Advertising Opportunities
The folks at Friendster describe their advertising model as truly targeted. An advertiser can specify the age and gender range of their target market and Friendster will ensure that only those users will be exposed to their advertising. For instance if Apple wanted to run a campaign for their oh-so-cute pink nano but only wanted females between the ages of 18 and 25 who are interested in music to see it, it would be possible on Friendster.
Once again Friendster offers marketers the opportunity to create a community / hype around their brand. According to Friendster's business development director Jim Scheinman, "Friendster created a community of over 11,000 members around 'The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.' On average, each member told 15 friends about the movie offline."
We have only discussed five of the many social networking sites; others include LinkedIn, FastPitch, Meetup, Twitter, MEETin, 43 Things and FriendsReunited. Millions of people from every corner of the globe are embracing social networking and the only way to fully understand what it's all about it to jump in and start exploring.
Coming Soon: Part 3. Social Bookmarking and Aggregating - Avoiding overload
With millions of new pages of content being created every day it's getting harder to stay on top of what's going on in the world around you. That is, of course, if you're not using social bookmarking. In the next edition of the How To... Social Media series we'll be discussing the ins and outs of social bookmarking as well as the top five players in this space.
Other Articles in the How To... Social Media Series :
- Part 1: Social Media - The down low
- Part 2: Social Networking - You can never have too many friends
- Part 3: Social Bookmarking and Aggregating - Avoiding overload
- Part 4: Content Sharing - So hot right now
- Part 5: Blogging - Starting a blog baby, starting a blog
