An Affordable Solution for Creating Your Own Online Community for Business or Non-Profit

Ruby Tuesday Pick of the Week: Ning
Why It’s a Gem: Creating an online community used to cost a small fortune; now it’s affordable for businesses of all sizes

Value. Unique selling proposition. Community/transparency. I refer to these three concepts as the Three Gems, the pillars on which any business must be built if it hopes to grow and survive.

When most people think of the third gem, the first brands that spring to mind are Twitter and Facebook – both wonderful tools, but they comprise only two pieces of the social-networking puzzle. Ning brings the picture one step closer to completion, with an affordable solution that has helped millions of small businesses build social networks that are big on community and small on cost. (This interview has been edited for clarity and length.)

Lynda Resnick: In this week’s Ruby Tuesday, we’re speaking with Gina Bianchini, co-founder and CEO of Ning. For our readers, can you please tell me what your business model is?

Gina Bianchini: Ning is a service that lets people create and discover new social networks for their unique interests and passions. [On Ning today,] we have over 1.2 million unique social networks that have been created by individuals, small businesses, and even some large corporations around specific interests and passions. In a little over two years, we’ve had over 27 million people join and participate in these social networks on Ning.

LR: Is there anyone else that does what Ning does?

Ning CEO and Co-Founder Gina Bianchini

GB: Not exactly. It is still incredibly early [in the industry’s development], so there’s much more room for social networks and social networking to grow from here. What’s been fascinating to me is how different companies do different things really well. You have Facebook, which is phenomenal for connecting you to people you already know. Twitter has really taken over the world in terms of delivering news and real-time events. And what we’ve seen people naturally gravitate to on Ning is meeting new people and making new friends around their unique interests and passions. We provide the ability to get up and running – typically within 30 seconds – with a new social network and to then provide a context for meeting new people around that particular interest and passion.

We offer a full social network where you as the network creator can decide the topic of your social network, what features you have in your social network, and whether it’s public or private. You can choose what it looks like and who’s a member. Everything we do is about connecting people and enabling them to make new relationships around their interests and passions.

LR: How does that translate for business?

GB: We’re pretty unique in the market [because our service] is free. On the free service, we reserve the right to run ads. [In addition,] we offer a set of premium services [that] for $24.95 a month [allow] you to run your own ads, [perform] your own transactions, etc. For another $4.95 a month, you can use your own domain name. For another $24.95 per month, you can remove a few promotional links. So, for a grand total of $55 a month, you can turn your social network on Ning into your own small business.

We’ve actually seen a number of small businesses [create a network that has allowed them] to make a living, just [via] their social network on Ning alone. There is a family here in Palo Alto that has started a mail-order Indian spice business where [via their Ning community] they offer recipes and spice combinations to make vegetarian Indian food. [From the beginning,] Waverley Kitchens wanted to launch as a social network for the people using their packages and recipes, to be able to connect with them and share results from recipes. Their objective is creating a long-term relationship with their clients and customers. It’s less about finding new people and more about [engaging their existing customers].

[Another] example is Twitter Moms, which is a social network for moms who [use] Twitter. The [social] network creator, Megan Calhoun, has turned it into a very healthy business with sponsorships and advertising from people like Lands’ End and others. [Twitter Moms uses] all of our software, [which has] been customized by Megan Calhoun with her brand and her members.

LR: This is fabulous. Do you have any big companies using Ning?

GB: We have a few big companies that are using Ning today to talk to their customers. The ad agency for Saturn, for example, has created IMSaturn.com, and that is a social network on Ning to connect Saturn dealers, Saturn employees, and Saturn customers together in a social network. Another way we are seeing large companies use Ning is as an internal Internet. There are a few large technology companies (who prefer not to be named) who are using Ning in different groups throughout their eighty- or ninety-thousand-person organizations for everybody from interns to a specific marketing group. We are seeing a lot of value in that as well.

What really makes us unique and special is that our same application can scale to hundreds of thousands of people. For example, we just had our largest social network show up and [grow to] 750,000 members [within three weeks].

LR: Are you global?

GB: We are global, yes. You can translate a social network on Ning into 24 different languages.

LR: Great! We sell pistachios in 53 countries, and this would be a nice way of [getting our brand] into India or China. Now, are you continuing to grow in numbers each month?

GB: Oh, absolutely! In the last few months, we’ve been growing more than 2.5 million new registered users per month.

LR: Here’s the big question: Are you making any money?

GB: We are making money today. We anticipate being cash-flow positive at the end of this year [or the] beginning of next. We make money through both the targeted advertising on the free service and the premium services that we offer.

Waverley Kitchens uses Ning's proprietary tools to create their own customized online communities, which have become the backbone of their business.

LR: How do you market Ning?

GB: We’ve kept a low profile because we’ve been able to grow primarily through invitations. When someone comes to Ning.com [and] creates a new social network, they invite their friends, and their friends invite their friends. Some percentage of those friends creates a social network, [and the cycle repeats]. We’ve had an accelerating momentum primarily through invitations.

[Another way we market is through] our embeddable, branded widgets. For example, if you are on Twitter Moms and there’s a photo slideshow that you want to put on your blog, you can do that, and it’s branded for Twitter Moms. We’ve also done some SEO tricks to enable people to find Ning via Google or Yahoo.

LR: Some people must need a little handholding. Is there anybody they can talk to for help? Because people get so intimidated by technology.

GB: Absolutely, yes. We have a great team standing by to help people, both for free and, if you need additional handholding, [as part] of premium support. But we also try to just do a great job [with answering common questions] on our own Ning blog and with our help center and workshops, where we can help you get the most out of your social network.

LR: I think this is very exciting. I’m trying to help a woman in a godforsaken place in Canada who has the most fabulous natural honey – practically untouched. This is a great way for her to start getting her brand out there, to reach out to anybody who’s interested in natural honey.

GB: Exactly! [The customers can] share recipes and [the owner can] create a loyal base that can then attract more people who are interested in honey recipes and [using] natural products.

LR: Can you share any of Ning’s upcoming features, or is it all top secret?

GB: Later this summer we will be offering something we are calling “Ning Apps.” Today, when you create a social network and choose your features, there are [approximately] fourteen features to choose from. With Ning Apps, you’ll have an additional ninety features to choose from, [such as] full integration with a shopping cart from Cartfly.

LR: It’s where the world is going. I’m turning one of my businesses’ sites into user-generated content – the whole thing. But you’ll also be able to make purchases and so forth.

You’re privately owned. Would you like to be acquired at some point?

GB: I actually think we have a future as an independent company, but I certainly wouldn’t want to turn any interesting partnership away.

LR: I’ll tell you, there’s nothing like being private. You can market for the future of the business. You can give back. You can do all the things your heart tells you to do.

You’re one of the people who will help save small business. I salute you.