Cool Website of the Day

Before I jump into it, I guess I should acknowledge the fact that many of these websites I'm labeling as COOL are not NEW. COOL often implies NEW, but I'm not implying that. No, there's way too much NEW stuff online that I feel it has to shutter its newness before it becomes COOL. COOL means useful, functional, relevant NOT hip, fad, or well...cool. Like me. If you want cool, go ask a college kid or a graphic designer. (No offense). After all, since this is a marketing blog, it's important to recognize that a website (or any tool or medium) has to be around long enough to become part of your target audience's behavior (at least a significant minority of them. After all, only 5% of the US population uses Twitter and I guarantee they're not your target audience...yeah you.)

Today's cool website of the day is Ning.com. Their Synopsis: "Ning lets you create new social networks for the most important people and interests in your life." Translation: Ning allows you to create social networks for the most important people and interests in your life.

Really, it's true. Ning is for power hobbists, topic geniuses, fanboys (and girls), political junkies, and any other type of person who knows (or thinks they know) a lot about a certain topic. If you don't, I'd steer clear, just as a matter of preference. If you only know a little about a lot of things (like you're own personal interests and the drinking habits of your friends) then stick to Facebook.

I'd like to think of Ning as Wikipedia's think tank before the information gets scraped, edited, and neutered. For those of you who are wondering, I don't have a Ning set up yet on any topic, because I just don't have time. But for those marketers or businesses who are trying to tap into the power of social networking (not media, I won't use that term any more) than Ning is a great source for inbound links, traffic, and search engine penetration (all SEO stuff).