You've probably seen the commercials of happy success couples who've met online and may have read the statistics on how more couples are meeting in online dating sites than in bars these days. Most singles who do join dating sites hope they won't be spending a lifetime sentence as a member.
With this in mind when online dating sites are successful, they lose their customers. Dating sites also lose their members when they are unhappy with the process or haven't found love online within their timetable. It's an odd predicament for a business whose goal is to grow and retain members.
As a result, Zoosk, who started as a "social dating" site, has redefined their brand as "the romantic social network." I think it's a step in the right direction as their company recently announced the launch of their new "Couples Profiles" feature. How it works is instead of disappearing when you've met your match, happy couples now can create a new joint profile to highlight their romantic journey.
Similar in theory to the Facebook timeline, couples can memorialize highlights of their romantic life, including where they went on their first date to posting their first kiss or first vacation together.
This takes relationships past the Facebook relationship status change, where couples proudly change their status together from "Single" to "In a Relationship."
"Zoosk started by helping singles find a partner to begin their romantic journey," said co-founder Shayan Zadeh. "Yet when we helped two people find each other and develop a relationship they left Zoosk and there was no dedicated place online for them to share their romantic journey." The new Couple Profiles offering provides a place for couples to share their romantic milestones and memories online in a joint profile that can be shared with friends.
Other dating sites that are looking at maintaining a presence for couples includes eHarmony, where their eHarmony Advice articles provide ongoing relationship advice for couples and How About We, who has expanded to form How About We Couples, a site and app targeted to married couples and those in a committed relationship.
As we continue to share our life stories on multiple social networks, these sites now allow you to do so, without saying goodbye to the place that helped you find the love of your life. I believe this is a trend that you will see more Internet dating sites embracing.
Question: Would you set up a page to highlight your romantic journey online? Are you interested in relationship advice once you've changed your relationship status or tied the knot?
Your comments are welcome and appreciated.
Julie Spira is an online dating expert, bestselling author and CEO of Cyber-Dating Expert. As an early adopter of the Internet, Julie created her first dating profile in 1994. Today, she works with singles on the dating scene to create their irresistible dating profiles. Visit Facebook.com/CyberDatingExpert and follow @JulieSpira on Twitter.