Not Just Another Pretty Facebook

September 22, 2009

“It must be hard for Grouvia to compete against Facebook and MySpace.”

That was my husband’s dentist commenting on the short article published about Grouvia in last month’s Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star. My husband then had to explain how Grouvia is nothing like Facebook and offers very different features for a very different user base.

When I spoke with journalist, Bill Freehling, I explained:

“Grouvia is not a social networking site. Please don’t say that in the article because I don’t want people to think it’s another Facebook. It’s not that at all.”

But Bill put it in there anyway and I don’t blame him – comparing Grouvia to Facebook gives people a familiar point of reference. And it’s not the first time people have made that leap.

When I explain that Grouvia is more like Meetup.com with more group-specific features, I often get puzzled looks. It’s surprising that so many people are not familiar with Meetup.com. (BTW, this could be extremely positive for Grouvia!)

So, instead of explaining why Grouvia is NOT like Facebook, let me clarify what Grouvia is.

Grouvia is a free site where people can form and join community-based groups.  Let me elaborate (and sorry for the list of features):

  1. Grouvia allows users to form groups; create a home for their group’s web site and updated group information; schedule and promote events; market the group to get new members; send notifications to group members; and have all these tasks automated to make group organizers’ lives easier.
  2. Grouvia allows users to search for and join local groups that match their personal interests; view the activities of all their groups in one place; send messages to their groups and individual “groupmates;” get automatic notifications of group events and announcements via email and text messaging; manage their personal event calendar (and sync it with Google calendar); and, have the tools to make decisions about what events to attend or pass along to friends.

I’ve said this before but it bears repeating, Grouvia’s main goal is to get people away from their computer and out into the world living a real life. Facebook, on the other hand, has a gazillion games and silly time-wasting applications designed to keep people in front of their computers as long as possible.

Another reason why Grouvia is NOT like Facebook is Grouvia is primarily about groups (not individuals). It doesn’t have a “friend feed” or status update, nor personal connections to other individuals.

Grouvia’s key member feature is an aggregated, dynamic events calendar that allows members to see all their groups’ upcoming events together.  This includes complete flexibility to turn on or off certain groups or even certain types of events.

I’ve studied Facebook’s Events feature and have tried to create Facebook Events, inviting my friends and trying my damnedest to make it work. Honestly, the experience was lame.  Meetup does a much better job of managing events and Grouvia’s event features will be better than Meetup’s.

This is not a Facebook-bashing session, I just want to set the record straight and remind my readers that

  1. Not *every* site that attempts to connect people is a social networking site.
  2. Perhaps more importantly, not every social networking site is a Facebook or MySpace nor needs compete with them.

Facebook is the most popular social networking site right now and eventually, Grouvia will work on integrating select applications into that site. But just because Facebook is the hot site now, doesn’t mean it will be in a few years. The rise of social networks is littered with Friendster, Ryze, and dozens of others that seemed like a good idea at the time but fell out of favor with the press and worse their users.

Eventually, I believe, all the social networking sites will be forced to find a way to come together and synergize – or else they’ll get left behind. At the same time, I believe we will see an avalanche of niche-focused social networking sites – like Ning.com – working on a common platform.

I suppose it could be worse. There could be no point of reference and my explanations about Grouvia would be much longer and drawn out. At least with the comparisons to Facebook and MySpace, all I need to do is tell people how we’re different and how we’re solving a problem that they do not, nor will they likely ever address.

In the meantime, Grouvia will focus on being the most useful site for our core community.

Lisa

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Posted by Lisa Pecunia

Eight Ways to Protect Your Email Address

September 1, 2009

How many membership-based sites have you joined in the past three months?

And of those, how many times did you suddenly see a jump in junk mail?  If you’re like me, the answer is probably *too many*!  Even highly reputable brands don’t always have this problem tackled.  I recently joined the membership site EntrepreneurConnect, which is sponsored by Entrepreneur Magazine.  This is a highly respected magazine and they state that EntrepreneurConnect members have access to lots of valuable relevant information and are able to connect to other business owners.

Once I joined, I searched through some of the discussion boards and found that most of the posts were advertisements.  Disgusted, I emailed one of the moderators and got a quick reply, in which she apologized and stated that they are aware of the problem and were working on it.  A little annoyed, I left the site, I intended to cancel my membership but I don’t think I did.  A few days later, I started getting junk mail which was clearly from other members of the EC site trying to sell me stuff.  I even met a princess from Nigeria who wanted to give me several million dollars!

The point is… DO YOUR HOMEWORK.  Don’t just join any site because it sounds good or has a well-known brand associated with it.  Ask people about it, Google it, and sign up with a junk mail address.  (A junk mail address is a free email account you get for the purpose of using when you sign up for things you’re not sure are legit.)  You can always change your email address after you get comfortable with the site.

This may be a generalization, but it’s always better to be initially suspicious of joining groups, especially groups of people you don’t know personally and never will (i.e. there is no face to face contact).  Many membership sites do not take any measures to protect their members, only care about getting more members, don’t let you leave the group easily, and either don’t hide your email address or (worse) sell it.  Many of these are ad-driven web sites, but you should be even *more* wary of sites that have no obvious way to make money.  So, here’s a quick summary…

Eight Ways to Protect Your Email Address When Joining a Membership Site

  • Do a search on the name of the site with the word “complaint” or “spam” and see if anything comes up.
  • Get yourself a separate free email address if you don’t have one.  Yahoo, Hotmail, and Google mail all offer free accounts.  Use this account to sign up for any new membership site. You can always change it later.
  • Try to determine if the site has a clear way to make money.  If there are ads on the site, or if it’s a “freemium” type site (offers a free basic account but you pay for premium features and services), then that’s generally a good sign.
  • This may be obvious, but *always* read the site’s privacy policy.  They’re ugly and lengthy and boring, but at the very least scan the headings and make sure there’s nothing in there that says they can sell your email address.
  • Carefully read the registration form when you sign up.  Many times there is a checkbox that is already checked for you that states you agree to be contacted by site affiliates or third parties.  Uncheck that box!
  • Most reputable sites have a double opt-in registration process, meaning they make you validate your email address with a link via an email confirmation message.  This keeps the “robots” out and means only real humans can be members.
  • Once you’ve gotten access to the site, poke around the discussions and make sure you see real people having real conversations.  Some discussion boards aren’t very active, that’s ok, as long as they’re not littered with people selling things.
  • Give it at least a week before either abandoning the site or changing your email to your regular one.  Sometimes a site may just appear a little schlocky, but you could actually get some real value out of it if you look hard enough.

When you find a site you like and trust, engage thoroughly with it to get the most out of it.  The best sites are the ones you interact with regularly.

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Posted by Lisa Pecunia