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The End of Social Media 1.0

The debut of a series introducing The End of Business as Usual

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I would like to talk about an inflection point in social media that requires pause. I am not suggesting that there will be a social media 2.0 or 3.0 for that matter. Nor do I see the term social media departing our vocabulary any time soon. After all, it was recently added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary.  Instead, what I would like to discuss is the end of an era of social media that will force the industry to mature. It won’t happen on its own however. Evolution will occur because consumers demand it and also because you’re willing to stake your job on it.

From Social Network Fatigue to Deals Fatigue to Follow Fatigue, businesses are facing a crossroads at the intersection of social and media. Following the path of media continues a long tradition of what Tom Foremski refers to as “Social Media as Corporate Media.” Following the path of social is a journey towards relevance.

As Foremski states, “Social media is not corporate media…if corporations try to turn social media into a corporate sales or marketing channel then they risk losing the naked conversations, and the insight into customer behaviors.”

His point is that there’s more to social media than clever campaigns and rudimentary conversations. Talking isn’t the only thing that makes social media social. Just like adding Facebook, Twitter and other sharing buttons will not magically transform static content into shareable experiences. Listening, learning and adapting is where the real value of social media will show its true colors.  Listening leads to a more informed business. Engagement unlocks empathy and innovation. But it is action and adaptation that leads to relevance. And, it never ends.

Indeed, there really are more examples of media than there are that of social media in many of the celebrated examples out there today. Even though distributing corporate media in social channels sets the stage for dialogue, there really isn’t much that’s social about it. In fact, study of many social media initiatives have led me to believe that much of what we benchmark against is actually anti-social in its approach.

The future of social media comes down to one word, “value.” Without it, businesses will find it much more difficult to earn and retain friends, fans and followers (3F’s). As adoption of social networks soared in previous years, growth is now plateauing.  eMarketer estimates that Facebook growth will hit only 13.4% this year after experiencing 38.6% acceleration in 2010 and a staggering 90.3% ascension the year before. Facebook isn’t alone in its sobriety either. The  rate of Twitter user adoption fell from 293.1% growth in 2009 to 26.3% this year.

Don’t get me wrong, people are still embracing social networks. However, the severity of competition for consumer attention is now unmistakable. Once liberal with their likes, Retweets, and follows, consumers are becoming much more guarded and realistic. Therefore brands will now have to more effectively listen to markets to make more informed decisions about how social media impacts the enterprise and in turn customer experiences.

The GlobalWebIndex “Wave 5 Trends” report delivers insight into how consumers are using social networks and technology in general.  According to the report, growth in social network usage among 16- to 24-year-olds in the US is stalling. And, in a few countries usage within this group is declining. In fact, one of the key insights shared in the report is subduing, “Facebook is no longer the one stop shop for the total internet experience.”

However, the report is not a harbinger of social networking’s demise. It is merely a lens into how behavior is changing. This is important for any business to realize that business as usual in social networks is in fact anything but.

Between June 2009 and June 2011, the following changes were noted in Facebook activity:

– Uploading videos is experiencing a modest increase around the world up 5% in the U.S. and 7.6% worldwide.

– Installing apps is on the decline, down 10.4% in the U.S. and 3.1% worldwide.

– Sending virtual gifts may not be gifts worth giving after all, with numbers declining 12.9% in the U.S. and 7.5% around the world.

Twitter on the other hand is a rich exchange for  information commerce, where links become a form of digital currency. For example, 45% share an opinion about a product or brand more than once per day. Another 34% of Twitter users also share a link about a product or brand more than once per day.

When asked what consumers want from brands, knowledge and entertainment soared to the top of the list. Additionally, The GlobalWebIndex Wave 5 Trends report tells us that online consumers want brands to provide services that fit with their lifestyle. They also want brands to listen to them.

What can we learn of this?

