I saw that Olga Kharif and Molly Wood, of Businessweek and CNet, respectively, have pieces that suggest that today's public social networking services don't offer much of a reason to play.
This thread has been going on for a long time. For example, I started my retreat from the sites in February (see Opting Out Of Social Networks, which went to five nine pieces in the series, now tagged as Unlinking from Social Networks). I polled people at that time and found a lot of dissatisfaction with the services:
Looks like a sizeable number of people are sharing my ambivalence. Almost half have considered dropping out, since nothing much seems to be going on, 75% have been "socially spammed," and only 14% believe that the current features are adequate.
Molly Wood makes good case for social media (blogging) trumping the personal profile model that underlies so many social networking solutions:
It's interesting, for example, to blog about the experiences I had on a given day, but it's tedious to make sure my personal stats, favorite books, and current reading list are up-to-date. One of the reasons I think personal blogs win out over social networking is that they're inherently more personal, more inwardly focused, and a better chance to show more than a snapshot of yourself.
Well, sort of. I think the reason that blogs are simply better is that they are conversational, where SNAs are more of a telephone book experience. People's names, preferences, bios, and contacts does not make for an interesting interaction. SNAs are like begin stuck next to a really boring person at a dinner party who never asks questions, and just tells you the history of his life. Boring.
There are a lot of examples of extremely interesting social networking applications -- I love Last.fm and Flickr, for example -- and services like MySpace and SuicideGirls show the value of a deep concentration into a committed and already-existing constituency, like indie music fans or the counterculture types.
The possible big bang in social networking has not happened: no one has gained the critical mass needed to clearly demonstrate some transformative business case. What I don't understand is why haven't the obvious players tried to incorporate some elements of social networking into their solutions?
- SixApart, or other blog technology players, could include features to make the social linking that is implied by blogrolls, trackbacks, and hyperlinks more explicit, or more obviously searchable. "What is being read by those that are strongly connected to Get Real?" for example. This is sort of what Technorati and other search tools are offering, but only Deli.cio.us seems to be on a social bent, here, and even that is more focused on the tags than the taggers and their relationships.
- MSN and AOL have fiddled around with integration of the most obvious social tools -- instant messaging and blogs -- but I am waiting expectantly to see something huge come out of Google and Yahoo in this area. Google is going to launch its own Firefox-based browser, and integrating instant messaging (from Picasa?), blogging, and son-of-Orkut friend of a friend stuff should follow. Ditto with Yahoo's integration of Flickr (which was an instant messaging tool before it was a social networking photo world), including it's blogging capablities, into the Yahoo Messenger and Groups world.
When the social networking modeling and analysis becomes just one helpful element of the substrate that these next generation offerings will be built on, then we will see the true explosion in social networking use. In the meantime, leave me out.
1. Randy on June 13, 2005 12:34 PM writes...
I think that Social Network Sites as we knew them just a year ago are becoming recognized as a static conglomerate of unilateral user defined relationships. One of the attributes of the new social network will be that it is goal driven. I think that we will see activists using these systems to raise awareness, gather force, exert it and then dissipate only to rehash the same chain of events again later on based on another need or event. Ad hock networks could be a new trend.
Permalink to Comment2. Fernando Ardenghi. on June 13, 2005 04:42 PM writes...
As many Social Networking sites discovered that they will never make/earn money providing contacts,[although many marketing executives invented NEW fakes PROFILES every day to increase traffic, like: you ..... NET .... Paris Hilton] they decided to build its business model providing exlusive contents for clients / paying members (ads for target audience, blogs for members, recipes for cooking, music/songs in mp3 format at special prices for members, movies, advice about leisure activities, entertainment, news; articles about jobs, gardening, decoration, painting, cars, travel, holidays, music, movies, books, etc; online magazine about lifestyles for members only, etc), but a person who joins a Social Networking site needs quality contacts, not exclusive contents for paying members. Perhaps to not mistake REAL FRIENDS from CASUAL ACQUAINTANCES, could be the beginning of the endeavour.
Kindest Regards,
Permalink to CommentFernando Ardenghi.
Argentina.
ardenghifer@gmail.com
3. Scott Saunders on June 14, 2005 11:22 AM writes...
Your analogy of the dinner table is extremely accurate. Why come to a social setting if your not going to get any value?
The reason I come to a dinner party is so I can ask interesting questions and share my experience.
What if-- Networking sites incorporated a browser based ticker with your network included. Now I'm at the "dinner table" ( at work needing the answer to a specific question, attempting to organize a social gathering, etc.) and I’m armed with the best search engine: my network. I could ask a question to the whole network and see it roll across the ticker to my community.
Sounds like IM you say? Not really. IM communication is really based on one to one messaging. You join an SNA with the intention of joining a group, or as you put it, at the dinner table. Once you join the network you have a seat at the dinner table with questions and answers flying across your browser or portable.
The table has been set. All we need is delivery system to add value.
Scott
Permalink to Comment4. Johannes Ernst on June 15, 2005 04:48 PM writes...
Add support for the LID protocol to your blog's URL, and you are most of the way there.
http://lid.netmesh.org/
Permalink to Comment5. Richard Moross on June 21, 2005 07:58 AM writes...
A novel idea is to try networking socially OFFLINE first (it's been around for a few years) and driving people to your online content via a PleasureCard.
http://www.pleasurecards.com/
From a business pov too printing has been around for a while with an established revenue stream. An offline social networking product that compliments online social networking, photo-sharing and blogging - and that has a revenue stream, using a business model that's 500 years old. Now that's refreshing.
Kind Regards,
Richard Moross
Permalink to CommentFounder & CEO
PleasureCards
https://www.pleasurecards.com/index.php?m=profile&PEP=5MO6KS
6. Naina Redhu on June 24, 2005 02:03 PM writes...
I can understand the dissatisfaction with social networking. What I do not understand is the dissatisfaction with business networking sites - specifically LinkedIn [ http://www.linkedin.com ] and openBC [ http://www.openbc.com ]. Much has been written about social networking sites but very few articles / blog posts differentiate between the "business" and the "social".
I personally, as an avid networker on openBC [ more than 1200 professionals on my network ] and LinkedIn [ more than 450 professionals on my network ] have not only connected with "strangers" who helped me get a job, but I have also done business with professionals half-way across the globe. I have actually made money on business networking sites and know lots of others who have done the same. I have been on other social networking sites and have effectively discontinued my membership to them because they did not add any value whatsoever.
But the same is not true of Business Networking portals and the only two I know of, which deliver what they proclaim are openBC and LinkedIn.
openBC offers features unparalleled by any other portal and the contention that traditional face-to-face networking suffices for your business needs only says that you are happy living in the status quo. Why would any business that wants to grow and create a presence [ why should that onus lie only on large "MNC's"? ] limit itself to "local" potential clients when at a very nominal fee they can connect with literally anyone they want to from anywhere in the world!
I don't see why I should not.
naina[at] aside [dot] in
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