Social Networking, USC Style

There are well over 100 major social network sites on the internet, with tens of thousands of additional sites, forums, and community cafes. It isn’t that difficult to understand how daunting it can be to connect with like-minded people especially when juggling multiple interests such as Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, MyBlogLog, BlogCatalog, MySpace, LinkedIn, Pownce, and many others.

For University of Southern California students and alumni, who are overwhelmed by Facebook or looking for something specific to the university, OneDegree.com could be just what they’re looking for.

Founded with the express mission to, “the only professional and social networking site for USC students, alumni and fans,” OneDegree.com operates as both a business and social networking hub, allowing people with similar interests to connect. Registered members can fill out a social profile, a professional profile, or both with OneDegree.com and participate for free.

“The problem with many networking sites these days is not a lack of connections, but too many connections of dubious value. The key advantage onedegree offers is the ability to seamlessly manage distinct professional and social profiles giving access to other members as desired. Most sites don’t allow the privacy of keeping work and social lives separate; with onedegree, you can,” said Kevin Knaul, Chief Executive Officer of onedegree.

Knaul has indicated that USC is the first of many universities who will have their own portal through onedegree. For USC fans, they’ll be able to connect with each other by their interests whether academic, social, fraternity/sorority life, sports, etc.

“We studied the market and through extensive research, found a large void in the seemingly saturated social networking category. Networking circles can be too large to be useful, and users feel obligated to accept peripheral contacts. onedegree offers an alumni network which is exclusive and generates a built-in level of trust. There’s no good way to maintain an exclusive network using existing tools,” said Kevin Knaul.

To stoke interest in the site, OneDegree.com also offers a rewards program where members can earn “points” which can be redeemed for exclusive sweepstakes, and can be used in their store (under construction).

(Source: OneDegree.com)

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