I was skeptical when Playboy launched its exclusive social network for college students in August called PlayboyU, mostly because Hef’s adult entertainment empire had chosen merely to brand a standard Ning website. While it’s questionable to me whether a corporate brand can ever sustain a large and active social network, it just didn’t seem like the company was trying very hard to leverage its assets and create a uniquely Playboy social networking experience.

In apparent response to disappointing engagement levels (PlayboyU had about 5,000 members in early November and, as of writing, only 12 “site activity” items in the last 12 hours), Playboy is pushing a fairly lengthy survey on its “charter members” through email and on-site ads. It asks questions about social network usage, Playboy brand perceptions and, most importantly, the appeal of integrating magazine content into the social network (although with little emphasis on nudity, suggesting that Playboy is still wary of turning PlayboyU into an outlet for soft pornography).

Among the types of content considered by the survey are cartoons, music picks, advice from Playboy experts, behind the scenes footage of Playboy events, Playmate and “Girls of” profiles, excerpts from “The Girls Next Door” show, fashion pages, and party jokes. Playboy is also apparently weighing the option of creating a “public” site for college age adults that would provide not only traditional Playboy content but serve as a resource like Princeton Review with guides to campus life and ranking systems, as well as “original editorial and video segments related to college life.” This second site would probably not replace PlayboyU, since the registration requirement of a “.edu” email address is one – if not the – selling point of the current social network (see the video created by a site representative below).

It’s too early to tell whether this survey will amount to any real changes to PlayboyU, although the company is obviously exploring ways to improve the social network by taking it in new directions. We’ll just have to see what Playboy comes up with in 2008, and whether it finds Ning to be flexible enough for its attempts at differentiation.

While Alice Mathias may have overplayed the frivolous uses of Facebook for college students in her article called The Fakebook Generation published in the Grey Lady a few weeks ago, she was certainly correct in saying that Facebook lost a certain je ne sais quoi for students when it opened up to the real world last fall.

So instead of trying to take this $15 billion animal head on, as one $222 billion beast is attempting to do, startups might be wise to try capturing the niche that Facebook has intentionally left behind. Of course, there are a handful of reasons to think there will never be another social network that catches on so quickly and so thoroughly with college students. Namely, Facebook itself, which still holds the attention of the vast majority of college students. Personally, I think any company that tries to create a social network for college students faces a very steep uphill battle. But you can’t blame them for trying.

Let’s say you did want to capitalize on students’ (growing?) discontent with the “mature” Facebook; what strategy would you follow? You’d probably want to take a few pages out of Facebook’s own, er, book by restricting membership to users with .edu email addresses, gradually opening up to elite schools, and keeping things stupidly simple. But you’d also have to provide something particularly unique, useful, or entertaining that tempts mainstream Facebook users to jump ship.

We’ve taken a look at the websites out there claiming that they are the next “it” social network for college students. And we’ve got to say: overall, we’re not terribly impressed. Only one stands out – a website called College Tonight – and this because of its novel attempt to bring social networking back into the real world. College Tonight is well-designed and has some features you won’t find in other social networks, such as an area for lost and found items at your school and a place to “drunk dial” with messages you can take back in the morning (if you’re up and out of bed in time). The company behind this site, which launches Monday, also has a set of undisclosed features in the works that tempt us into believing that they might actually appeal enough to college students to survive. We’ll have to write more about them later once we’re more informed.

The other decent site among the bunch is Carmun, a site that encourages students to help each other study. Students post questions they have about essays and tests the are studying for, and others hypothetically help them find the answers and information they need. While the site is attractive enough, I don’t see many students helping other students with the homework no one wants to do.

The rest of them are either really badly designed, ghost towns, gimmicks, or abandoned by their owners (plus, most don’t require .edu addresses to register so what’s the point?). Let’s take a look:

ConnectU – This site was created by the very same Harvard students currently in court with Facebook over whether or not Mark Zuckerberg stole their code. It’s poorly designed, not very functional, and doesn’t look like it’s been updated significantly for a long time.

CollegeHotList – An NYU project that has not yet launched…and probably will never launch (I’ve seen talk on the internet about it that dates back to early 2006).

PlayboyU – A social network built on Ning but branded by Playboy that has only 5,000-some members after launching on August 22. The whole thing feels like a gimmick, and many of the profiles appear to be fake (there’s no way that many attractive people signed up on their own). There’s very little value added by its association with Playboy.

CampusMatch – A romantically-themed college social network that dates back quite a few years and is almost certainly abandoned. It’s too bad too, because a college network with a focus on love/hooking up has a lot of potential.

CampusGrind – This one has a cluttered design and serves more as an information center for teens, with its advice columns, than a true social network.

CampusBug – A site overwhelmed by its sponsorships and overloaded with educational tools like a bibliography creator and flashcards.

CampusCentral – It’s not a good sign when the copyright at the bottom of your pages says 2005. This one’s a ghost town, and tailored to Canadian students, too.

CrushTV – This one’s filled mostly with video and photographic content provided by the site itself. While having videos of babes in bikinis will draw some eyeballs, don’t expect many college students to stay too long.

LifeAtCollege – Awful, awful design.

College.com – Packed with too many extraneous features like sections for news, academics, and greek life. Plus, who wants to rate their professors in their social network?

Uspot – Launched in early 2006…now says “We’ll be back shortly…” on homepage. Not good.

So there you have it. Now who’s going to step up to the plate and give college students an attractive alternative to Facebook? As you can see, you won’t have much competition aside from maybe College Tonight. So get on it, my collegiate friends.

Well, this is a big win for build-your-own-social-network Ning, which just raised a massive round of funding. The new Playboy social network we covered earlier today is actually built on Ning, not self-built code or one of the many other white label social networking options available.

Once you actually sign up for the site it becomes clear it’s Ning, since their pervasive toolbar remains at the top of the site. Users actually use their Ning address to log in. You must have a .edu address to get an invitation, but you can then sign up using any Ning account.

Whether or not this network is successful, it’s great validation for Ning.

Update: Playboy U is built on the Ning platform

The recent launch of Silicon Valley funded adult/porn site Zivity raised a few eyebrows. Now one of the old sovereigns of sexy is getting into the game, too. CrunchGear reports that Playboy is launching their own sexy social networking site just for college students, Playboy U.

Playboy U requires all users to have a .edu email addresses, mimicking Facebook’s early policy of only allowing college students to join. They say, “Sorry, but high schoolers, old dudes and your Mom can’t join”. However, The site won’t be as lascivious as the periodical. In what may be a bummer for some, the site will be “an exclusive college-only non-nude social network”. Furthermore, it will be a place to “show your school pride, connect with other students and celebrate the social side of college”. But I’m sure they’re not going to police the whole network for porn.

Student profiles will consist of the usual social network features including, bios, photos, videos, Blogs, and Forums. Schools will have customized pages, parties and on-campus events, and a national radio show with student callers.

Other magazines have been trying to get with the times and fight floundering readership by launching their own social networks too. Rolling Stone recently announced plans for their own network as well. But Playboy may have some better luck with readership already skewing toward the college following.

Lots of college students lament the loss of their exclusive Facebook social network to the older crowd. They may be receptive to a newer, cooler alternative. Something tells me that Playboy may not be the brand to steal their hearts, though.