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RSSIt seems more and more people are suffering from social network fatigue, which I'm now coining socialnetworkitis. On recall, here's a sampling of the Web services -- broadly defined -- contributing to my own bout with socialnetworkits:
- First, my work and personal email accounts. Yes, in fact, these are perhaps my most important online social networks, and certainly the ones I'm most active in. This is where much of my business and personal life gets carried out. Dreadfully, it's where spammers are most successful in reaching and annoying me.
- After email, there's Trillian, an instant message aggregator, which connects most - but not all - of my IM services into one.
- Then there's Skype, the Internet telephony service, which doubles as an instant-message and video-conferencing service.
- Next is my company's Salesforce.com CRM system, where I receive a nonstop flow of communications and activities from other employee members.
- Then there's my personal blog, which has hundreds registered and subscribed via RSS and email. And there's a subset of users who comment and interact with me.
- And integrated with blog is my Twitter microblogging network, where I post mini-updates and pictures throughout my day, often through my mobile phone.
- Also integrated into my blog is MyBlogLog, a service which tracks its members and then automatically creates networks based on which blogs they visit.
- Flickr is another important social network, whose core is a photo-storage and sharing site. I integrate Flickr into at least five other social-network services mentioned here.
- In the video department, I dabble in Sharkle, Revver and the mammoth YouYube.
- I sometimes get sucked into an occasional story on Digg, the social news aggregator, and support friends campaigning to get voted on the front page.
- Facebook has been a pretty active place for my social set as of late, having connected me with old friends, colleagues and interested acquaintances. And the social networking applications building on top are growing exponentially.
- LinkedIn has been an interesting way to connect with peers in my industry.
- Of course, I'm a registered member of MediaPost, which enables me to access other members and comment on columns, including my own.
I'm going to stop because I'm making myself dizzy. To be sure, online social networks will rise in importance and become integrated into our lives far beyond what we can imagine. But this brief recall exercise underscores that too many social-network services tend to be clunky media destinations, requiring too much intention, focused navigation and maintenance. There's only so much of my attention and effort to go around, yet still great hunger for value.
How will online social networks evolve? Already, we're seeing that the most successful ones are often those that enable preexisting networks of people to pursue their networks' objectives more easily. While that trait will continue , I believe the more successful social networks will be those we take for granted because they elegantly fall into the background while still creating value. Many will even become as utilitarian as search, where the objective is not to hang out and spend time, but to connect, transact and get the heck out. Some social networks will even travel with us wherever we go, and be present when we need them -- versus us going to them. The best ones will be open and compliant with one another, for often the best way to deliver value is to direct someone somewhere else. Google figured that out, for heaven's sake!
Of course, this evolution will require new business models. While huge scale may be out of reach for some time, social-network services must experiment and collaborate with marketers to identify new ways of connecting with consumers, while concurrently benefiting them. It's clear that today's media frameworks of advertising impressions by the tonnage are not the best answer.
Whatever becomes the future of social networks, I sure hope it includes a cure for socialnetworkitis.
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Personally, I've had to pick and choose what I get involved with. What is its value for me as a networking tool? Can it help me get more clients? Is it strictly social? Am I building reputation or influence from my involvement in these places? These are good, solid questions that anyone might want to consider asking themselves...
The other piece of fallout from all these networks is multiple searchable profiles. These need to be tracked regularly--sometimes just to make sure that the info about our selves is congruent. Do we leave more info on one profile than another because we think it won't be searched? Having one too many profiles and places can make this kind of "personal brand management" difficult to do regularly.
Essentially, it all comes down to what each of us needs. And that can be as individual as social networks themselves.
I enjoy all of your articles. I wanted to comment on "I believe the more successful social networks will be those we take for granted because they elegantly fall into the background while still creating value. Many will even become as utilitarian as search, where the objective is not to hang out and spend time, but to connect, transact and get the heck out. "
In June we launched www.ojeez.com which connects you to other entrepreneurs, gives you all the tools you need to build a successful entrepreneurial business (transact) and gets you out. I agree with your thoughts as we are over 15,500 members with zero marketing. We started with a dozen friends and it grew from there. When you create enough value, like your article, it grows without the big budgets.
Thanks! Jim Lupkin jim@ojeez.com
Also software will evolve to filter down the content to a more desirable level. We will all need our own customized search engines to prioritize updates according to our preferences.
p.s. my new social network is my blog about, you guessed it: Social Networking! http://thedurwinreport.ning.com
Ps..How do you relieve symptoms?
I think that's the key to surviving socialnetworkitis.
What's Trillian? :-)
Examples: web-app: SiloSync - http://silosync.com/wiki offline: CloudTripper - http://cloudtripper.org
Search for "opening the social graph" for way more information about this than you can read.