1) Businesses must first realize that there’s more to social media than just managing an active presence, driven by an active editorial calendar. Listening is key and within each conversation lies a clue to earn relevance and ultimately establish leadership.

2) Consumers want to be heard. Social media will have to break free form the grips of marketing in order to truly socialize the enterprise to listen, engage, learn, and adapt. You can’t create a social business if the business is not designed to be customer-centric from the outside-in and the inside-out.

3) Social media becomes an extension of active listening and engagement. Strategies, programs, and content are derivative of insights, catalysts for innovation, and messengers of value. More importantly, social media becomes a platform for the brand and the functions that consumers deem mandatory. From marketing to HR to service to R&D, brands will expand the role they play in social networking to make the acts of following and sharing an investment in a more meaningful relationship.

The end of Social Media 1.0 is the beginning of a new era of business, consumer engagement, and relevance.

#AdaptOrDie

The End of Business as Usual will be available in the coming weeks. You can pre-order now at Amazon | Barnes and Noble | 800CEOREAD.

Part 1 – Digital Darwinism, Who’s Next
Part 2 – Social Media’s Impending Flood of Customer Unlikes and Unfollows
Part 3 – Social Media Customer Service is a Failure

129 COMMENTS ON THIS POST To “The End of Social Media 1.0”

  1. Pc says:

    Brian, I love how you think and write. I guess I’ll have to admit that I’m your “fan girl” 😉

    Seriously, your insights help keep “us” on the path to a higher level of social media consciousness. I always learn something or am reminded that I am on the right path when those around me may have caused ms to second guess myself.
    Thank you! 🙂

  2. MikeGrace says:

    Completely agree. When I see companies or brands asking me to “like” them on facebook, I often asked myself “why?! How is that going to help me?”.

  3. Joseph Manna says:

    It always comes down to value and being intentional about the purpose of the Like/Follow/Circle. So many of these brands are still chasing numbers, not interactions. Good for them; the free market will teach them when they have 0.001% response rate to their messages. 

    Brands should be valuable and not just out to promote themselves, but instead, discover and lead their community around their industry. I grow tired (and surely, everyone else too) of the same tactics in use by all the brands to get fans, followers. This fatigue is felt by the industry as a whole when we have to claw each other to get the attention of someone.  I can go on for days about this, but I think you said it best, Brian. Hope these brands wake up and realize they much be strategic in order to capitalize on their social media investments and adequately serve their prospects, customers and the industry as a whole. 

  4. Nazamova says:

    Spot on post. I have been involved in Enterprise Social Media for several years and the biggest obstacle I face everyday is how companies are just using FB, their own blog posts and the like as yet another web page.  There is little to no engagement with others.  There really is nothing social about it other than the platform being used. Enterprise keeps talking but they rarely listen or participate in dialogue that is not on their own website.  When you go to a party you usually enter the room, introduce yourself to some guests, listen to the conversation they have going and at the right time you start to add your input and insight to the group topic. ENT SoMe is the guest who comes to the party, sits in the corner alone and just starts talking.  It’s awkward, ugly and no one wants to go over to that guy and join the one-man diatribe.  Sadly, by the time ENT SoMe gets it fully, the next generation will be on to something else.

    • Dave Doolin says:

      “There is little to no engagement with others.  There really is nothing social about it other than the platform being used.”
      This is exactly why I’ve disengaged from all my social media properties  (FB, Twitter) for a while: not enough time in my day to maintain an engaging presence… given my current business model. I’m well aware of what that indicates about my current business model. When it’s obvious nobody is home, who cares about that? Better for me to take a sabbatical, better learn my customers and my marketing, then engage and re-engage. When I’m on fire for it!

    • Ann Swanson says:

      The tough thing about social is:  It’s a lot of work!  Being social means talking and listening.  It is work to pay attention so personally, among so many networks.  If you are going to do social you have to be social.

