One of the best social networking sites of wealthy

In the real world, the average Joe watches the Red Sox-Yankees game from the bleachers while the affluent mingle in the corporate boxes. Everyday Eddie deals with parking and public restrooms during his day at the beach, yet the mega-rich drop their keys with the valet and settle into a reserved lounge chair at a private club.

Online, the waters are parting too.

Though it once seemed that the Web was the last place where status didn’t matter, the elite are now looking for a comfortable place to mingle with like-minded people. They’re leaving Facebook and LinkedIn to the riffraff.

In Depth: Social Networking Sites for High Society

“It’s taken a while for wealthy consumers to start using networking sites, mostly due to privacy issues and concerns,” says Milton Pedraza, CEO of the Luxury Institute, a New York-based research company that focuses on high-net-worth individuals.

“But now they want to leverage all those social-networking advantages. Before, they had the opportunity to network at annual international meetings, but now they can connect to like-minded people in Dubai or anywhere in the world in an instant.”

According to a January survey by the Luxury Institute, wealthy-consumer participation in online social networks is on the rise. Of the 805 people surveyed (each with a minimum gross annual income of $150,000) in 2008, 60% of respondents said they participate in a social network, up from 27% in 2007.

Participation levels for the wealthy in leading social networks were 16% for MySpace, 13% for LinkedIn and 11% for Facebook. On average, a wealthy person has membership in 2.8 social networks with an average of 110 connections. Unfortunately, according to Pedraza, too many invites, “pokes” and unrequited connections, coupled with the leaks in privacy, make exclusive sites more alluring.

A new breed of social site

The wealthy are instead heading to a new crop of ultra-exclusive social networks that have blossomed over the past few years, such as WealthyLove.com, 

Some networks come with strict invite-only policies and a rigorous application process based on education, job title, connections and lots of virtual velvet rope. Others, such as Squa.re and Quintessentially, are more lenient, requiring simply an invite from any existing member.

Will it work? 

“People are unhappy with the free-for-all at LinkedIn and Facebook and MySpace. They are looking for a specialized group to mingle with, and paying a fee weeds out the ones who don’t belong,” says Chris Curtis, director of Web Business Ownership LLC, a Delaware-based Internet consulting company.

“Exclusive sites are becoming more prevalent because not everyone is willing to network with people they don’t know,” she adds. “It provides a more formal type of introduction within a closed circle. [The networks] have staying power, but only if they listen to the needs of the society that they are creating.”

But do the rich and successful have time to be searching the Web and schmoozing? “If it’s worth their time, yes,” says Pedraza. “I know people who are building a yacht, and peer-to-peer insight about where to go and who to work with is the sweet spot.”

Getting to that spot, however, is the challenge. If you want to be inside these clubs, aim for one of the more lenient ones that require an easy-to-find invite where all members have invite powers. Choose carefully, though, because just like in high school, once everyone can join the cool club, it’s no longer cool. The alternative is to pay the monthly $70 dues to join a site such as WealthyLove.com.

But if you’re looking for an invite from the more exclusive groups, you simply have to know someone who matters.

“If you don’t know anyone in the group, maybe it’s not quite right for you,” says Wachtmeister.