Lady Gaga"s Social Network Opens to All the Little Monsters

Pop megastar Lady Gaga’s new social network, which looks similar to Pinterest and has voting functionality like Reddit, is now open for everyone to sign up.

Mashable previewed LittleMonsters.com (see gallery below) in February during its closed beta. The online haven for Lady Gaga fans lets them create or share Gaga-related content, mingle with other “Little Monsters” and publicly show whether they like what users are posting.

Backplane created the social network with Lady Gaga’s input. The startup was founded by Lady Gaga’s manager, Troy Carter, along with Backplane CEO Matt Michelsen, former Google designer Joey Primiani and former Palantir director of operations Alex Moore.

Some people are pitting the site against Facebook, but Michelsen stresses it’s not intended to compete.

“We love Facebook — it’s a very powerful tool,” he tells Mashable. “This is not a product meant to destroy or compete with Facebook. It’s a different purpose.”

“We wanted to create an experience where language barriers were no longer barriers.”

While Facebook helps people build their social graphs, Little Monsters and other Backplane networks aim to build identities around specific “interests, affinities and movements.” Backplane is also developing or planning networks with Nike, Major League Baseball Player Association and reality TV producer Simon Fuller, among others.

One standout function of Little Monsters is its multilingual chat feature, which allows users to interact with other users across the world.

“We wanted to create an experience where language barriers were no longer barriers and where Gaga can communicate with fans in different countries and languages,” Michelsen says.

People can sign up using an email address or their Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Lady Gaga’s powerful social media presence should easily attract many more users to Little Monsters this week. In March, she was the first Twitter user to reach 20 million followers (she now has 26.8 million). She also has 52.6 million Facebook fans and 2.8 million Google+ followers.

Here’s how the site looked like in February (it has much of the same functionality with a few design tweaks):

Little Monsters Social Network from Lady Gaga and Backplane

1. 
   

   
   

   
   

   LittleMonsters.com

   
   

   
   

   Pop megastar Lady Gaga has pierced her powerful, digitally-willing paws deeper into the online world with the closed beta launch of her new social network.

   
   

   LittleMonsters.com — the first product created by startup Backplane — gives Gaga’s fans an outlet to create or share Gaga-related content, interact with fellow “Little Monsters” and publicly show whether they like what other users post.

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   
   
   


2. 
   

   
   

   
   

   LittleMonsters.com Is in Closed Beta

   
   

   
   

   You can sign up for an invite here.

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   
   
   


3. 
   

   
   

   
   

   … And Then You Wait.

   
   

   
   

   The social network, which has been around for four weeks now, has doled out roughly 10,000 codes, including one to Mashable.

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   
   
   


4. 
   

   
   

   
   

   Take a Tour With Us

   
   

   
   

   With a look like Pinterest and a popularity-vote feel like Reddit, the Little Monsters website appears to be latching on to what’s hot on the web right now: sharing visuals and rating content.

   
   

   Backplane CEO and co-founder Matt Michelsen told Mashable that this site and future Blackplane projects have one core mission: “Unite people around interests, affinities and movements.”

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   
   
   


5. 
   

   
   

   
   

   A Beginner’s Profile Page

   
   

   
   

   In a quick test-run, I easily posted a link to a previous story I wrote titled, “How Lady Gaga Used the Web to Propel Her Last Album.”

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   
   
   


6. 
   

   
   

   
   

   A Filled Profile Page

   
   

   
   

   Lady Gaga, who Backplane has said put significant amount of time and energy into the new social network, has already liked many items posted by users.

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   
   
   


7. 
   

   
   

   
   

   “Inspired By” Option

   
   

   
   

   Users can credit things that gave them inspiration for their own posts.

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   
   
   


8. 
   

   
   

   
   

   Editing Options

   
   

   
   

   Little Monsters can use editing tools on the site before they post something.

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   
   
   


9. 
   

   
   

   
   

   Homepage Posting

   
   

   
   

   Users can post directly on the homepage or on their profiles.

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   
   
   


10. 
    

    
    

    
    

    Interactions

    
    

    
    

    Aside from liking posts and creating them, Little Monsters can interact with each other through the messaging system. Each user is given an @LittleMonsters.com email address.

    
    

    
    

    
    

    
    
    
    


11. 
    

    
    

    
    

    Notifications

    
    

    
    

    A tab on the homepage turns red if activity such as someone becoming a fan or liking a post. The pull-down bar shows the activity.

    
    

    
    

    
    

    
    
    
    


12. 
    

    
    

    
    

    Fellow Monsters

    
    

    
    

    The “Monsters” tab shows top users and new users.

    
    

    
    

    
    

    
    
    
    


13. 
    

    
    

    
    

    Search Bar

    
    

    
    

    The search bar lets users search for friends or fans they know by name.

    
    

    
    

    
    

    
    
    
    


14. 
    

    
    

    
    

    Events

    
    

    
    

    The “Events” tab lists upcoming Lady Gaga-related events and shows which users will be attending.

    
    

    
    

    
    

    
    
    
    


15. 
    

    
    

    
    

    More Events

    
    

    
    

    Some events can be symbolic.

    
    

    
    

    
    

    
    
    
    


16. 
    

    
    

    
    

    More Posts

    
    

    
    

    The homepage frequently updates.

    
    

    
    

    
    

    
    
    
    


17. 
    

    
    

    
    

    Four Co-Founders

    
    

    
    

    Blackplane projects have one core mission: “Unite people around interests, affinities and movements.”

    
    

    To help complete that goal of creating communities (they don’t necessarily have to be social ones), Backplane will look to its expanding staff and four co-founders, several of which have tech backgrounds working at Google, Palantir Technologies and Yahoo. The four people leading the way are Backplane CEO Matt Michelsen, Lady Gaga’s manager Troy Carter, former Google designer Joey Primiani (pictured) and former Palantir director of operations Alex Moore.

    
    

    
    

    
    

    
    
    
    

Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/07/10/lady-gaga-social-network-little-monsters/

Lady Gaga"s Social Network Opens to All the Little Monsters

celebrities, Entertainment, Lady Gaga, Little Monsters, music, social media, Social Netowrks