3 Social Networking Sites With A Twist

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, you know that social networking sites have swept millions into content sharing frenzy. With such success, it’s not surprising that many are trying to tap into this potential and create the next ‘big thing’. Of course, in order to really market these ideas and attract users, you have to do something a little different.

While surfing online, I’ve noticed a few sites that have really taken an interesting twist on social networking. Two such sites are Wis.Dm and Help.com. Wis.dm is a relatively new site but has already accumulated some pretty decent traffic. The site allows you to pose a question to other users with the option for the community to say yes or no and comment. You can see who answered the question, what their answer was and a poll-style total of all the answers combined.

Help.com offers a similar twist with users posting questions, rants or even sometimes pleas, in which the community offers their best answer or piece of advice. Some topics covered are love, homework, and finances, and the questions can range from ‘What did you have for supper last night?’ to ‘I need legal advice for copyright laws’. Both sites are a great place to pose absolutely anything to a wide audience and get some advice… or a good laugh.


One last social site I recently stumbled upon was SoapBoxxer, which actually takes the concept of a social site one step further. Instead of questions, users pose opinions (soapbox… get it?) and the rest of the community can agree or disagree and add comments defending their stand. SoapBoxxer covers a wide variety of topics from politics and religion to food and music and one really interesting bit is that you don’t necessarily have to agree with the opinion you post. The discussions run wild on this site and with a little poking around, you get the feeling there is a pretty well developed community. It looks just over two months old so it’s still in its infancy, but it’s got a really clean design and of course, the usual social features such as profiles, avatars and followers (friends).

I always like seeing sites that jump outside the box and give the web something a little different. With all the Digg-wannabes running around out there, it’s nice to see sites that want to create, rather than duplicate.