People+Common Interest+Tools=Successful Social network

Laurel Papworth recently wrote about a new social networking site for film makers. In that post she makes the excellent point that you need more than just cool tools for a Social Networking site to work. You need an active community.

I’d add to that it really helps if your community has a common interest – ideally in something more than just “catching up with old friends”. I have a Facebook account (who doesnt?) but I’d check it once a week at most; there just ins’t enough there for me to care any more than that.

But I’m not against “Social Networking” per se – far from it. I’m very active in a variety of fora – where the members and I have more in common than just our members.

For example, I’m pretty active over on the MobileRead sites – I’m passionate about my Sony Reader (as you may know), and I enjoy interacting with the other e-book enthisiasts, Whether it’s helping new users, sharing tips and tricks, or even getting into the nuts and bolts of hacking the hardware – I’m there.

But MobileRead is pretty old fashioned by today’s standards – it’s just a place for people to communicate – nothing fancier than that.

My pick for “Best Social Networking Site Ever” is Ravelry. It’s a community for Knitters and Crocheters (Common interest – Check) You have to be invited to join (slightly exclusive – cool) but you can register for an invitation, and it only takes a couple of days (not too exclusive – nice) Once you are a member – the tools are perfect for the needs of the users.

In my Ravelry profile I can display my current knitting project and get help with it (and help others). I can keep a record of what yarn I have in my stash, and which needles I have – and then find out from other members what sorts of projects I can do with the things I already own. There’s a facility to draw my blog rss feed straight to my profile – so I don’t have to create content in multiple places.  And it’s easy to share patterns, tips, tricks and information with other members. And, because we’re all knitters/crocheters we have a common interest to build our relationships around

It’s seriously great – and if you knit or crochet you should think about joining – and if you do You’ll find me here.