  5. NEENZ says:

    From my observations, part of the cause of the problems for companies are their hired marketer, agencies, and PR-turned-social-media-marketers. They’re getting bum advice, from people that know how to navigate the social network, but have no idea who it “really works”. My philosophy is build an engaged and sustainable community by providing value, so that when the tools change the community will move with the company.

    • Saidkassem says:

      pigeonhole much?

    • NEENZ says:

      Nope, calling it like it is, sticking to my philosophy, and putting my name next to my words. The “social media marketer” is so common these days it’s like rats infested a park. 🙂 The industry’s early adopters may be maturing, but not everyone, including myself in some areas. For example, replying to anonymous commentors may be viewed as “feeding the trolls” something that’s so >1.0. But anyways, have a good day, do what you do, and above all be true to yourself…there’s no expiration for that. Aloha.

  6. 4byoung says:

    It was inevitable that the limits on time for both consumers and businesses would eventually change the way we are social on the web. Businesses need to give people a reason to interact with them. I would also add the current methods of measuring also lead to sloppy thinking about the types of engagement that are meaningful. Large numbers of whatever type can be hard to resist but, as you noted, it leads to treating social sites as just another broadcast channel that is just as impersonal, limiting and easily ignored as any other channel.

    Smart marketers will want to evolve quickly and act less like traditional agencies and more like consultants who provide their customers with insightful dialogue, time-saving services, and other value.

  7. Jake Thomas says:

    Brian – Can you share any examples of brands that are currently ahead of the curve and doing this already?  Great post.  Thanks.

  8. tnhomestead says:

    It must be me because I dont want a company to be social. I want them to keep information on old products so if I donate to the boy scouts or a poor kid I can get drivers and details!  I want to be able to reach the proper person to answer that oddball question on a product. I want to be able to call and complain and get it fixed like when walmart ripped me off for 200 bucks last year! I dont have time to read all the facebook posts from audi or kmart or proctor & gamble, I dont have time to find the 10 posts I want buried in 300 posts from farmville! And the tweets i would like are buried in 200 tweets about weather and coffee! Instead of social, give me a good product that works!

  9. briansolis says:

    Thanks Dennis, well written post. I agree with you on the IT front. I also really enjoyed this…”Let’s stop talking about ‘social business’ as if it were some sort of change in how organizations behave.”

  10. lance says:

    What a boring business you guys are in.  Blah blah blah. 

  11. It’s funny how marketers are targetted as the bad guys in this “not so social corporate media” issue. I think that marketing is the science of listening to customer in order to offer them what they need and really want. Pushing advertising has never been a marketing activity but an advertising activity which most of the time is driven by non marketer. This is a mega problem with the marketer professsion, everyone claims to be a marketer as soon as they have “marketing” in their title. Social Medias have brought some much possibilities in redefining client relationship. A marketer that ignores it, is really anything but a marketer.

    PS Sorry for my english…I do my best as a french speaking real “marketer”.

  12. Madeline says:

    I completely agree with your post. Businesses forget that these channels are not called ‘social’ networking sites for no reason. You have to remember if you’re just pushing out messages without engaging with your fans or followers it doesn’t reflect well on your company.

  13. Elias Shams says:

    Here is my 2cents on all of them. It’s all about the Pee Pee 🙂

    Twitter:I need to pee pee!
    Facebook:I pee peed!
    Foursquare: I’m pee peeing here
    Quora:Why am I pee peeing?
    Youtube:Watch this pee pee!
    LinkedIn:I pee pee well
    New myspace: let’s dance while pee peeing!
    Google+:Let’s all pee pee in a circle
    http://awesomize.me: HOW AWESOME DO I PEE PEE on Twitter, FB, Foursquare, Quora, youtube,
    LinkedIn, myspace and Google+

