I interviewed Janis Kupferer*, the founder of SocialJane.com, "the Internet's premier social networking site for women." Janis told me what the buzz is about this new trend in social networking for women:

What is SocialJane.com? What services does the site provide?

SocialJane.com is an online social networking site for women. Its goal is to facilitate the formation of friendships between women. In much the same vein as dating and career sites work to connect two parties, SocialJane.com applies this technology to the purpose of making new friends. To date SocialJane.com boasts over 10,000 members, and many great new friendships between its members.

Can you lead me through what a woman would do when she uses SocialJane.com as a resource?

Members of SocialJane.com post profiles of themselves, listing their demographic info, their interests and hobbies, and a paragraph or two about themselves and their goal for joining SocialJane.com. Of course adding a photo or two is strongly encouraged, but completely optional.

Once a profile is up and complete, members are able to search through the SocialJane.com database of members for those with whom they think they'd connect in terms of a friendship. Searches can be as simple as retrieving all profiles "within 5 miles" or be completely customized depending on the member's interests. For example, a member could search for "tennis players, in their 50's, who are mothers, own dogs, and speak Spanish." The search options are endless.

So with a selection of potential friends, the member then sets about sending introductory emails to those gals. And that is really where the fun begins. In the best of situations, you get an email back and quickly realize that you've hit on someone with whom you think you can forge a new friendship. Typically women send a few emails back and forth to gather basic information, and then schedule time to get together and actually meet. Initial meetings should always take place in a public forum.

In addition to making personal connections with members via email, members also have access to articles and forums. The articles provide advice from experts in the field of women and their friendships, and the forums are just a great place to engage casually with other members on a host of topics.

What was your inspiration for starting SocialJane.com?

My inspiration for starting SocialJane.com was simple - loneliness. I moved to Denver to be closer to family, and was successful right away in securing a new job, but found that outside of the folks that I met at work, I wasn't having great luck in meeting others. I'd had a great circle of friends in my old town, friends that I made while at school, so hadn't really needed to hone my "friend-making-skills." Apparently those skills became a bit rusty, because I was having a really difficult time finding new friends in Colorado, and I honestly did not know where to look or how to do so.

Interestingly enough, I was using the Internet to find dates, and found my job via an Internet site, so, I thought, surely there is a similar service for finding friendship. Unfortunately, that assumption was not accurate. In fact, my search on the various search engines didn't turn up any good leads. That's when I decided to give SocialJane.com a go. And frankly, the response has been amazing. Seems there are many of us out there with the exact same need and desire - the need to expand their social circle, and the desire to do so in a quick and efficient manner.

Do you have any favorite stories of women forming friendships through SocialJane?

I do. One of the first emails I received was from a young woman who had just lost her husband in the Iraq war. She was understandably devastated and didn't know where to turn, except to the internet. Her search led her to SocialJane.com, which in turn led her to other widows on the site. She wrote to tell me that the site had been extremely helpful in helping her connect with other women who'd had similar experiences, and that she was now corresponding with these gals and getting much needed support. Again, this happened when the site was just a few months old, and really opened my eyes to what the Internet, and SocialJane.com, is capable of accomplishing.

I also recently received a note from a woman who wanted to thank me for the site. She said that she had scheduled lunch with a few women who lived in her area, and they all hit it off really well, so well, in fact, that all four have already taken their first vacation together.

Another woman told me that she joined SocialJane.com somewhat on a lark, and did a quick search just to see "who else was out there". She was very honest and said that she didn't have much hope in the results. But low and behold, there was a classmate of hers from high school. The two had no idea each was living in the area, and re-established their friendship after many years apart.

So, the common theme here is that there are a bunch of women out there all looking for the same thing - friendship. And all it takes is posting a profile on a website, and you just may find a lifelong and truly great friend. How wonderful is that!

How does it feel to be a pioneer in women's social networking? What do you like most about it? What is most challenging? For example, since social networking is relatively new, do you find you have to explain it to people? What are some common reactions when you tell people what you do?

I'm not sure that I'd give myself the title of "pioneer," but I will say that I'm like a lot of women who, when they see a problem, just set about finding a solution. I was lucky in that I was able to take a known technology (internet networking), and simply use it in a new application (forming new friendships).

The funny thing is that although dating sites have been around for a long time now, and their success has removed any stigma that was attached to the service in the early days, I do see that we need to battle the stigma of using the internet to connect with new friendships. (Facebook has the patent on maintaining friendships, but isn't designed to help members find new friends.)

That stigma centers on an insecurity that perhaps there is some personal flaw because you are finding yourself with a diminished set of friends. But life is very transitional: we move, we change jobs, we retire, we marry, divorce, we lose our spouses, there is a whole host of reasons why our lives change, and with those changes, our connections change too.

My hope is that those women who have a desire for a fuller social life but are feeling a bit shy about "putting themselves out there," take a tour of the site, perhaps do a sample search, read a few of the testimonials and the forum listings. They'd quickly see that the membership on SocialJane.com is comprised of women from across the country, in various stages of life, and with a host of backgrounds. But the common denominator is that they all are interested in connection with other great gals, and want to do so in an easy manner.

The women of SocialJane.com are a collection of really bright and active women who don't want to settle for a sedentary life, alone - they want to get out there and do things, and they want to share these experiences with friends. They see that the internet has the ability to remove many of the obstacles to meeting new people, and are taking full advantage of it.

Generally, when I explain what I do, the response is, "What a great service, I could really use that!"

Resources:
SocialJane.com