We often forget the Internet as we know it is less than thirty years old and many of the social media tools we use have been around for less than five.
In such a new field, we’re all learning and experimenting which means some tools become essential while others are recognised as yesterday’s shiny toys.
As the depth of the name wars and the related privacy issues become apparent, it’s worthwhile re-evaluating how we use these services. Here’s how I’m now using some of the online social media platforms.
Foursquare
I quite like Foursquare, the idea of knowing which friends are nearby when you’re out on the town is great. But as someone who has a dismal social life, it was wasted on me.
The gamification angle is interesting, but the privacy implications of the service make me uneasy. I’ve stopped checking in and will probably close down my account pretty soon.
Empire Avenue
As a sociological experiment on the rampant egos and deep insecurities of the social media community, Empire Avenue is wonderful. Otherwise, it’s just another spammy online application trying to harvest personal information – I came, I saw, I decided life was too short.
Quora
On first glance, Quora looked good, but the changing of posts by moderators concerned me, the cliqueiness of users was the killer and I closed my account. I suspect Google Plus will kill this platform.
Google Plus
Apart from being a Quora killer and having some interesting collaboration feature, there doesn’t seem to be a compelling reason to use Google Plus instead of Facebook.
While it’s in its early days, I’m finding it less than compelling while Eric Schmidt’s claim it is an identity service rather than a social media platform deeply unsettles me and makes me less likely to engage in conversations on the service.
When Facebook first became available I was intrigued as able to connect with relatives along with past and present friends always struck me as being one of the Internet’s killer apps. As various business features evolved, it was clear Facebook was a serious online tool.
The problem with Facebook has been the way strangers become friends, not to mention how acquaintances and relatives have a habit of posting private things you don’t particularly care to know about, along with the wave of invites to games and applications that come and go.
Overall, I’ve been using Facebook for business purposes rather than sharing private information for nearly two years now. That works, but it isn’t the intended use and I’m probably not getting the maximum benefit although I am preserving some modest degree of privacy.
As a means to establish your professional credibility, LinkedIn is unbeatable. For those with a lot of time, the various professional LinkedIn groups can be a valuable way to show your industry knowledge.
One thing that surprises me is how many people notice your status changes so it is certainly a good way of keeping your business network up to date with what you are doing.
The concern with LinkedIn is similar to Facebook and Google Plus in that there’s a lot of market intelligence being gathered on our professional networks and the recent attempt to ‘enhance’ social advertising around our online personas does not fill me with confidence that LinkedIn is the best platform to be displaying our professional abilities.
I’ve had a turbulent relationship with Twitter and it took me three attempts to really see the point. I’m still careful about what I post and who I follow.
However Twitter has become my main news source and I find it keeps me ahead of the major media outlets. For this reason alone, Twitter has become the social media service I use the most.
What occurs to me in writing this is that these social media tools are really about listening, not talking or marketing. Perhaps that is the point we’re missing in the noise generated by these services, that listening is where the real power lies in these online platforms.
The six tools I’ve listed are just a small subset of a massive range of social media services, I’d be interested in hearing which ones you find useful and why.
We have a lot in common in how we use SM, Paul. Other than FourSquare. I refuse to post anything about my location because I can’t avoid to feeling that it isn’t safe nor private. Other than that… Google+ is still a mystery to me. Not quite what to do with it, but why. I’ve managed to fine-tune Facebook using privacy settings and preferences so that I get 99% relevant information. Also, I’m only friends with people I’ve had some sort of a long-term relationship with, online or off. I use it almost exclusively to keep in touch with people. I’ve lived in four countries now and it’s impossible to keep track of what everyone’s doing without Facebook. I love Twitter for the same reasons you do—news, networking, and listening. I’m also on Tumblr and StumbleUpon but I can’t find enough time to use them properly… something has to go, I guess. I haven’t heard of the quotation that Google+ is an identity service yet. That’s a little problematic. Will have to look it up.
Thanks for the comments Mike and Evgenia, it’s interesting that we’re all suffering from social media overload – we just don’t have enough time in the day to explore all of these tools.
