UPDATED: 10/14/09 with new information about groups.

I developed this comparison (download) of Ning and Facebook for an internal discussion, but figured I’d share it since there didn’t seem to be much on the Internet in terms of a direct breakdown.

As an overview, Ning is a site that easily allows the creation of free private social networks.

This feature means sites are created around topics and groups. e.g. Knoxville Social Media Association is a group I’m a member of and we use a Ning site to organize around our topic.  It includes tools that allow the creation of events, blog posts, forums, and discussion, and it’s scope is very focused.  It’s also private – so if you’re not a member of that group, you can’t see the content.  In short, Ning sites operate around the TOPIC.

Facebook on the other hand is also a private social networking site, and members can join groups, pages, etc.  e.g. Knoxville Social Media Association also maintains a facebook page as a public outpost.  That public profile also has forums, and discussion, but those can’t be limited to specific people.  They are public. Additionally, facebook is primarily about me, my friends, my interests, so it exists as an ecosystem (or platform) and its focus is broad. In short, facebook operates aroud the PERSON.

Before we get too much further I want to cover one thing that the graphic above doesn’t – which is Facebook groups.  This is a feature on Facebook where you can create small private groups around a topic.  They can be open (public) or closed (private) but they do have a member limit and aren’t specifically suited to broad engagement across a topic.  They also receive less visibility on the Facebook platform. UPDATE: All Facebook reports that Facebook is switching groups over to a layout similar to the public pages.  I guess we’ll start to groups move away, and pages will have a private and public setting.

Analysis

One upside to Facebook is that there is a chance that a large amount of people already have accounts (300+ million)  thus lowering the barrier to entry and the level of adoption.  The upside to Ning is that user accounts can be maintained and kept current with group your membership roster, including the removal of accounts via CSV file upload. For dues paying membership organizations this can be important.

One of the dangers of using a public network like Facebook is that material that is not intended to be public facing will be accessible.  This information may not be trade secrets, but could be something as simple as a discussion on social media policy where the public sharing of information could be counter productive to an open discussion of the topic.

Ning allows all the great benefits of Facebook (including additional custom tools) and wraps them in a fully private system that assures private membership and provides a location for authentic dialogue. Facebook certainly wins the battle on the installed user base and the public’s familiarity  with the site.

Facebook and Ning certainly serve different purposes and can be used interchangeably with success. Ultimately, either site will require users – so understanding their behavior within your goals will be important.  A lot of people check into Facebook every day and will get a reminder of your content.  If you go with Ning, is your content enough incentive to bring them to your site?

I’m interested to hear what you think.  Please share any great examples of Facebook or Ning usage in the comments and I’ll be happy to update the post with your links.  Also, if you’ve used a site not included here – please share your experience.