niche social networks : Etsy.com

Ning will cross a sizeable milestone this weekend: 100,000 user created social networks
on the platform. That’s up from just 30,000 in February when they launched a new version of the service. The company is also saying that page views have been growing 40% month over month over the summer.

One of their featured communities is We Love Etsy, a social network for people who love Etsy.com.

Etsy.com is “Your place to buy & sell all things handmade.”

What I find really inspiring about what’s happening within the WeLoveEtsy community is the experimentation.

Ning is a free service. Anyone can create a network using Ning. What’s really difficult is creating a community.

Etsy have managed to create a community of 1,300+ by listening, reacting and experimenting.

Etsy is in the business of buying and selling handmade products. There’s a natural desire by the people involved to come together and discuss improving the marketplace in which they make their money. Having a community site set up in which to do this makes complete sense. But it doesn’t make Etsy unique. All forward thinking brands should be doing the same and experimenting.

On WeLoveEtsy there is a news section, they’ve got a blog which aggregates every users own blog (just like the news feed feature on Facebook, but with steriods), over 90 groups have been formed within the WeLoveEtsy network and they have an incredibly active forum. Over 10,000 pictures and 36 videos have been uploaded by members.

When you create a profile on Ning you get a very basic profile page and you can view your messages and friend requests.

What’s cool about Ning is that each network you join offers you a unique profile for that network. On WeLoveEtsy’s community profile page each member gets:

A unique profile image for that community
The opportunity to edit your page’s theme
To add a blog post
The ability to invite friends
Your own comment wall

Sellers are encouraged to enhance their profile with their products. Kenneth Rougeau is one of the most active members of WeLoveEtsy, but there are many other active participants.

Etsy haven’t limited themselves to just Ning either. It has 51 groups, 18 events and 2 apps on Facebook, but nowhere else does it have anything like the presence it has on Ning.

For what it’s worth, the Etsy Facebook apps are a great way to show your handmade goods to a wider audience:

Esty shop which lets sellers show their most recently listed items on their profile page and MyEtsy – a great way to show off handmade goods from Etsy to the Facebook community. These can either be your shop or your personal favourites.

Etsy have also created a widget, EtsyMini, enabling sellers to place their items on their own blogs and sites, outside of any social networks.

It’s clear that Etsy is a very forward thinking company and is using social networking the way it should be used, as a laboratory and platform to offer improved services and functionality to its core community of users.

Technorati Tags: ning, etsy, social networking