  14. Elias Shams says:

    Here is my 2cents on all of them. It’s all about the Pee Pee 🙂

    Twitter:I need to pee pee!
    Facebook:I pee peed!
    Foursquare: I’m pee peeing here
    Quora:Why am I pee peeing?
    Youtube:Watch this pee pee!
    LinkedIn:I pee pee well
    New myspace: let’s dance while pee peeing!
    Google+:Let’s all pee pee in a circle
    http://awesomize.me: HOW AWESOME DO I PEE PEE on Twitter, FB, Foursquare, Quora, youtube,
    LinkedIn, myspace and Google+

  15. Anonymous says:

    If I haven’t read until that last sentence, I would have said that this claim is big… But, coming from one of the respected names in social media marketing, I’d say this gives everyone something to think about.  I love your insights here, especially on the part where ‘..Social media becomes an extension of active listening and engagement.’  That being said, I think there’s no harm automating posts so long as you do it responsibly and it must give you more time to engage with your peers instead.  For me, I go for 80/20- as in 80% conversation and 20% automation.  If businesses are failing to turn social media into corporate media, it’s odd how ordinary citizens are turning it into a catalyst of change, like what happened to Egypt and so on… or is it?

  16. jaybaer says:

    Exactly right. We won’t be able to rely upon breakneck growth to sustain social media “wins” much longer. We’ll have to actually sharpen the pencil, get creative, and most of all get RELEVANT to customers and prospects to be successful. The days of showing up to the party and #winning because you were early, or because you had a noteworthy brand are coming to a close. Makes my job as a social strategist harder, but it’s a healthy development for the industry when the wheat gets separated from the chaff. Same thing happened in Web dev. Same thing happened in email. Same thing happened in SEO. We’ve seen this movie before, and we know how it ends: the rich get richer because they invest in sound, contextually appropriate, LONG-TERM programs that make sense. 

    • Jay,

      You make a really excellent point. Establishing an engagement strategy based on listening to consumers requires a long-term commitment.  We’re moving beyond simply monitoring for mentions and measuring likes to one where, as @briansolis:disqus  mentions, that is centered on value. And that value is what is defined by consumer.

      Thanks!

    • Bridget says:

      Well said.  We need to go back to the fundamentals of asking ourselves not what’s in it for us, but what’s in it for our potential clients.  Only then can we develop fruitful relationships with them.

  17. Marius Ciortea says:

    Well said. However there are people stuck at companies that are not customer-centric and still being asked to execute Social Media activities. Poor souls.

  18. Beth Kanter says:

    Yes, spot on and for non-profit, social causes too.  It isn’t about flashy or cute campaigns, it’s about showing how the integrated use of social media really impacts on the ground social change …. it means that on the nonprofit side that Facebook likes are no longer a victory – but the question is what’s the change that we are seeing as result?  What are our key results and outcomes?  And that requires ninja skills in measurement and learning.  I’m not talking about counting noses or beans or in the nonprofit sector – heads and beds.  I’m talking about being intentional about results, picking real indicators that show you’ve been successful or not – and reflecting, improving, and adapting.      

    Working with nonprofits – we look at the a “Theory of Change” – a series of if/then statements that takes us from the big impactful social change results to what we’re doing to measure and make that change happen.

    • Beth Kanter says:

      PS thanks for a thought provoking post and have just ordered the book

    • briansolis says:

      Beth, first of all…you are one of the wisest voices in the industry. You and I both know that evolution is for the benefit of consumers and organizations. The “Theory of Change” is indeed the manifesto most businesses should operate against. BTW, if you’re still in P.A., please send an email as I would love to catch up with you about an idea I have.

    • Nick Martin says:

      I completely agree with everything you said here. The issue I repeatedly run into is that when you get down to putting a process in place to measure the things you should be impacting you find that the most valuable things are hard to track. For instance, influencer engagement (depending on the type of influencer mind you) may result in conversions. Even if the conversions come as a direct result of the engagement (I convert the influencer and they go on to convert a customer) there isn’t a clear way to mark that as a win. At least, not with any tools that I have at my disposal. Maybe a robust SCRM solution would help, but that’s not feasible on a startup budget.

