In the early part of 2005, I became a member of a social network called Soflow.  This social network was an early vision of its founders.  They could see the future and power of growing one’s profile and gathering contacts for business, and other benefits.  I thought that it was such a good idea, I also invested some of my own time and energy to become a moderator of a group within the network called “Blog Buzz”. 

We would discuss everything doing with the blogosphere and its affect on  business, including advertising, marketing and PR.  The group became 220 members strong and this was before the time of mass invitations we see now with social networks.  There were over 150 forums started and some great conversations took place as a result.  Many advertisers, marketers and PR people were able to enter into the forum and ask simple questions, difficult questions, and ask for suggestions on growing a blog readership, what platforms were available and what blogs could do and what they were capable of accomplishing.  I decided it was important enough of a group to migrate it over and make it a Facebook Group.

Adrants was also a group located in the Soflow network and it had over 4000+ members according to Steve Hall.  It was probably the largest group in the network, but nonetheless, following what people are saying now about the networks’ demise, it’s like losing your favorite pet.  People love to have a place to go and talk with like minded people.  This is what makes social networks so popular.  It’s like a 24/7 cocktail hour. 

 So what are they going to do with all of the data, and all of the information and the gathering of people that have joined in Soflow? At this point it is unclear.  Perhaps the back end will throw a switch and all of that information and wonderful and informative content will be lost.  It this point I know that that principals appear to be moving on to a new application and have asked all of the members to migrate to an application called Wis.dm.  My feeling is that the people at Soflow could not compete with the likes of Facebook or Myspace, and decided that they could not keep a hold on the people that they had nor could they garner more subscribers.   Wis.dm is obviously not the same type of network as Soflow, but perhaps it was the business model that they wanted to change.  It makes me wonder why there was no purchase of the network or perhaps a merging with Facebook or another network.  The doors close on Soflow on July 31, 2007.  I hope I can resurrect the group to continue the conversation.