The problem faced by businesses

• There is a shift away from generic ‘for the masses’ SNS that fail to offer niche content aimed at specific user groups.
  
• As users will have more then one interest in their lives they would ideally join bespoke, special interest communities such as Design, Jazz, Wine, Business, Travel, F1 racing, etc. but this requires joining multiple ‘walled’ SNS.
  
• Users joining SNS will have invested time and resources into setting up a profile and evolved network of like-minded friends and if faced with joining another community will be reluctant to do it all again.
  
• SNS typically offer very poor quality of content and rely heavily on UGC and gimmicks. The novelty factor soon wears thin and although SNS may have a large membership base, many members will be inactive.
  
• SNS have struggled to demonstrate a sound business model because a) advertisers are unwilling to associate their brands with poor quality often un-moderated content, b) revenue per CPM is very low for sites that place adverts to a very large, non-specific audience, and c) retailers are unable to sell goods directly to the audience.
  
• There is often a conflict of interest between a SNS and an advertisers, sponsors or retailers brand due to a) the prevalence of the SNS branding on the website, b) the limited designs of SNS page templates, c) the non-exclusive nature of a ‘free for all’ SNS (you never see a quality brand advertising on a SNS).
  
• 99% of social networking sites that do not have a pre-established user base fail.
  
• SNS soon become ‘un-cool’ and only continue to evolve if they offer members fresher, more diverse content.
  

• Bespoke, content rich, user centric special interest websites are easily set up on the SonikWorld platform.
  
• All websites are connected together and managed through a central hub allowing the exchange of content, advertising, data and memberships across the entire network.
  
• Any member of any community will have a ‘passport’ allowing automatic membership to any community on the network (if appropriate). A user’s profile, all personal content and network of friends is immediately ported into the new community. A user can manage all personal information, preferences and memberships from one central location.
  
• Each website’s ‘expert community’, whether amateur or professional will increase content quality, relevance and diversity.
  
• Revenue from sponsorship and advertising is maximised as a) brands are associated with an appropriate community b) brands are exposed to a more receptive audience c) the advertising value is greater due to targeted placement d) an advert can be shared by a users across the entire network (greater exposure to a larger target audience).
  
• As more specialist sites emerge the network will grow exponentially and offer users access to wider, more diverse communities covering all aspects of their lifestyle.
  
• A user will benefit from being a member of highly specialist, exclusive community while also having access to a wealth of other communities.
  
• The emergence of new sites on the network will result in access to a ‘fresher’, more diverse audience and therefore fresher content.
  
• As content, advertising and user data is centrally managed and stored, cross network data analytics results in invaluable market intelligence for advertisers and retailers.
  
• As each niche website is a specialist destination, recommendations from a member to a friend will carry more credibility and any advert that gets shared by a member will in turn be more credible.
  
• By affiliating with brands already established on the unified network, brands wishing to establish a community around a product or campaign will not have to grow a user base from the ground up.
  
• There is not one unified network of specialist communities on the internet today.
  
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