You’ve been hearing this often. Whether on screens or in spirit, social media has changed. Social networking is now a completely different ballgame.

Blah blah blah.  Buzzwords are a buck a dime. So lets simplify. Let us tell you how and what exactly has changed and is going to change in 2014. Why? Because as a startup, if you’re planning to be the one who wins big, you need to know this.

Genuine Networking > General Connectivity

Facebook is a brilliant phenomenon. No doubt. It brought people closer (pretty much to the point where it also enabled stalkers to perform great!). It provided one common place for you to explore the six degrees of separation.

But Facebook is now too mainstream. It has been relegated to the status of a background site where we all are. But we don’t visit facebook actively. We don’t wait the whole day to get our work done and then kick back and relax and log on into Facebook. Its just...there.

Today the best social networks are the ones where you don’t bring people closer, but also give them something interesting to do. Genuine networks, based on not mutual interests but mutual passions and professions. Writers are now flocking to Medium.com. Musicians to Soundcloud. Be it photography or corporate mergers, social networks are now focusing more on “network”, as opposed to “social”.

Valuable Information > Entertaining Content.

When in 2004, Facebook brought social networks to the front and center, the marketing ran amuck with the word “Connectivity”.

A couple of years later, when Youtube, Flickr, 9GAG, Wordpress, Blogger became popular, the marketing ran amuck with the word “Sharing”.

From finding friends to expressing everything we want to express, voluntarily and involuntarily. Social media became one big commune where everyone had a song, a voice, a thought, an opinion.

Now, we find that annoying. Now we call that noise. No one wants just opinions. No one has the time to read rants. Note the headline of this article itself. You’re a startup. You need to know a few things to make money and be a success. You expect this article to be informative, to be helpful in bringing you closer to that success. That’s why you are reading it. This is the big change.

Entertainment is dead. Information is eternal. People want content which enables or enhances their endeavors. Value over Variety. Quality over Quantity.

Exclusivity > Encompassing.

There was a time when people wanted a broad canvas. Social media was a big playground with loads of rides and jungle gyms and what not. Not any more. We’ve matured as an audience. Our networks have matured too.

Today, the specificity of a network is the reason for its success. You will find social networks that focus exclusively in harboring and curating employment opportunities. LinkedIn is the third largest social network in the world.

Social networks are streamlining their offers. Its not just about providing a place to connect. Its about providing a place to truly share an activity. Fitness, meditation, education, e-learning, cinema, wedding and event management, you name it, you got it!

People are now curators, instead of just connections. They want to build networks that reflect their personal choices beyond which movie they love or which food they like. People want to share passions, find activity partners, mentors, collaborators and innovators.

So if you’re a startup planning to enter the world of social networks, make sure you have an idea that takes a strong hold. Because buddy, the times, they are a-changing!

And if you truly have a great idea, lets talk. You bring the idea and we’ll give you the perfectly executed social network design solutions that cash on the biggest changes and becomes talk of the tech town. After all, we’re very good at what we do!