Grow your own social network: Digital dia de los Muertos

While the help of services like Ning.com it’s pretty easy for any business or individual to create their own social network, filled with whatever particulars and peculiars your company and clients might find useful. But just because it’s easy doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good idea.

While the ability to brand and manage your own online community offers a lot of possibility, it also provides considerable challenges. To cut to the chase: chances are that no matter what your niche, there are probably already a host of sites vying for attention and eyeballs. And like we always tell clients, just because you build it, doesn’t mean that they’ll come.

Building an audience for your own network takes not only a great idea, but a dedicated growth plan and strategy for interacting with your users.

But with that said, having your own thriving online community offers an excellent opportunity to build your audience, gain their trust and learn more about the people you want to do business with.

And when done right they can be a thing of beauty. Check out theOakland Museum’s new Dia de Los Muertos online exhibit as an example of the right way to build your own social network.

The California museum hosts a yearly Dia de los Muertos celebration that draws a huge crowd from Oakland’s diverse population. With their doors closed for renovation until next year, the museum decided to take their community online and created this social network/multimedia travelogue as a way to stay connected and to show how the tradition is celebrated around the state and in Mexico.

The site is based around the travels of 3 museum staffers and features a full library of their adventures including video interviews, over 200 photos and even a few reality TV style personal diaries.

Members are encouraged to join in the conversation by sharing their own content and participating in regular projects like listing your ideal last meal or uploading the song you’d like played as you take your final bow.

The museum’s Senior Curator Rene de Guzman said the site took about a month to create and load with content and they’ve been sending out invitations to join to their members and subscribers since last week.

So far the site has 156 registered members and Adam Rozan, the museum’s Marketing Manager, says that they’ve been surprised by the level of interaction they’ve seen as people have posted personal stories, photos and information on celebrations happening around the country.

But it goes to show that if you do have a great idea, and the patience and resources to pull it off, building your social network can be a great community builder and open new avenues of communication between your business and your clients.

Contact us if you’d like to learn more about creating your own network or getting the most out of one you’ve already set up.

And to read more about the piece read this blog post from Oakland Local.