So Harvey and Bob Weinstein have just made a significant investment in aSmallWorld.net, an exclusive, invitation-only, social network akin to LinkedIn but, umm, exclusive and with cool a-list type features. Their goal is to grow the customer base from 130k to 1 mm. Quite the leap in membership. But… how, do you find 870k more “right” people without driving away the initial 130k? There is probably a reason there are only 130k people in the network now. Because that’s how the group wants it. There’s the rub.
Do I think the Miramax boys can pull it off? Maybe. Probably end up retaining 50-60% of the base if they do it really well. But it’s hard to do it well. And takes serious planning. This isn’t like a marketing campaign for a feature film, these are your elite clients and they like it that way. It would be akin to releasing a Miramax picture in living rooms of key influencers and their vetted friends across the world… and that’s it. This community is one of several true niche experiments in social networking online. I would have preferred to see companies partnering and participating to add value to a targeted group like this vs. a take-over; it would be much more fun (and profitable) to build from the ground up and integrate yourself and your product into the group. Testing, consumer-focused products and media, conversations, and all that jazz…
It’s about interacting with the community and listening to what they want & how you can help give it to them afterall. But we’ll see, time will tell. In the meantime, at least the players are starting to pay attention and act… let’s just hope they don’t get frustrated and give up too soon.