The idea of social media is to give your audience a place where they can share their ideas and you can engage with them on a topic. This means that some are looking for ways that go beyond Facebook and Twitter.
Ning is one platform that has been in use for a few years. It allows members to create their own social community. They can have individual sub-groups, share updates and get feedback. When it started many individuals and small groups started using this because it was easy and it was free.
Now Ning is looking to transform this original model and focus on going after corporate clients and large non-profits that will pay a fee to use this service. This is a challenge because you are trying to convince an audience who used you for free why they should now pay to continue to use you.
Ning felt the change was necessary to be profitable. The old system relied on an ad-based business model. The changes meant that about 80% of the old clients left Ning because they didn't want to pay fees.
Today Ning has more than 100,000 paying clients. The revenue is up 400% over last year. The fees have allowed them to add new features such as Facebook Connect and site analytics. They are expecting to be in the black for the first time by the first quarter of 2012.
Custom social media sites are still a new concept and it's a challenge to lure traffic away from Facebook.But businesses that have the cash and want to find ways to new ways to interact with clients can look at the options Ning can provide.