Interesting post by Jon Worth (of EU fame) on the breakdown or gradual bio-degradation of FaceBook.
I think the fundamental premise is very true, that FB communications have become degraded due to the sheer volume of often unimportant traffic. How to sort the wheat from the chaff?
Worth a read:
Good post and certainly worth a mention.
I think Facebook’s popularity has peaked and I think that it now going into decline. For instance, Bebo, which sold for €400m in 2008 is now about to be closed down.
Social networking sites are proving to have very short life spans. So much so that they are comparable to fashion trends. The next popular social networking site is nothing more than a fad – but that doesn’t mean that fads are bad or useless. Social networking websites’ business models aren’t flawed.
Successful social networking websites have proved that you can attract millions of followers onto one service in a relatively short period of time. This is a very valuable asset shared by all popular social media websites.
Yesterday it was baggy jeans, today its skinny jeans, tomorrow it’ll be ripped jeans. But it’s still jeans. This is how I see social networking websites operating. Don’t get too emotional if Facebook fails, there will be another one to replace it.
Millions of people like wearing jeans, similarly, the key thing here is that millions of people like being online.
Yes, an interesting one. (Nice jeans analogy too)
Social media is absolutely huge and is only getting bigger. The problem is they are fads, like Conor says, so they will suffer from fatigue. It works the same way as any fad – you join a networking group (Facebook, Bebo, whatever) and for the first couple of months you log on every day you can, sometimes more. Then, once you’ve linked up with everyone you know and you’ve found all the school/college/work buddies you ever met and caught up with them, you’re stuck with what to do next.
I’m not surprised that the original poster found it hard to organise a lunch/night out. People simply become tired of the “new fad” and do something else, or simply don’t check in as much as they used to. It’s like when you got a new record when you were young (OK, when I was young!) – you listened to it a million times during the days immediately after you got it, but pretty soon you stopped listening altogether – only occasionally taking it out for a spin on nostalgic occasions…
The trick with social networking is for users or businesses who want to benefit from it is to be willing to keep moving constantly from one fad to the next, never stopping to worry too much about putting too much effort into keeping it going and trying to stay ahead of the game. As long as you realise that, you’ll never be disappointed. There is always something new coming along…
On a professional level, I find LinkedIn very good, but even now its becoming more of a blog-hosting site than a networking one. Sure, there are lots of jobs etc. being posted, but again, once you’ve “linked” with someone, there’s little you can do from then on. However, here’s where LinkedIn’s strength lies, in my view – Because its becoming a site to host discussions across a wealth of spheres, it can have a much longer existence – an umbrella-like role if you will. People will be able to dip in and out of it (Like I’m doing here today) and use it when they want. Strength of numbers will keep it going.
Keep clicking the mouse – its here to stay!
I agree James. Seems ‘open’ platforms like FB, Twitter, etc, have a cycle in which they become victims of their own success! Essentially many, for their own reasons, seeking to be heard above the general din & feeling the best way is to shout louder than everyone else! Sounds familiar! Solutions? I think people just move away from it when it becomes less relevant & other channels evolve – the cycle repeats itself!