“Where else can we have non-toxic discussions about foreign policy? Like real discussions you know.”
That’s what Kritika Kaushik, a research scholar at a leading Indian university, told me when I asked her why she had created a group on a messenger service for students and young professionals to connect and discuss foreign policy from an academic standpoint.
And while the messenger group had already grown to about 50+ members in a week, buoyed by her posts on social media and her university network, she could already see some shortcomings of using a messenger app for structured discussions.
Regardless, it was a very encouraging start as she began building this community of young foreign policy enthusiasts in India.
“What I had in mind was a platform for scholars of foreign policy. A way to also democratize the field of International Relations. I called it Perspective on International Relations, but I didn’t know what shape it could take or if we could really carve a space for it,” she added when we started talking about using MainCross to power a content and community platform just for international relations.
While she didn’t know it the then, what she was looking for was a vertical social network for foreign policy.
Vertical Social Networks
A vertical social network is a focused platform that has a core objective or interest to it. It could be a vertical social network for cricket or sneakers, climate change or the Pharaohs – anything really – where that’s what everyone talks about all day.
Imagine knowing that a space exists where your shared passions are what everyone talks about, listens to and interact around. No distractions. How awesome would that be?
That’s where value, participation, satisfaction, learning and belonging come together. And those are what then may be considered key tenets of a community.
Communities may be private or public, but they inherently create value and a sense of belonging. And that comes from not just the quality of content within that community, but also from the level of member participation, access to participation tools & freedom of engagement.
Before I proceed, just a side note on a vertical social network for cricket. No, ESPN Cricinfo is not a vertical social network around cricket – it doesn’t allow the community to publish their views, ask questions or contribute stories. It’s a fabulous vertical content network, but it does highly mediate community interactions and doesn’t encourage them as of now.
Perhaps there’ll soon be a true vertical social network for cricket as well. All Indian Premier League cricket teams for example have been adding vertical social networks for fans on their apps – a place where their community can interact, much like the large football clubs of the United States and Europe have done.
But what about the other clubs and teams that may not be able to build their own platforms?
That’s where MainCross comes in again, to power focused and affordable vertical networks in your branding, launched quickly. Talk to us about setting one up for you.
Okay, getting back after that plug.
This discussion around vertical social networks and launching one for foreign policy really hit the mark with Kritika.
There was immediate association and recognition of that idea and what the possibilities could be. Building a vertical social network for foreign policy was really the key objective she had, and MainCross provided a ready-to-launch structure for it. It was another match made in heaven.
“It’s like Facebook, but just for International Relations, and even better,” she’d concluded as we were half-way done with her setup in less than a day.
In less than a few days, this had gone from an online introduction to beta launch of this niche platform, powered by all the goodies from MainCross that come in the box.
But it’s also so much more than just Facebook for International Relations.
Perspectives on International Relations is a platform that’s completely focused on foreign policy & International Relations.
It’s the coming together of knowledgeable content and an informed community. And while that community had first started building on a messenger app, what’s really amplified the value and satisfaction for everyone involved is being on their own platform - that sense of belonging.
As the platform gets taken out in the beta stage, new users and members are now not just discovering different views, but they are also finding a place where they can surround themselves with like-minded individuals.
Building on the core MainCross product, Perspectives on IR niftily brings together content and community around the focus area.
It could perhaps later add commerce as well with paid memberships, paid seminars, workshops & ticketing – all possibilities that MainCross already supports.
The content features allow use of seamless frontend authoring tools for members and admins – short posts, long articles, quizzes, polls and so much more that can be structured around topics as designated by the platform admins.
Moderation is built in, and currently any to all members of the Perspectives on IR network can publish anything they like – really bringing to life Kritika’s vision to “democratise the field of International Relations”.
The built-in community tools empower members to comment and vote on content they see, publish their own work and views. Members can build their profiles and even aspire to be assigned expert badges on specific topics in foreign policy if the admins see that as an apt move.
Young professionals, scholars and graduate students of foreign policy who may join the platform can now receive targeted content on the platform and in their inbox.
They can also respond to that content, share their views, start new conversations and even ask questions or share their queries. This is their space now!
As more people join in, the network effects of vertical social networks start kicking in – with every new member who joins the platform, there’s additional value created for all the previous and new members.
For the new member there’s many times the value that gets shared as well in terms of information, varied perspectives and valuable insights.
The opportunity for members to interact with like-minded people and to be able to build new personal or professional relationships is also very advantageous.
A world of vertical networks
As more such vertical social networks get built, people are going to discover that there exists a community that they can truly belong to, that there are digital platforms where they can find focused and valuable content, and that they are welcome there.
Launching such network sites also serves a very simple, yet critical purpose. It defines a unique web address for the community – and that powered by high quality technology means it is better search engine optimized and can be discovered quicker by people that are looking for such avenues.
As these advantages get more visible, the limitations of using messenger apps or team collaboration tools for such ambitions become obvious.
Messenger apps put all interactions in a single stream, there’s no structure to topics, no contextual search or archiving. No network effects, profiles or badges and certainly a lot of distraction from other activities. There’s also of course no customization, no branding.
From a business point of view, there’s also no ownership when you build your community or content network on another social platform. You merely rent that audience, even though it's you who is putting in the effort of creating content and drawing people in. And this always keeps alive the fear of distraction and of being deplatformed.
That’s where owning your own focussed platform enables you to own your content & audience, customise your network rules and build a space of real value, empowerment and belonging - in a way that best reflects you and your ethos.
“This is the tangible manifestation of my dream to democratise the field of International Relations where people feel empowered to have the vision to be a part of IR dynamics,” Kritika wrote in the about section of the network site as it went live a few days ago.
Perspectives on IR is now truly set to garner more perspectives.
If you’d like to launch your own vertical social network – no coding and easy to manage, contact us here.
