snackingaround: do you have time to join another community?

I've been getting a lot of emails from new foodie communities online. Create a profile! Post restaurant reviews! Make foodie friends around the world! Recent additions are Eats.com, TasteSpace, FoodBuzz, and FriendsEAT. Add these to the old guard of eGullet and Chowhound and the profile community interface on media sites like Zagat, Savory Cities, Chow, Serious Eats, and Gourmet.com and I wonder when or if we reach the point of maximum saturation? Do you have the time to join another online community?

Comments

[Antonio Evans]

Hey Jennifer,

We thought that exact same thing when we built friendseat.com so we have developer a few application in other networks which allows you to use alot of the FriendsEAT features:

Facebook Food - apps.facebook.com/friendseat

Myspace Food - www.myspace.com/330720992

Bebo Food - www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=5866541618

I know how fatigued people get with joining up so just add the appz at the links above and enjoy.

[Kevin]

It's refreshing to hear someone say what we've been saying for 12 months. There are now too many of these sites. When we launched TasteTV in 2004, people had to grasp to understand the concept. Now, new sites launch each week.

But on the other hand, as veterans it's put us in a unique position to host the first-ever New Media Tastemakers Summit on May 2nd (http://www.newmediatastemakers.com). So we'll be getting a lot of these enterprises together in one place to chat.

[Mark]

Apparently not! Since the first two comments were more sites that you need to join...

Love the question, don't know the answer, but I find that the broader the subject matter covered, the less you can get new converts — unless you are spending a lot of money to get there. Focus, focus, focus is the best rule of thumb.

Cheers!

[Pirikara]

Hahah! Yeah, those first two comments were awesome. I hear ya Jennifer. And on top of the plethora of food communities, I've noticed an increase in press releases in my inbox. Their approach is completely wrong cause it's as if they think we're a newspaper in need of space filler!

Needless to say, I think we all need a little breathing room.

[Fazal]

I think at a certain point, there will certainly be too many sites around, and the successful sites will have to focus on niche markets. For TasteSpace, that is why we decided to focus on the New York City market exclusively. I hope that by choosing to do one thing, that we can do it well.

[David Ziegler]

http://snack.blogs.com/snack/2008/03/snackingaround.html

Competition is good but I can understand how too many choices can be overwhelming for the end user. I created and run yet another service focused on restaurants called FoodistColony.com. I know the people behind several of the services mentioned above and what I can say is that all of us are passionately trying to deliver a useful service. In the end, those of us who find the right mix of personal value for users across multiple social networks and receive a healthy dose of word of mouth buzz will be left standing. Breaking bread is probably the most social thing we all have in common so it makes sense that so many of us are trying to craft the perfect experience in this space. I find it exciting and inspiring to see so much innovation but I do see your point. As long as Citysearch and Zagat are not my only options, I am a happy camper.

--
Check Out My Restaurant Guide
http://www.FoodistColony.com/daz9nyc

[McAuliflower]

good grief people. Enough with the astroturfing people.

I am a foodie person- not a pr agent, not a marketing clone.
I think there are too many groups to check in on for myself personally. I find that the more groups I try to check in on, the less creativity I have personally in my life (ie too much time on the computer- not enough time living).

[McAuliflower]

good grief. Enough with the astroturfing people.

I am a foodie person- not a pr agent, not a marketing clone.
I think there are too many groups to check in on for myself personally. I find that the more groups I try to check in on, the less creativity I have personally in my life (ie too much time on the computer- not enough time living).