Mightybell now lets anyone create a custom community on its social platform

Mightybell has officially launched its platform for creating micro social networks, allowing anyone to sign up and begin connecting with like-minded people.

During its beta phase, Mightybell signed on several notable clients, including American Express, Lean In and The Gates Foundation. The product is similar to Google+ and Facebook by allowing small groups to self-organize around a common topic or interest.

However, the startup differentiates itself from mainstream social networking companies by suggesting that its service is smarter and more about engaging with the people “you should know,” rather than those you’re already acquainted with.

CEO Gina Bianchini said in an interview that Mightybell is going for a more communal feel that allows networks to subdivide into smaller groups. That compares against a Google group, which she feels is a hostile experience to members.

“If you’re organizing a Google group for something you care about, you don’t really care about your members that much because it’s very difficult to keep up and get connected,” Bianchini said.

When I asked how the service intends to combat the social media fatigue that has begun to set in, Bianchini noted that existing offerings “do one thing really well but they’re not actually solving the problem [of fatigue].”

She went on to cite use cases such as small business owners, teachers and people learning to code as examples of demographics who would benefit from connecting on Mightybell as opposed to another site. Bianchini added that the startup’s goal is to create “just the simplest experience” while also including all the features needed so that users don’t have to head to other services to communicate or plan events.

One other benefit of Mightybell is that organizers can brand their own groups, though the company does keep a dashboard at the top of the page to help users with discovery.

At launch, Mightybell hasn’t convinced me to jump ship from any of the networks I currently use, but I can certainly see its advantage for niche communities and brands that would benefit from having their own space to connect.

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