Hey Paul, my perspective is that I’ve reached the saturation point with SM & this will be the issue for potential new entrants. I’m happy to use Facebook for personal usage, mainly for sharing experiences with family and close friends. Twitter & LinkedIn I use as business tools. I use FourSquare but I think I’m more into the ‘game’ aspect than anything else. Google+, Plaxo and others I just don’t have the time for & I can’t see the benefit in shifting from one to the other. I think the reality is that Facebook will add any new features that a potential competitor creates to try and differenatiate. I just signed up for tumblr but that was more from a research prespective because Nielsen research says tumblr is gaining lots of new users.
Hi Paul, great post, was going to retweet it, but couldn’t find it again in Hootsuite.
I agree there is some form of social media overload, though I’m positive this can still be addressed through technical tools, integration and training.
Over the last 2 years media coverage has changed 180 degrees from “Twitter is a waste of time” to “This is what people said on Twitter about it” and it is now a given to have at least one social media outlet on your website, probably 4 if your company is slightly larger. These 4 are always the same: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Youtube.
I therefore see minimal scope for other social media outlets unless they really re-invent how something is done. I thought Foursquare might go somewhere, but then again its clear the 4 big ones are going to enable that functionality to compete quite easily.
With the main social media outlets being so dominant, for me it becomes a cautious approach to “publicly” join another social network – if I don’t join it publicly, there is no point. I have to send the message: “This is good, come there with me [and divide up some time you allocated to other social networks I invites you to]”) and keeping some professional integrity I’ll be quite cautious about this message.
As background:
Summing up my personal experience:
– Facebook: Reserved for personal interactions, especially as I am an around the world migrant
– Linkedin: Great for keeping in touch with a wider professional network and get intelligence on the people in the network. Great for recruitment. Am heavy and paying user
– Twitter: Love the succinctness. Use heavily for news filtering, Email newsletter replacement and networking with techies
– Xing: Using it the same way as Linkedin in the german speaking market, but IMO will not survive, unless they make drastic changes.
– Ecademy, Plaxo: Would consider the same way for American market, but probably won’t survive Linkedin, so why bother
– Posterous: Love it, but functionality could easily be provided by other networks, for example on Linkedin Company page
– Stackoverflow/ Exchange: Love it, but not convinced this is social networking, maybe just Forums 2.0
Paul I see you have a low tolerance level 😉 I loved Quora – perhaps the idea of it mostly – when I first joined. I liked that here was a platform where people who really knew what they were talking about were available to answer good questions, in extensive and valuable responses.
Then the Facebookers discovered it and I have not spent too much time there recently mostly because I don’t remember to and there is no real prompt sent to remind us to visit.
4sq is out for me I still use a dumbphone but I am not keen on sharing where I am though I can see merit in seeing where other people are 😉 But I have to say I am very pleased that those I follow who do use it have largely stopped broadcasting their location and mercifully, details about every cake or meal they have.
Empire Avenue is a different experience and I’m not entirely sure what function it serves but in a strange way it is interesting to see people you never met before and some you know well, putting their money (virtual though it may be) where their mouth is and in a real way showing support. A game thought it be, I’d have to say there is often less show of support on other platforms. Empire Avenue is a very good way to see Who Are The Reciprocators. And who are not. Now I have a few theories on reciprocation and frankly think the myth perpetuated by Robert Cialdini needs to be debunked.
FB I have personal page and business page. To me business is just part of the range of interests that I have personally and little personal interest in playing games so I have all those apps blocked. I found FB lost much usefulness to me when they changed the way that links posted on our business page were handled on Twitter. I find the changes on how content is displayes, and the changes to this every other week to be against the user interests and is rapidly getting to the Too Hard – Can’t Be Bothered stage.
Google+ feels like home. I am not using it a lot yet but I find it (Like Quora in the early days) to be filled with a lot of interesting smart people who are sharing stuff that I often find interesting and so far few bots and spammers(though I have seen a couple in recent days. I see G+ getting more and more useful to me.