These days Facebook has become a tool and while there are individual groups and pages that you might be a fan of there is no longer any real sense of belonging.

All of these new networks have a very specific affinity. In the case of Kiltr is is the affinity of being a successful business person with a Scottish connection (I am actually part Scottish with tartan and everything), in the case of Ushi it is about being uniquely Chinese. OneStep is an new concept, which is even more refined by allowing you to put a price on your head to support the charity of your choice.

The key is that these networks are all trying to «right size» themselves, so that as a member, you do feel like you are part of something, that offers you social and business relevance, without trying to be everything to everyone.

They end up as a kind of social filter, so you can hang out with people in the right context at the right time. Facebook always claimed, that they were a platform and that it did not matter to people, whether they mixed their business and social lives.

The problem is that even though we might be busy, we still want a sense of belonging and when you belong to something, it doesn't work to mix the contexts up to such an extent. It is fine to do some business on the golf course, but you cannot just do business there.

Similarly if you know that you can be online in a specific context and that it is OK to do some business there and that the people you are doing business with all have the same purpose, the sense of belonging can facilitate better relatedness and thus increase productivity.

But if you are in an online space and you are bombarded with irrelevant information and feel no relatedness, then the platform becomes a distraction both informationally and emotionally and you end up getting less done and being distracted.

Now of course no one wants to go through signing up to yet another network of people. That said, with tools like Facebook and Twitter connect, signup can be as simple a s single click. The real deal is whether these new networks add value to you, because if they do, then you will likely join and engage and that is the holy grail, because a network is only worth as much as the number of engaged members it has at any one time.

(by Bill Liao/news.ch)