What Do Obama and David Hasselhoff have in Common?

In the theme of "do we really need another social network?" comes a bold move by celebrity David Hasselhoff who has started his own social network called Hoffspace in late August. Since then I've been watching it to see the reaction and have been surprised by both the response and the amount of activity its getting. I won't get into the multitude of social tools, UGC and activity in his social network - because we all know its not about the technology - bottom line is his fans have enthusiastically responded. The user experience is train wreck - but that doesn't seem to matter, from my experience when you have an enthusiastic following people will tolerate a lot of UX issues. Its been publicly reported that over 13,000 users signed up on the first day.

Whats so new about a celebrity doing social networking? Many celebrities are prominent on large social networks and many leverage social tools/ social marketing in their promotions. The difference is that I haven't seen celebrities building a dedicated social network around THEMSELVES as a brand! I suppose you could argue that the current politicians running for election are doing just that EG: Obama. It begs the question - is the Hoff just another self-obsessed celebrity or a social networking pioneer?

   

On the business side - will we start to see social networks created around CEO's or tech celebrities? Or are the Robert Scobles of the world already social networks unto themselves? Who would you like to see create their own social network? Is this the end or the explosion of social networks as we know it?

Comments

[Ed]

HI Karen

Interesting post. You may want to look at Ning. On the top side Ning develops a platform where anyone can create a social network unto themselves. The science behind it is called a viral expansion loop and if I tie it to business it means that Ning has built in a perpetual model of constant viral expansion from every social network it hosts.
The interesting question is how will this change traditional direct marketing? Do we lose the old school approaches of snail mail, email etc for social networks dedicated to solutions, services and to your point CEO’s.

ED

[Ray Wallace]

This is an interesting article. You also have a great website.

[Ray Wallace]

This is an interesting article. You also have a great website.

[Ray Wallace]

This is an interesting article. You also have a great website.

[Mark Finnern]

Ha, 90% of Hoffspace members are crazy Germans ;-)

I know because I am one of them, just didn't get around to sign up yet ;-)

I think it makes total sense for celebs to do this, to connect better with their audience, Mark.