My subscripton to Business Week magazine ran out recently, so I was pleased when SM 2.0 community member Verna De Jesus forwarded this article to me. (Also nice to see, Ed Sullivan, another SM 2.0 member, get a little ink for what he’s doing with Infield Parking.
From Business Week:
Social Networks That Break a Sweat
Sports-related sites are quickly drawing new users—and high-caliber advertisers
by Paula Lehman
As networking sites like MySpace (NWS) and Facebook grow bigger and more amorphous, niche communities are gaining in popularity. By one measure, traffic on MySpace grew 9% from 2006 to 2007, but traffic on sites like Flixster, a networking site for movie-lovers, tripled. Sports-related social networks are among the fastest-growing of these new communities. SkiSpace, for example, has jumped to 10,000 members in the month since it launched.
“A HUGE AMOUNT OF MONEY”
“There’s a distinction between a social network that’s simply a social network and one that provides tools for people who are already involved in a sport or industry,” says Bodie Miller. “A huge amount of money is spent on [skiing] and the lifestyle that surrounds it. This is an untapped market.”
Advertisers appear to agree, and not just resorts and makers of ski gear like Head. Motorola (MOT), Sanyo, and Sony (SNE) have all bought space on the site. And some resorts are spending as much as $50,000 for campaigns that interact more directly with members by using features such as mobile blogging widgets and RSS feeds.
Another athlete pushing into social networking is Dale Earnhardt Jr., co-founder of Infield Parking, a site for Nascar enthusiasts. Launched in December, 2006, Infield draws advertisers such as SprintNextel (S) (the sponsor of Nascar’s premier series), Bank of America (BAC), Harley-Davidson (HOG), and ESPN (DIS). According to Ed Sullivan, Infield’s co-founder, revenues have been plowed back into developing the site and covering revenue-sharing agreements with top drivers—including Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, and Kasey Kahn—who maintain online profiles of their individual teams.
Unlike official destinations, such as Nascar.com or NBA.com, social-networking sites started by star jocks or teams generate more fervor. Says sports marketer Jeff Bliss, president of Javelin Group: “The league sites have a broader reach, but the team sites have the passion.”
I agree with this piece. That’s why we started our social network for Colts fans, mycolts.net
But really realized this, that there are some social networks which are bigger than Myspace. I wonder if those ones have as much members as Myspace or Facebook.