The rise of small social networks represents a transformative shift in how businesses can connect with their audiences. These networks form a decentralised, inverted mesh of trust, creating intimate spaces where advertisers, content providers, and service vendors can engage directly with highly curated and accountable communities.
These networks effectively consist of communities of shared purpose creating, curating and connecting their own members in a trusted fashion. The infrastructure they use digitally to do this, is largely on external infrastructure – the big dominant social platforms.
But in the small social future, this infrastructure is a commodity and communities can withdraw privately to a more trusted and intimate space.
Historically, humans have balanced between private and communal worlds and the management of trust in the communal world has been left to the institution of society.
With the pace of change of recent centuries made intense by the digitisation of society, these custodians of trust have been diminished as new digital pathways for that trust to connect exploded the landscape.
Even in its blunt early form, platform infrastructure and social networks have exponentially expanded the world in economy and opportunity.
But increasingly, everybody is a ticket in a process now, and if you want your personal context, need, urgency, convenience to override that system, you have to be recognised as an individual again.
Today, personal, and increasingly, even more rare in-person relationships, between consumer and brands have been replaced by impersonal transactions. Modern systems treat individuals as part of a faceless mass, reserving personalised, empathetic service for the wealthy few.
The intimacy economy has emerged as a counterbalance to the impersonal and often overwhelming nature of Big Social networks. As digital transformation continues to commoditise services and interactions, there is a growing demand for more personal, context-driven, and trusted spaces. In this new economy, the value is placed on building genuine connections and fostering trust within smaller, more focused communities.
Big Social networks, while powerful in scale and reach, often struggle with issues of trust, privacy, and noise. The vast amount of content, coupled with the prevalence of fake news and impersonators, has eroded user confidence.
In contrast, Small Social networks offer a solution by providing intimate, accountable, and highly curated environments.
Small Social networks are designed to serve as trusted gatekeepers for their communities, modulating the flow of information, content, and services (of economy) into and out of these spaces.
They operate on a more human scale, prioritising the needs and values of their members. This rise is not just a technological evolution but a necessary response to the shortcomings of Big Social networks.
To reach consumers going forward, the only meaningful way is digitally, and the most effective way, socially. This means trying to punch through the static of the big social platforms or you can connect into emerging vectors of trust in society – small private networks and marketplaces,
To rebuild intimacy with consumers, brands need to be present where their consumers are, in their digital community spaces, just like you needed a branch or outlet in the old days.
This allows us to consider the emergency of a new channel – B2C2 perhaps – Business to Community. Unlike traditional B2B and B2C models, B2C2 focuses on engaging with these intimate, highly trusted small social spaces, through network economies that will modulate access to them.
For brands, the rise of Small Social networks presents a strategic opportunity to explore three horizons: building, buying, and transiting networks.
Each approach offers distinct advantages and can be tailored to meet specific business objectives. Brands can create their own Small Social networks to directly engage with their audiences, allowing for complete control over the network’s infrastructure and ensuring that it aligns with the brand’s values and objectives.
Building a network fosters a deep sense of ownership and trust with the community.
Acquiring existing Small Social networks can provide immediate access to established communities, leveraging the trust and engagement already built within the network and allowing brands to integrate seamlessly and offer value from day one.
Brands can also transit through existing networks to reach their target audiences. By partnering with established Small Social networks, brands can tap into their trusted environments and engage with members in a meaningful way, requiring strategic collaboration and alignment with the network’s values.
The value of a network lies in its ability to foster trust, intimacy, and meaningful connections. As the intimacy economy continues to grow, Small Social networks will play an increasingly vital role in shaping digital interactions. Brands that recognise this trend and strategically explore building, buying, and transiting networks will be well-positioned to thrive in this new landscape.
Or is it a new landscape? To me, it’s a quickening phase of an eternal cycle.
Business to Consumer (B2C) accelerated with the Broadcast age – connecting brands with the consumer individually rather than through expensive intermediaries and building brand visibility and trust.
Business to Business (B2B) accelerated with the PC and Information Age. – connecting businesses with other businesses to scale rapidly meeting the growth creating by a more efficient route to customers and crucially being more competitive because of the value of the trust in my supply chain.
The Social Age will accelerate Business to Community (B2C2), a significant vector of trust through which you can reach your most valuable consumers.
Intimacy pays off.
