BC Business
BCBO-Insider-Social-Media-Future-5.jpgTony predicts that the giant mass of social media will crumble into smaller, more focused platforms.
Social media has become so big that it’s almost useless. So look for less mass and more focus in the future. Some rather spirited discussions I’ve had at various events recently have me thinking seriously about the future of social media, specifically, the big social media platforms. Of course, there are still some business people just getting aboard such things as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Some rather spirited discussions I’ve had at various events recently have me thinking seriously about the future of social media, specifically, the big social media platforms.
Of course, there are still some business people just getting aboard such things as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
But from what I’m hearing online and offline, others are starting to think about how they can get off the train. Or at least how they can better use it.
The problem with Facebook and Twitter – and to a lesser extent LinkedIn – is that they’re like the ocean that continually and relentlessly crashes on the shoreline rocks. After a while, you don’t hear the noise anymore.
Messages and discussions pour in – often thinly disguised broadcast advertising – forcing you to pick through them for something relevant. That just takes too much time. In other cases, particularly on Facebook, the ability to send instant messages is overtaken by the numbing waves of trivia or regurgitated content.
As one man said to me, “I like that I can connect with people, but do I really need to know most of this stuff, much less give a thumbs up to it? What do I care what someone did last Sunday?”
The big platforms strive to bring in millions of users, largely so they can command a huge stock price. But those very millions are making the platforms difficult to use and are subverting the original intent – a place where people can connect and hold discussions. Sort of a village agora, or marketplace where people can meet and talk about what’s happening in their business and personal lives.
These giant mass platforms have become victims of their own ability to transmit information. They have trained people to differentiate between types of information and taught them that not all information is good information. They have also taught them that information, to be good, has to be useful. If it isn’t, it’s just a hum that’s distracting and time wasting.
The “mass” has become an ass with whom we no longer want to spend time.
I believe you’re going to see a big drop off in use of these mass platforms soon. People may remain on them, and dip into them occasionally to see what’s happening. But they won’t spend hours on them like they used to. Skimming your mass social media will become just another task in your daily life (if it hasn’t already).
In place of these giant platforms, I think we’re going to see organizations creating their own private social media platforms, to which you’ll be invited. They’ll be tools, more like wikis or what they used to call virtual private networks.
For example, one organization that has several divisions told me it’s going to form its own customer communities related specifically to subjects that it covers. Instead of simply trying to use a LinkedIn group or a Facebook page as a community discussion situation, it’s going to create its own platforms with lots of content and discussion for its specialized interest groups.
This won’t be a newsletter or any of those old-school iterations. In fact, it’s probably where social media is headed.
Look for a decreasing use of the mass, and a splintering off of social media that’s more focused on specific subjects or interests.