  19. TonyZambito says:

    Hello Brian,

    Very thought provoking article.  I agree with the premises you make and believe that businesses today must address how they design their organizational structure to support a social business strategy.  A big issue today is that businesses are still organized in the conventional push model and are not set up for listening and engaging.  Thus, you have a silo like Marketing who will hang on to social media to own for dear life – for in the old structure of push – owning is power and agenda building.  So unless organizations adapt and restructure to be listening and engaging, the relevancy of social media will be stuck at 1.0.  Nicely done Brian!

    Tony Zambito

    • Couldn’t agree more Tony. Good news from my world as a contact center that supports many major CPG and Pharma companies is that I have seen some evidence recently that marketing is starting to understand the need to share the Social Pie. We find ourselves partnering with marketing, their agencies and consumer affairs where we work together on listening and engagement strategies. However with that said I think your point is right on and what some companies have done is defined their social business strategy without giving enough consideration to what their organizational structure should look like and what support is needed. So  as a consumer I am faced with marketing messaging that is content push focused and an inconsistent engagement strategy where when you post (as opposed to what you post) may end up being the indicator as to whether you get a response or not. This shot in the dark or randomness to engagement is opportunity lost and certainly does not leave a positive impression for the slighted consumer (even if they had liked the page).
       

  20. Perhaps that means the next generation of social monitoring software will provide something more sophisticated than Boolean search.

  21. Interesting thought…

  22. Ken Troupe says:

    I really enjoyed your article and it was dead on. I have
    always thought that using social media well is listening and organically
    growing long lasting relationships between the consumer and the brand.

  23. Ann Swanson says:

    Brian, thanks for an astute post.  I think the issue of too many choices is a theme for consideration during any new media experience.  Limiting choices – or rather finding the sweet spot for choices – has big payoffs in every aspect of business (and child rearing for that matter).  How do we help our customers choose efficiently?  We have to give the best number of the best choices. 

  24. Grant Leboff says:

    “The future of social media comes down to one word, value”. Brian, I couldn’t agree more. In my book Sticky Marketing I highlight this point. Traditional outbound marketing ‘worked’ because in a world where information was relatively scarce, consumers found receiving the information ‘valuable’. Of course, today, traditional outbound marketing has lost much of this value as we all have information which can be accessed 24/7, at our time of choosing. What many companies are struggling to understand is how they can engage and provide value within a social context. In answer to this we introduced a matrix called Problem Maps which allows companies to understand the value around their core offering. This in turn provides them with insights into how they can provide value and engage with their potential customer in the social media environment.

  25. Darren Moore says:

    You hit the nail on the head Brian!  Businesses to listen to the consumer and take action.  Also what is the added value to the customer/client? Take off the blinders – pay attention – then take action.

  26. This is just another demonstration of why it’s so important to truly care what your customers are saying and why, instead of just paying them lip service.

    Thanks for the great post! I can always count on you for an interesting, well thought out and relevant article.

  27. Social media is in the end of growth stage of life cycle. Then comes maturity stage and then comes the decline. Mny websites like myspace and orkut by google is in decline stage. New enhancements with new features would prolong maturity stage. Here is an interesting article http://www.twitterblogpost.com/google-facebook-killer/

  28. Lace Llanora says:

    Thought-provoking post indeed. I’ve been conversing about this situation with fellow bloggers, when the audience is saturated with likes and follows, brands on the other hand will realize they’ve got to put a halt in putting up prizes on Facebook. Some may have neglected developing and innovating on their own web properties (i.e. their websites and blogs) in exchange of these micro-sharing platforms. But to offer more value to your audience, that web property is important where you have the liberty to publish relevant valuable content, more than 140 characters.

    I agree with @jasonbaer:disqus and probably the lesson here is the old adage, don’t put all your eggs in one basket – and continue to innovate.

  29. very cool post! thanks a lot for sharing!

