Social Networking: Smaller Goups are the New Direction

I was at a social gathering at my club this evening and I had the pleasure to talk to some of the younger people who just joined. Younger being in their early to mid 30’s.

It was a pretty cool conversation since they were simply blown away that someone from my generation was so internet savvy. This opened a door to finding out more about how they see things on the internet and how things really work on the internet.

The conversation really got into a frenzy when we go to the love hate relationship people have with Facebook and MySpace, which for this group of moderates neither of the groups interested them even though each of them had at least three profiles on each site.

We also talked about how some of the blogs on the internet get so many comments or hits on Digg. Hey told me that most of the comments people were getting were from close drinking buddies of the person blogging or near relatives. They even know some of the Pro-Bloggers who are making a bundle blogging paying people to comment and to create buzz. This group of young business people said they are tiring of how people in SV and SF are running the show for standards set for social groups and blogs.

What interested them the most was what I was talking about as Private Online/Offline Groups of 150 or so. They liked the concept of having a small circle of contacts. They know that the Big Dogs of the internet are members of several private undercover groups that communicate more through IM than through blogging. So they wanted to get my take on how social groups should be formed.

The fact that groups should only grow to a specific size before moving to the next level and that all members get to know each other both online and offline was what peaked their interest. They quickly realizing what this concept would do to SV and SF and it really got them thinking about how to get things going for a group they wanted to start.

I found this gathering one of the most exciting activities I had been to in a long, long time. Then it hit me…wait a minute, this was offline gathering talking about online issues. That is exactly what social and business networking is all about.

Unlike the popular adage business networking groups have today, it is not about gathering up as many names and contacts you can and hope that 10% of them produce a sale…it is about meeting people to find out who they are and what they do.

Yes the age of the mega social groups is coming and like the meteor that hit a zillion years ago that wiped out all of the dinosaurs, the advent of smaller social groups will be that meteor that wipes out all of the dinosaur social groups.

For more insight on this and a ton of other subjects that REALLY matter,. Check out IBGS.