Who’s the HBCU Top Dawg?

In business as is in life there are early bloomers and there are late comers. When it comes to Web 2.0, as companies continue to define themselves and better understand how to monetize their efforts (zero revenue websites are no longer the rage), early bloomers are much better prepared to further grab market share and expand, leverage their experience and focus their efforts where it is most profitable and, most importantly, avoid following the pack and involving themselves in markets they do not know and understand. HBCU Connect is one of these early bloomers.

I spoke with HBCU Connect CEO, William Moss III, a Hampton University alumnus, about how the competition in the market has changed over the years and the future direction of the enterprise. As far as the teamwork within the organization, Moss’ views are clear cut:

“I don’t care how big or small a company is or how poor or rich they are, when it comes to creating a competitive website they are only as good as their best programmer, designer, marketer, etc. I won’t pretend everything we do is the prettiest, but when it comes to online strategy and functionality we know what we’re doing.”

Clearly, teamwork is not a buzzword to Moss but a value that has held true to form as HBCU Connect has grown over the years. And that growth has not been easy with old rivals as well as new ones such as Alumni Roundup, who have arguably overtaken HBCU Connect in viewership. Recent numbers show Roundup’s page views exceed 100,000 daily with a membership of 80,000. Roundup includes over 15 sites dedicated to various HBCUs, of which the flagship site was Bison Roundup, dedicated to Howard University, where the founders and brothers Bryndan and Rustin Moore are alums.

“Growing your core market is much much more challenging now than it was when I started, but when it comes to the larger competitors, the idea is not to compete with them at what they do best, you stick to what you do best and who you know”, Moss said. And it is that singular focus on the HBCU network and its environs that has catapulted HBCU Connect to be a formiddable player in the social networking space in which they compete. Connect began in 1995 – before Myspace and Facebook , and even before direct competitors like Blackplanet.

Moss went on to say, “Think about it… We wrote 100% of our own social networking software from day one.  Of course we had the idea to do a general market ‘facebook’ for non-black students and alumni, but guess what? It was not my passion and I can’t pretend I know that market inside and out.” Which is what distinguishes Connect from its direct and indirect competitors. Other social networking sites were focused on niche markets as well, Facebook for college students and Myspace for high school and college students. It wasn’t until later that both not only expanded but began to market themselves toward a general audience. Where Connect differs is in the amount of brands it has and the leverage it can wield. Brands include Connect Platform, which is a Ning-like social networking platform that allows users to create their own social networks without any coding or previous tech experience; African American Careers, a recruiting and job community site for diverse populations; the recently acquired HBCU Network, which started around the same time as Connect and was previously its main competition; and Lee Moss Media, a joint venture with Dante Lee, that has even more web properties most notably, Black Women Connect. Collectively these sites draw over 2 million visitors a month.

What has and will continue to propel Connect to success is its ability to strategically look forward and position itself in the right manner. When it comes to strategy Moss feels “By us making strategic acquisitions, partnerships, and launching [innovative] market offerings, if we do it right, we should be serving [and benefiting] our recruitment partners.” In regard to the future of Connect and his other ventures, Moss exudes confidence when he considers the future, “…when it comes to growing revenue, it’s easy when you consider the fact that we are just scratching the surface of what kind of revenue exists for what we do.  I doubt any of our competitors know the breadth of monetization opportunities there are for a social network.  We just exploit these opportunities behind the scenes.”