Is Lady Gaga a Facebook killer?
— -- Lady Gaga is launching her own social network this summer, but the niche social website isn't meant to lure people away from Facebook, said Matthew Michelsen, CEO and founder of The Backplane, the start-up company that is building Lady GaGa's social network.
"We love Facebook, we embrace it. Facebook's around your social graph; we want to organize people around interests, affinities and movements, so to actually push them into places of things they love, like they're church or being a Little Monster," Michelsen said on CNBC's Street Signs.
The website, Littlemonsters.com, which is named after the nickname GaGa calls her fans, is a one-stop destination where fans of the pop star can find all things related to Lady GaGa. The social network is currently invite-only, but people wanting to join can request an invitation. The official launch of the website is not until later this year, Michelsen said.
The Backplane is a "social platform aimed at helping niche communities build, host and grow robust and engaging online systems," according to the company blog. As part of the niche social platform, the company is working to make it so that fans will also become tools for advertising. Engaged users, or "influencers," are a powerful way to spread a message, Michelsen said.
"When we look at traditional forms of advertising, we like to actually look at influencers, so if I have Lady GaGa advertising something or endorsing something, it doesn't carry the same weight, especially with the Little Monsters, as if we actually have our 20 top influencers carrying that message. So we are actually trying to reverse this trend. We want to be what's next in advertising," Michelsen said.
This story originally appeared on CNBC.com.
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