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? (Thanks, @GiniDietrich, for the link there.)
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 have to admit to feeling the same fatigue. Just what I need, another thing to learn. Although, I am drawn by Google’s correct implementation of sharing (Circles). If those of us who are early adopters and very active in social media are groaning at the idea, I don’t think it bodes well for mass adoption by people who are purely focused on sharing with friends via their accustomed methods.
You’re right, Neicole…I was already lamenting about Stumble a year ago, and was pushed into Facebook due to pressure. So much of this is to walk the talk. I did put my foot down re Empire Avenue. Didn’t even go there. Is anyone really using Quora? Wow. Thanks for coming by!
I definitely am feeling some fatigue. We need another social network like we need a hole in the head. But there is something about G+ that is growing on me. It’s not another social network. If it ends up doing what I think it’s going to do (based on all of a week of using it), it’s going to make us more efficient with technology. We’ll still have Facebook and Twitter, but we’ll use G+ in place of email and IM and, in some cases, phone calls. Of course, it may go the way of Buzz and Wave so I’m cautiously optimistic.
I’m encouraged with your week’s worth of playing; if you think it can streamline tech for us, I’m in. Not sure I have a real invite yet; Bran was out, but I may be able to jump in to see what’s up, too. So glad you’re doing the hard work and sharing. Thank you.
Quote of the day: “No one has more time to develop yet another social network” Jayme Soulati, https://soulati.com/google-will-social-media-fall Amen!But Google’s new ceo and organization has been built to peg 2011 bonuses somewhat directly to social media success – https://searchengineland.com/report-google-ceo-page-ties-bonuses-to-social-success-reorganizes-google-mgmt-team-72197 And Google knows how to automate stuff… and how to make big heaps of profit from automation… I think that if anyone can do it, they can. So – is there a way (as Gini Deitrich says) to “make us more efficient with technology” and replace both email and IM? That’s a dream.To be successful – any new social network needs do everything that current social networks already do, and needs to do it better, faster, and use less of MY time to do it. It needs to automate, network creation and building… needs to automate friend finding, needs to automate creative content creation, content propagation, backlink building, and needs to automate effective impact-measurement-tracking.
Time will tell – but I’m glad that somebody is trying. I’d be really happy to see a 4-way uber-filter. It needs to: 1) Go out and get all the stuff I like, and 2) when I write something, contribute something, blog something or tweet something, it needs to publish an appropriate essence of that something back to each of the networks that I value. Finally 3) the uber-filter needs to slice out spammy-empty-mlm-garbage that I find no value in… and 4) help me be more effective and impactful while saving time. My blog is fun, Quora is great… I love Twitter, I’m fascinated by the blistering fiery hot intelligence and exploding creativity that constantly circles some social media… but since the universe arbitrarily limits my days to 24-hours each… I have to simplify. And … I’m not alone.
Morning, Friend John…may I use this as a guest post, please? Love this. Thank you.
Of course you can.
This is very true. There’s only so many hours in a day dedicated to online work…. can we really strike up a new friendship and give it enough time to be nurutred and grow. sure, maybe we can, but we really all do not have so much of time on our hands….some can barely keep a steady blog posting momentum. You make a great point!
Hello there, Gabriella! So great to see you here; thank you. As you’ve also stated…”some barely keep a steady blog posting momentum.” That. Is. All.
Like history that repeats itself and the pendulum that will swing back, I think that all this turbo-charged change will cycle itself through to a place where we all find the level of participation manageable, the demands realistic and the rewards great. “Some may call me a dreamer….” Cheers! Kaarina
I’m in your dream, Kaarina! X fingers.
I saw that your “nobody has time…” comment really resonated with some people I follow on Twitter. So I spent time thinking about that and I thought, well, people also said “I don’t have time to ‘tweet’ – Twitter is too time-consuming.” I think the time argument falls apart if someone sees value in doing it. I’m looking forward to finding out if I think Google+ is worth my time!
That said, I absolutely feel weary when I hear about these things. I want to hear about the new social product that makes me perk up. You know, ‘Oh hey, that will be GREAT! It will really help me do my job / learn more about x / be fun to do.’ That’s the real test. Do people feel defensive “I have no time” or do they get excited?