Social Sites Orbiting Facebook

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_38/b4195035456823.htm

This article discusses the rising up of niche social networking sites.  Since Facebook it has been only a matter of time that other networking sites, catered to specific hobbies, would start popping up.  Well, here they are.  According to the article, in July at least 280 million people logged onto a social site other than Facebook and Twitter.  One analyst estimates the number could be as high as 700 million.

Some of these popular niche sites include, Dogster, for the puppy lover, Eons, for the 50 plus crowd, myYearbook for teens and many more.  Apparently, Facebook gets people's feet wet with social networking online and then they are ready to move away from the mainstream and into sites which cater to their more specific interests. This is good news for advertising.  It makes a lot more sense for Frontline to advertise on Dogster as opposed to simply Facebook.  The audience with Facebook is simply too broad and I imagine that kind of advertising is not cheap.

This is a great way for companies to find the demographic to which they need to be advertising.  The emergences of these specially catered sites give them the perfect stage with which to do so.  TV ads have been not doing so hot since the emergence of the DVR and also with the additional ability to watch many shows online with limited ads.  Specific social networking sites gives a company another way to get their product out and also to a more specific audience, everyone wins (at least, the social site and the advertiser do).

This article reminds me of another social networking site I had heard about on NRP about a week ago called Affluence.org.  For this specific network you must prove a net worth of 3 million dollars or an annual income of 300,000.  That one in particular, takes things to a new level, but I think it's great that people are finding a comfortable place for themselves online.  I really had no idea there were so many different ways to network with something for everyone and more than one for everyone.

I have already begun to search another networking site for myself.  Maybe I'll join Land8Lounge.com, not sure, any suggestions?