A startup company has created a new social media service with the explicit purpose of challenging the market’s major players. The architects of the social media service Unthink, based in Tampa, Florida, created the website for users disenchanted with popular services like Facebook, Google+, and Twitter. Unthink promotes a policy for social networking whereby the user, not a company, determines the content of a site. The creators of Unthink sought to create a space free of the spam and blatant advertising from invasive corporate entities, emphasizing the user as the most important aspect of social networking. Proponents of the site celebrate Unthink as a step in the right direction for social networking—a move away from the heavy ad based model of Facebook and its imitators. Unthink is still in its infancy, so its impact can’t be fully assessed yet. But what is there to know about it so far?
Unthink’s new advertisement structure
Unthink wants to empower its user in more tangible ways than those offered by its competitors. Spokespeople for Unthink draw stark contrasts between themselves and other services by restructuring the way the display advertisements which usually comprise the primary source of income for free social networks. On sites like Facebook, advertisers analyze users’ publically shared data in order to target specific demographics with the most effective advertisements. With Unthink, users have much more choice what advertisements they see whenever they sign in. Users can choose advertisers through the “iEndorse” service, whereby users select an adviser that they closely identify with or are willing to endorse through their profile. If a user wants a profile free of advertisements, they can opt to pay a small yearly fee instead (reports state that the fee is around $2 a year).
The interface
Unthink’s actual user interface is quite ambitious; it includes elements from multiple popular social networking services in an attempt to encompass all aspects of the online socialization experience. Once logged in, a user can share information through Facebook wall-style “stream.” A user’s stream can be divided into different modes of visibility: one can share information with a select group of people, your friends, or the general public much in the same way as one does with Google+’s circles. There’s a separate area for more business-oriented users, labeled “Professional,” where people can search for valuable connections and contacts in a space uninhibited by the clutter of other professional networks. In essence, Unthink seeks to combine the nuances casual, professional, and entrepreneurial online social networking into one hub, all without the interference of conventional advertisements or ambiguous control.
Can smaller social media services succeed?
While Unthink certainly makes a noble effort to give users ultimate “control” over their social networking experiences, it remains unclear whether or not the service will make any sizeable impact on the market. Within the first day of its beta test, Unthink was brought down from unexpectedly huge traffic. Such an error speaks well to their marketing, but it may also indicate that the service is unready to take on titans such as Facebook who boast followings of over 800 million users. But the social networking market grew so large in such a short time; it’s hard to imagine any small startup company tackling such a huge audience without experiencing some minor issues. Time will determine whether or not Unthink will endure among its social media competitors.
This guest post is contributed by Lauren Bailey, who regularly writes for best online colleges. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: blauren99 @gmail.com.
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UNTHINK, a new socia media service meant to rival Facebook