This post first appeared July 16, 2010, and what prompted me to head back through the archives to find it again was this post by Antonia Harler about Google — A Successful Road to Failure. She shares all the write ups about Google + that we all have seen. And, she hit on what I suggested a year ago — no one has more time to develop yet another social network, do we?
See if this resonates from a year ago with you…I felt pretty strongly about developing more networks a year ago; I may be less against it today, but my time is more limited. Share your thoughts!
It’s all about community, connectivity and social networking, and people are joining in droves. Apparently, 96 percent of GenY have joined a social network. The fastest-growing segment on Facebook is women 55 – 65 years old.
The more cool social networks, publishing networks, and professional networks that launch to accompany Stumble, Posterous, YouTube, Friend Feed, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN and the like, the more consumers will weary. No one has time to find friends to add to a network. Do you?
I learned today that Stumble requires a network of Stumblers who share cool sites with one another. I’m always interested in seeing cool sites, but I’ve no time to develop a network of connected Web site lovers. When I launched Friend Feed, I thought I could consolidate my social media into one platform (which I can), but it, too, wants friends to connect on the same platform and be networked. On Twitter, new followers invite me to join them on Facebook. Why? I don’t even know them.
And, that’s it.
That’s the reason social media will fall flat on its pitoot. People cannot spend eight hours a day creating community and populating it with more and more friends. There are only six degrees of separation from all of us, but seriously, folks, who has that many “friends” for real?
Not I.
I agree with you that it’s all becoming a bit confused. Millions of new sites, each doing something different or actually quite similar. Not sure it will fade off though just winners to emerge. I think Facebook will be King after a few years, its already winning and it has been very adaptive to adding new features.
You’re right, I think we’re seeing some clear leaders with Facebook and YouTube at the head of the pack. I love Twitter for various reasons, too. What it will come to is funding for these others; with YouTube owned by Google, that’s a no brainer. Wonder if Microsoft will try and snatch up Facebook? Price tag on that? It will be interesting for sure…thanks for contributing to the conversation, Francis!
But you’re not factoring in two things:
1. Human beings have an inherent nature to want to connect with others. Even introverts crave human interaction and attention, even if they don’t realize it. Social media facilitates that need in a very superficial, but often satisfying way.
2. You don’t need to spend 8 hours a day doing it. You can spend 10 minutes every couple of days on one network and, over time, built up a network of friends and trust from your community.
That’s the beauty of it. Yes, you can proactively leverage social media and focus on it. But you can also use it as you see fit or need and not make it a priority. It still works in the end.
Good discussion, though.
Like with anything new, the pack will filter the weaker links and the leaders will continue to grow and improve. I absolutely love what Twitter has done for me, and I’m sure thousands of others will agree with FB and LinkedIn. I think the trend is still on the upswing (but, I defer to you, the social media guru man!).
And, I VERY much appreciate you took some time to contribute, Jason, given your busy day with interviews. Thanks!
Hi Jayme, I think “fail” might be a bit too harsh *S*. But, it will certainly rationalize as people pick those networks they are most comfortable with and get the most value from. As Microsoft did with the desktop and Google did with search, there will be clear leaders but I do not believe that any one network can rule as they’ll never offer all the value available. What we are seeing though, is interoperability and connections between networks. Once this becomes more stable and easiter to work with, then the real powerhouses will emerge.
You’re right, Steve. We’re still on the uptick with all this and confusion among businesses is still rampant. What we need to do as professionals is continue to slice and dice the opportunity and educate through it. It really is an exciting time for we in this burgeoning field (whether you’re PR, marketing, digital or the like). As always, appreciate the help to fuel the convo!
Hey Jayme, I too suffer feelings of weariness when it comes to the plethora of available social networks. I agree with steve that the masses will probably select only a handful of networks to focus on, and the others will fall away. I just don’t think most people have the time/attention necessary to create multiple followings.
But will this make all of social media fail? I doubt it. Like Jason said, people like to connect.
Thanks for the discussion Jayme!
I don’t think all of social media will fail, just the weak players. It has created tremendous opportunity for us all, and I’d like to see it improve as a standard business practice. Thanks for coming over to contribute! Have missed your input!
I hope u not pulling a “Hitch” here.. u know.. shock and awe.. nonetheless..
I’m not sure you know this but the reason I’m commenting now is because Jason tweeted about this a few minutes ago.. I saw it on Twitter and hopped on over to see what it’s about.. so social media is far from just finding people, and I think finding people is a fundamental human trait sometimes referred to as gregariousness. It is also about finding great content. And if I found this post via Jason, imagine how may other things I find online.. in January I bought a Sanyo Xacti HD2000 from B&H Photovideo in New York (I’m South African) cos someone posted a very nice video review of the camera on Youtube..
Now ask yourself this.. what are people finding through me? In the answer to that question lies the very thing that refutes the gist of your post.. renders it fallacious.. because a long as there’ll be human beings, there’ll be a tendency to want to gather, network, hook up, tweetup, co-tweet, network socially and all that other stuff we do on social networks..
Fallacious, eh? In all the blogger courses, they say, shock sells, perhaps it was a tad of that and a tad of truism, Mr. Arthur Charles Van Wyk! Regardless, you’re correct. Why do we spend the time to create community? It’s in our nature, absolute. I value your contribution, and thanks so much. (Thanks, to Jason, too!)
I don’t have that many FRIENDS, either.
It’s all about segmentation, I think, when it comes to which community to join and how much you want to engage. Or, what you expect from those social sites.
For someone who seeks information, I’d recommend Twitter, and for someone who wants to share more personal stuff, Facebook is alw a better place (that’s when you ONLY accept people you know as friends)
To sum up, I don’t think social media will fail because (1) it’s not all about “friends” (I agree people & connections are a huge portion of those social media, but can you be friends with anyone? Don’t think so) (2) It’s also about information & insights – and I’ve gotten A LOT from them. Feel free to read my post “How to Live & Breathe Social Media” https://evelynchou.wordpress.com/2010/07/09/how-to-live-breathe-social-media/ (Your feedback is welcomed as well)
Peace. E
Hi, Evelyn…thanks for the feedback. Without Twitter, I never could’ve created the community I have, and it’s a wonderful thing. I devote more of my attention there than Facebook, and when I learn how much building another community is required on the other platforms, I have to move along and focus on only a few. Will get back to your post and comment in kind. Thanks!
every single time i go onto facebook, i add a couple of recommended people. i spend MAYBE 2-3 minutes per day. same with twitter.
you don’t need more than 10 minutes a day to build a wonderful social network. all it takes is a click of a button. it’s cultivating and maintaining that takes the work. but that is what social media is about. and…many of my online friends have become my in real life besties. so yeah…it makes this whole thing totally worth it!
Melissa! How the heck do you ONLY spend 10 minutes a day? Twitter and Facebook suck me in (because it’s so cool to chatter with folks, and I am truly learning on Twitter, too). I can get lost among the tweets for several hours on a rainy Friday morning…I agree; it’s totally worth it! Thanks for contributing.