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Drinking the Ning Kool-Aid

February 9th, 2010
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I had the unbelievable good fortune of being invited to visit the corporate offices of social media platform Ning this past week to participate in the Ning Network Council program. There were ten community managers in attendance, ranging from my little cooking community (NoTimeToCookDinner.com) to huge communities like Ellen, momlogic, and Extra, which currently has over 800,000 members.

Ning

Special thanks to my new friend Alice for this photo.

I met some of Ning’s most outstanding employees, shook hands with (and possibly insulted with a back-handed compliment) CEO Gina Bianchini, and compared notes with some amazing network creators who are just crushing it (as Gary Vaynerchuk would say) on sites like MyModernMet.com, BabySpot.com, tudiabetes.org, BroadwaySpace.com, BJPenn.com, DesignDemocracy.ws and LiveHereOakPark.com.

I was a big fan of Ning before my visit, but I can honestly say that I am 1000 times more confident in their infrastructure and commitment to making Ning the best platform for niche social networks.

As far as I can tell, here’s their special sauce (it’s pretty simple actually): Ning cares a lot about their employees. And in return, the employees care a LOT about Ning’s members. My fellow community managers and I were treated like royalty, and our feedback was intensely scrutinized. You don’t see that every day from your typical software companies.

For those who don’t know, Ning offers an amazing product offering and level of service for a ridiculously low price. You can actually create a Ning network in less than 5 minutes at absolutely zero cost. That’s right, zero. Nada. ZIP! And you could scale that network to tens of thousands of users without ever having to open your wallet.

That said, Ning does offer some “premium services” for those who want them. For example, if you want to make your network’s url something like www.BobsFishingHole.com versus http://bobsfishinghole.ning.com, that’ll set you back a whopping $5/month. Want to turn off the banner ads on the right hand side, or hide the references to the Ning Platform? Those features are $25/mo each. They’ve also got premium support for a measley $10 bucks a month, although, frankly, I’ve never needed it. Their user forums are very active, and full of seasoned and helpful community managers as well as Ning employees.

Bottom line: Ning rocks! Nothing else out there even comes close. The good news is that all of my energy can now go into community development for NoTimeToCookDinner.com and new communities for my clients who are ready to take the plunge into social media.

Thanks again to Ning, and to all of my new friends as well.

Here’s their special sauce, gang: Ning cares a lot about their employees. And in return, Ning employees care a LOT about us members. We were treated like royalty, and they listened intently to our feedback. You don’t see that every day.
I haven’t been very active in the Network Creators community before, but in the last few days I’ve seen countless NC’s beating up Ning employees about new features, performance issues, and business practices. That really bums me out.
The one thing I ask of my fellow Network Creators is that you consider softening your approach to requesting help, reporting issues, and venting your frustrations. These are real people who have your best interests at heart. I know tempers flare when people are under stress (I struggle with that every day). But even Premium Service members should stop and appreciate the amazing product offering and service that you are getting for the ridiculously low price you are paying.
Ning rocks! Nothing else out there even comes close

Tony Pinto Social Media ,

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