If you’ve been bitten by the social network bug, you’re not alone.  You are joining the ranks of thousands of other entrepreneurs pining for a social network to meet the needs of particular niche or provide utility to an increasingly “social-spoiled” audience.  Social networking, and I’ll talk about this in my next blog post, isn’t just for socializing.  It’s not only for consumers and it isn’t simply about conversation.  Social networking is a feature, not a product and as such can dramatically enhance and impact an e-commerce website, directory or content-driven site.  Social networks have many faces.  There are simple, turnkey social networks like Ning and custom, complex social networks like WhereToGetEngaged.com and of course THE social network, Facebook.

Within my role as CEO for Eclyptix, we receive dozens of social network leads a month and the industry continues to grow.  Despite the rough economic climate and wary investors, entrepreneurs appear to be resiliently breaking through and innovating in order to take their idea to reality.  I’m not going to lie: there are a lot of bad ideas out there.  Without getting into specifics, let’s just say a lot of prospects I feel are doomed from the start.  But a small percentage of these prospects have a solid idea, a strategic plan and an initial budget to do things the right way.  And I’ve gotten better at identifying the things that set apart the successful ventures from the ones doomed to fail.

Because all social networks are not the same, it’s important as a first step to think about what kind of social network you are looking to build.  You essentially have two initial options to consider:

1) Use a turnkey platform or provider that is quickly deployable and has minimal costs like Ning, Pringo Networks, KickApps, etc… (typically hosted solutions, where you are “leasing” the website)

2) Have a social network built “from scratch” that is built specifically to meet your objectives and you own the source code.

Don’t worry, you don’t have to decide right now.  First, you need to blueprint your social network concept and then you can decide what the best solution is.  So next post we’ll break down how to blueprint your social networking website.