Supporting working people at the intersection of work and life
Liz Ryan's Page
© 2009 Created by Liz Ryan on Ning. Create Your Own Social Network
Supporting working people at the intersection of work and life
© 2009 Created by Liz Ryan on Ning. Create Your Own Social Network
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We have been growing by leaps and bounds and so the network has grown from just over 20 to just over 80 in the past few weeks. I see a lot of people using it...both for blogging and for just saying hi to each other. Also, they've put up a lot of photos and a few videos.
I started up some groups based on geographic office locations and those are not getting much activity, though people are just now starting to join. I started some forums and a few early adopters have posted, but no follow up from the general population.
As far as the Ning's interface, it is easy to use and mostly intuitive (for me). I set up a Family website (for everyone related to my maternal grandmother). It took minutes to set up and has grown to 15 members in 3 days...we have tons of photos and the younger generation has added tons of video. I haven't had to give anyone instructions on how to do anything...they've just known (Gen X & Gen Y).
I've been working my way through a list of competitors to see if I like any of them better.
I began setting up a site on www.GoingOn.com and didn't find it as intuitive as Ning. The interface is a lot more complicated and I was just lost and gave up.
I've got a list of other competitors that I plan to "set up" a free site with to find out how easy to use they are and if any have better features. Honestly, easy to use is the most important because no matter how many great features there are, if it is not easy to use, it won't get used.
In summary, I have only 2 months experience with Ning as a user and 2 weeks as an Admin. I have been on LinkedIn for 3 years and Facebook for 2 weeks. Ning has been very easy to use for me and my people. In addition, they just received $44M in funding and I'm hoping they use some of that to make the improvements I've sent to Gina (one of the founders). However, I am exploring other sites, just in case there are greener pastures.