  30. David G H Phillips says:

    Brian, 
    Perhaps we are so far in the pocket of marketing that we are missing the whole point.
    Conventional marketing listens to the market place to enhance the product. It works. It brought us TQM, CRM and a host of other acronyms but is that what makes great companies great.
    Did ‘listening’ produce the iPhone or the iPad?
    Was “listening” to driver Usenet?
    Who was so brave as to make the company with the largest number of patents get most of its income from open source – at IBM.
    The list of ground breaking developments that broke the mould and led the way is long.
    Sure, after the iPad, listen to see if a copycat product can gain a slice of the market but what of the original idea?
    Like you, I am not claiming that this is the end of the world as we know it. 
    I do believe that the world is ready for the next big thing. 
    I also believe that it will be very different to our present experience.
    It will need to be able to stand on recent developments as Facebook did on web technologies.
    It will depend on creativity to really have an impact and it will be a naked conversation.

  31. richa says:

    Brian, It’s really a very nice post. Thanks for sharing!!!

  32. Pingback: 404 Not Found
  33. Beth Neibert says:

    Brian, I love it! You’re validating what I’ve been saying for a long time; social media is about being social, in other words, having relevant conversations that are engaging, add value, promotes others and requires listening and adaption to stay in tune with your audience, many of whom are prospects or clients.

    I’ll also add that I’ve noticed an alarming increase of tweets that have nothing more than a list of IDs and it’s expanded beyond #FollowFriday (#FF) into the rest of the week. This is a poor example of “adding value.” Providing a comment as to why you recommend the people be followed (e.g. funny, leader, or interesting tweeter), would be helpful. I realize you don’t speak to this specifically, but I welcome your thoughts and those of your readers.

    Thanks, again, Brian for another great read. Here’s to your continued success!
    ~ Beth

  34. Tom Foremski says:

    Thanks Brian. My post: “Social Media Is Not Corporate Media” hit a chord with a lot of people and people keep rediscovering it and retweeting it every few days. Listening is a really powerful activity and it’s not passive if you take action.

  35. Pingback: That’s a wrap!
  36. Social marketing works well only when a business or individual become social. For sure SM v.1 is gone. The development war between giants just starting and this is the best time to promote business through social media.

  37. TJ Ojehomon says:

    There was a time in social media, where the only reason you joined up was because it was popular. It was all on the news, your friends talked about it in daily conversations peaking your interest, and it was just fun to surf. You could find out what drama there was between friends, what everyone was doing in there pictures, and stalk the ones you had particular interest in. Now, people are starting to pull back. Social media is not just a place for mere randomness anymore. There is a method to the communication. Whether it be self-promotion, illustrating an elaborate point, or sharing the latest news with your peers. Not only that, but people are being much more careful and cautious about what they’re releasing on these social networks. Its starts to get scary when pictures that were very private show up on a mainstream site, or someone calls your phone that you’ve never met, but somehow tracked your number down through your facebook. If social media truly wants to expand in the future, then they will no longer be able to depend on those people who just join up because its the new craze. There has to be a social benefit. That’s how LinkedIn is becoming popular because it offers networking between potential customers and future careers. Step your game up!

  38. Social media are the products of two-way communications. They should be used as talking to and listening to audiences since the beginning of their births. PR people and marketers mostly focus on its talking function and neglect its listening function. Now businesses, PR people and marketers need to listen to their audiences and talk to them as well. This is not the end of Social Media 1.0, it is the return to the essence of social media.

  39. Abaya says:

    Well Google +1 options is really good and i agree this the end of Social media 1.0

  40. Media Agency says:

    Twitter is one of the fastest growing, on-the-fly social media platforms, with some 200 million users, 460 thousand new accounts daily, and 1 billion tweets a week! This medium allows you to post instant updates on almost any topic you wish, alerting all those who “follow” you closest…your most loyal “fans”, say, from Facebook or most loyal customers/clients who use your services frequently. And…it’s free!

