GET THE (SERIOUS) CONVERSATION STARTED AT CONVONATION

Note: The following is being reposted from TechCocktail.com and was written by Monika Jansen. Follow her @monikacjansen 

NYC-based startup ConvoNation, which launched 2 weeks ago, wants to fill the online conversation gap between our abbreviated 140 character thoughts on Twitter and often-mundane and highly personal status updates on Facebook.  Their goal is pretty lofty – bringing serious conversation to social media – but they could be on to something for all the serious thinkers out there who like to engage in substantial conversations that are more Economist than People.

Indeed, co-founder Adam Schreiber had this to say:

The current social media model serves a major purpose for hundreds of millions of people around the world. We’re special because we cater to the top percentile of user, those who want more from their social interactions. People can come to ConvoNation and engage in a way that they’ve never seen before, not only with their peers, but with thought leaders who drive a type of top quality content you can’t find anywhere else online.

Ironically, Adam originally pinged me on Twitter, a conversation that quickly moved to email.  I was intrigued by his startup, so I took a look this morning.  The homepage is a roadblock – if you want to see what is being discussed, you need to sign up.  How do you know if it’s worth joining if you can’t see a live feed or at least a sampling of recent conversations?

While signing up was a breeze, you cannot hit the back button to update your profile during the sign-up process; you have to wait til your profile is live.  Easy to fix and certainly not a reason to avoid joining.

A lot of conversations center around politics, but they run the gamut, covering food (“McDonald’s will be a socially acceptable brand in high society in 2 years’ time”) to music (“Bruno Mars has to be one of the worst musical artists I’ve ever heard in my life”). As to be expected, the converastion starters are highly opinionated, but from what I read, they are not malicious.  To keep on top of conversations you are interested in following, you can create custom feeds in your dashboard.

ConvoNation is well-organized.  You can figure out who is a key influencer by the number of Agrees they have accumulated.  You can also add external links to your remarks, which are then housed in The Library and organized according to the thoughts and conversations from which they emerged.  Obviously, with a name like The Library, they can be searched and referenced.

Do you think online conversations need to be more weighty?  Will you try out ConvoNation?  Let me know what you think – leave a comment below.