Whether or not Apple execs were thinking “different” with their newest scheme, or just pushed their luck a little too far, it looks like their newest creation may not be the instant hit they were expecting.

Apple’s recently announced foray into television software is pretty big news for the tech giant, but surprisingly, there’s been very little news about that whole development this week—in fact, despite the recent announcement of Apple TV, there has been a surplus of blogs, articles, critiques, and other assessments of the less-revolutionary (but more debate-worthy?) new social networking software that Apple plans to integrate with iTunes 10, called ‘Ping.’

If you haven’t heard of Ping by now, well, according to most tech critics, you aren’t missing much.  The new social sharing application, which integrates with iTunes 10.0, converts the program into a synchronous ecommerce platform and music-centric social network (of sorts).  Announced this week at the Apple iTunes/iPod event in CA (along with the new iPod Nano and iTV), Ping has ignited several discussions about the right approach to building a social network, since, as Apple has discovered, being a software giant doesn’t make for automatic social success.

Although these new features have Apple back on the tip of every tech writer’s tongue, unfortunately for architect of Ping, the vast majority of reviews have been negative…very negative.

And while the Ping slamming, of which PC World seems to be the leader, is amusing (unless you work for Apple), it isn’t really that surprising that Apple botched their first social media endeavor because, well, just ask Mark Zuckerburg—it’s hard to get a social network right (especially the first time).

Moreover, Apple isn’t the first major software company to launch a relatively unsuccessful social network—indeed, one need look no farther than Apple’s beloved rival Google for myriad examples of how not to do social networking—including Orkut, Google Wave and Google Buzz.  But ultimately, though disappointing, these Internet giants can afford flops like, well, most or all of the above.

Unfortunately, this is not a luxury that everyone aspiring to build a social network enjoys—in fact, many startups struggle immensely with the plight of creating and (more critically) monetizing such a community, especially given that the number of users a network attracts is the central driver when it comes to revenue.  Obviously, communities with paid memberships or subscription fees feel the pressure when sign-ups are few and far between, but those that operate on the paid-advertisement model feel the same pain (albeit less directly)—since really, what advertiser is willing to pay for a promotion that results in 30 impressions and 0 leads?  Indeed, with these major hurdles to overcome, the whole venture of building an online community can be very precarious.

Regrettable though Apple’s first venture into the field may be, Ping demonstrates to the rest of us several very important lessons about what works—or doesn’t work—for building an online community.  Thus, flop or not, anyone interested in social networks can learn from Ping by examining where Apple went wrong, and how to bypass the 7 network pitfalls detailed below:

1. Facebook Connect

Though this is arguably the best feature Ping has to offer, Facebook Connect is one feature commonly overlooked by online community builders.  By taking advantage of Facebook Connect you can allow your users to find and connect with their Facebook friends on your network as well, by interacting with the data made available through the Facebook API.  Additionally, integrating Facebook Connect into your community allows users to share and ‘like’ content on your network over Facebook, which can organically draw attention (and users!) to your network.  In fact, as of right now, this is probably the most exciting functionality that Ping has to offer—members can use the service to share their musical interests over Facebook (and Ping can use this exposure to broaden its user-base).

2.  Spotlight Community Conversation

If you’re not a member of Ping, the home page merely displays a short paragraph with a relatively vague description of Ping’s features (no screenshots or other glimpses of the network in use)—it’s not a very captivating home page.  Other networks, however, succeed in attracting users by featuring a live feed of member posts, which showcase the broader conversation each community fosters.  For great examples of networks that utilize this feature, check out the home page of Twitter, or the popular startup, GetGlue.

3. Have a beginner’s page

As intuitive as you believe your community to be, your goal should be to make it as completely user friendly as possible.  So, while it might seem obvious that the next step is to upload a profile picture, it never hurts to have a page for new members with recommendations on how to complete a profile and start interacting with the rest of the community.

4. Keep E-Commerce Contained

One of the biggest issues with Ping that its detractors have cited in their critiques of the service is that the central purpose of the network, social or not, is to drive sales.  This means even though Apple is marketing the community as a place to discover new music and connect with your favorite artists, it’s all built upon a promotional platform—the most fundamental user interactions within Ping are driven by purchases.  That said, it’s smart to build E-Commerce into a community, and it opens up more avenues for monetizing it, but to distinguish your community from a sales platform, devote a subsection of the network to promotional offers and vendor profiles which facilitate buying and selling over the network without alienating members that don’t want to feel pressured to make purchases.

5.  Encourage Offline Engagement

Though most of these points emphasize where Ping went wrong and how to build a better network, this is one feature that Apple absolutely got right.  While your main focus should be on driving user interactions within the network, to engage members even more, promote upcoming events and gatherings relevant to the community that take place offline to establish an even stronger sense of connection.  Ping accomplishes this by displaying the upcoming tour dates of artists that a user follows, encouraging the user to get involved outside of Ping as well.

6. Foster Interactions

Building an online community, and attracting new members is only the first half of the battle—to keep members engaged and entertained, you might need to systematically prompt specific activities to keep drawing them in.  A nice way to do this is by providing a page with some suggestions on how to get more involved and what to do! This is something that Ping struggles with because it’s really just a set of social sharing features layered on top of an application that’s central function is to generate sales.  Though one could make the argument that that is in fact how Apple monetized Ping, still one of the service’s major weaknesses is that, to a great extent, user interactivity hinges upon making iTunes purchases.  If there were more, or different ways for Ping members to share and interact, joining the Ping community would be much more appealing, at least to those of us with iOS devices.

7. All Ears

Be open and receptive to recommendations from users on how to improve the community, features and organization.  Though I personally have not heard any response from Steve Jobs to the latest wave of criticisms, it isn’t hard to imagine the Cupertino execs blowing off such commentary with a haughty retort like “don’t hold it that way.” Though Apple doesn’t exactly win the hearts and minds of consumers with such discourtesy, they can still get away with snubbing recommendations (even from within).  But that’s not a winning model for startups and fledgling online communities.  Marketers stress the value of listening to your audience, but nowhere is it more critical than in the context of a social network that should foster such conversations and encourage members to share their thoughts.

While I would expect that Apple—and Ping—will have no trouble recovering from this minor stumble, most startups can’t afford the trial and error development model.  These points should help, however, if you need to get your network off on the right foot from day one.