Social networking, must learn from Indiblogger.In

It’s been more than a decade since the launch of world’s largest social networking sites and today most of them have moved away from its social nature, their attention and focus has lessened to contribute values to the community of people that they once tried so hard to create.  Once the millions or billions of user base is made then the only constant plan is to capitalize, market, and trade users for corporate advertising budgets and tweaking , re-modeling the revenue making machine.

A true social networking site’s objective must be to create a network of people with various interests, collect them using one common interest, categories them and connect them with specific interests. Leave the big data aside, people are not just data, they are not just numbers, the value of people in a social networking platform is more than just data.

That is what the thought that ran into the mind of the maker of Indiblogger.in.

The idea was not just to create India’s largest bloggers only directory, but also a network of bloggers across the nation and facilitate and support the efforts of those bloggers in their everyday contribution. While the bloggers were at it, Indiblogger team constantly thought of what they must do to give something in return to the people in its network.

I used to have about 300-400 people on my facebook with whom I share updates once in a while, they share things at random that they like to, once in a while. It may be relevant to few and not so interesting to many. I have not seen these people or know if they really exist.  I remember once a social media strategist was offering services for just to increase the ''likes'' creating 50-100 facebook profiles by mobile phone registration and his cost included buying 50-100 SIM cards for validating user profiles. Did facebook knew or cared to protect the integrity of its network and safeguard the interests of its people in its community?  
On the other hand, the bloggers only network in the making of its real time engagement platform upheld  its guidelines no matter if it affects the count new members. Manual moderation is not simple, it is a meticulous verification and validation process with reference to its guidelines and with few controlled steps allows a new user to register. This has keep the network's environment pollution free of spammers and unrelated gibberish.

The people who exist in this network are real people, and I have met most of them.  If I was home I would have met them all by now.  And so do other bloggers who read a blog posts or follow a certain blog can meet the other bloggers in person during blogger meets.  

The blogger meet concept came from bloggers, it has kept the spirit of blogging and its is certainly a positive way to bring in lot of values to the blogger community.

There were more than 200 blogger meets held so far in the country connecting thousands of bloggers across the nation in the span of 7 years , i.e minimum of 2 blogger meets per month. Not sure if any other social network has achieved something of this scale.

Indiblogger’s idea is not to just to market the opportunities using the platform for commercial value but to find synergy within this mixed group and have organizations to understand and identify effectiveness of using this medium. 

Till today, the team has concentrated on bridging the gap, creating new gateways, enhancing the platform, and making sure the bloggers are finding the platform as a wall of expression, a window of opportunity and doors that opens to million other things.  

During these events bloggers are encouraged, bloggers are honored, bloggers are motivated and ensure bloggers do what they best do, blog. Every blogger is a winner in the network no matter they participate in those countless contests that IndiBlogger hosts.  It is immeasurable to value the feeling of bloggers and their respect for IndiBlogger compared to the value of those prizes they won.

This is social networking, this is truly social networking.

What Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey must learn from this network’s ideology is that their networking platform was created by a community of people, if it wasn’t for the people, we know or we don’t know what would they would be doing now. And moreover IndiBlogger concept and model was not an imitation of any platform during the period of its inception.

Those billion dollar social networking firms must understand that they must choose to spend less time with their legal team and financial audit members and engage more with the people in real time.

Indiblogger.in is working on saving the ever endangered species called bloggers and taking measures to prevent their extinction. That is good some working.