Matt Baehr put an awesome post up asking where we draw the line on social media.
I've been thinking about this a lot lately as well. I've been trying to stay up-to-date on everything social media yet I'm slowly sinking in it all and from Matt's post, he seems to be experiencing the same dip. And we're both really into the stuff - Matt blogs and I speak (and occasionally blog) on social media - we live and breathe this stuff and we're falling in the dip.
The question then becomes how does a casual user feel about the amounts of social media available (i.e. your members). They'd be overwhelmed with it all. Your members don't care about the tool(s), they care about how it engages them and the value it provides. Yet it seems we are moving incrementally on improving the technologies by adding a new bell and/or whistle which provide little to no real value. Instead we need to focus on revolutionizing the experiences that the original tools provide.
I think the problem is there are just too many hammers that claim to be different but do a lot of the same thing, but they look really neat.
Thanks for reading,
bob
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
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4 comments:
Hey Bob-
I wrote a very similar post to yours, in that the key word is value. If people don't feel that they are getting value from the social media tools that we're making available, what's the use?
Have a good one! I'm glad I found your blog through A List Bloggers! Looks like we are talking about some similar stuff!
Best,
Bruce Hammond
http://futureassociationexec.blogspot.com
Bob -
I agree. There are way too many hammers. I know some of these sites will go away as they burn through their VC dollars and don't create revenue, and that will help. But it seems like the long tail of social media tools is getting longer and longer. I want to be able to find the most valuable tools for myself and my members, but riding the tail is getting harder and harder.
I think we're all hitting the nail on the head, it needs to be about value. Show me something that provides new and unique value, not mariginal experiences.
thanks for the comments
bob
Good thoughts. Speaking as an older professional, I think what you will find is that there will be consolidation in social networking in the years and months to come. This takes place with most technology introductions. At some point, there will be a commonly linked system so you will not have to bounce from site to site. Your ability to filter will also be enhanced. Before this happens we will need to play around with linkedin, facebook, plaxo pulse, twitter, asae groups, etc. and see what we find works best for us. Tony
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