Social Networking with a Velvet Rope

A Velvet Rope is an invitation-only social network that creates an "exclusive" feeling. It's the idea that everyone wants to know what's on the "inside" and have special privileges.

One example of a velvet rope social network is Sermo, which is designed specifically for physicians. The site's members discuss medical cases and compare insights and opinions. Sermo is interesting because it doesn't charge the physicians to be members. Instead, it charges journalists looking for medical answers and companies looking for physician endorsements for their products. To date, they have generated over 30,000 discussions and sparked over 3,000,000 comments.
The postings, created by the people in more than 68 specialties, represent the frontlines of medicine. When you want to share an observation, simply create a posting. If you want to provide feedback on someone else's posting, you vote. And if you want to add your voice to the discussion, you can do so in the comments section. If you want to vote on a posting, choose from one of the answers to the right of the screen. If you don't see an appropriate answer, you can add one. Just be sure to craft it in a manner that enables others to vote on it. Personal experiences and insights are extremely valuable to the Sermo community and should be added to the discussion as comments, not answers.

Their patent-pending technology is the first and only technology to authenticate and credential physicians in real-time. Sermo authenticates each physician when they register. This technology is the key to strictly maintaining a community exclusively for physicians and dramatically improving patient care.
It is a "perfect social network plan." We will see many more velvet rope social networks in the future.