  41. Guest says:

    Agree! Social media is a two-way communication. Just click the sharing button cannot “transform static content into shareable experiences”. Listening, learning and adapting is the key. As a PR person, we should not pay our attention only on talking. The more important thing is to listen carefully what our consumers are talking about though social media.

  42. Trek2020 says:

    I find it sad that one of the only way to get someones attention and keep it is to keep your advertisement, or statement less than eighty words. Many people are quickly losing their attention span and desire to really read into subject matter.

  43. Trek2020 says:

    I find it sad that many people do not have the attention span to read more than fifty words due to social media sites. It is as if some do not want to really take the time to read into something and get all of the details.

  44. Runner6837 says:

    “Listening, learning and adapting is where the real value of social media will show its true colors.” You make some great points in this piece. The value of social media is not in simply having a Facebook page or a Twitter feed, but rather how the company chooses to effectively utilize social media via listening, learning, and adapting. Social media is definitely two-way communication in which the benefit stems from the fact that the company can see consumer responses to products/services and then respond accordingly. Additionally consumers can see company responses; so they are effectively communicating though not geographically in the same place. 

  45. Brands and Businesses have been over sold, over hyped and over promised what Social Media can do for them. We forget everyone has finite time available. You can only engage with a few brands regularly. Good luck being one. Most tweets and most Brand page posts are seen by less than 3% of your follower/fan base. You can’t reach millions you can reach hundreds or thousands which for major brands isn’t acceptable. And the VC’s, Mashables, Social Media Agencies etc keep pumping the bullshit. With so few ‘Wins’ for social media for marketing after all this times promises are hollow and brands are rethinking spending and now see the value of TV and Paid Search is more than they thought. That their own website is much more powerful for selling than anything they will ever do on Twitter or Facebook. In fact time spent on Facebook per person per day is down over 40% since April 2010 (from Facebook’s own stats page!) And they know that 99.9% of human communication (one way and two way) take place in non-social media spaces. Word of mouth, SMS text, live phone calls, Email etc still trump Social Media for moving information around.

    So now the VC’s and Companies must step their game up or be gone. I see agencies like Vitrue and Likeable at risk of closing down. I see Social Media Rock Stars having to find something new or risk becoming one of the masses again. Question is where will the breakthroughs come? Who will have the technology? Do the consumers care? We already see so much advertising do we want more? Will we behave like the futurists and creatives think? Check in’s are dead. No value there. Mobile might finally evolve properly.

    I coined ‘Social Media is a revolution in interpersonal communication’ Brands are not part of this statement. If brands disappeared from social no one would care except marketers and agencies. Brands won’t even care. We want to talk with each other. Not Kraft Mac and Cheese. Not TGI Fridays. We don’t. Proof is in the data. When I look at Brand Pages when I see Twitter volumes. Rounded down engagement is zero almost always. What is next? Stay tuned.

  46. zionaetzion says:

    You certainly make some excellent points.
    *The business aspects started with the Social Media sites advertising.
    *Blogger’s getting paid to advertise.
    *Membership on Social Media Sites.
    *Authors promoting their ideas and selling their books.
    *What about all the excellent courses on SEO.
    *Courses on relationship building.
    *Courses on how to keep your man by your side.
    *Landing pages
    *Building email lists
    *How to improve engagement strategy online
    *Social Causes
    * Grass-roots Political Campaigns

    The question is how does one decide who is allowed to use this platform
    for what?
    @Howie True… naive public is being over sold about what the SM can do for one.

  47. Spot on, Brain! The key is to not forget the “social” part of social media. However, I feel somewhere the no of “likes” does influence those who are passive participants on such platforms. For them ‘online nods’ from others are pointers that the product or service is good. Perhaps audiences on such fora should be frugal with their ‘likes’. I think with FB allowing other verbs to be used by developers, words such as ‘satisfied’ will replace the like.

  48. ElvisDonofrio says:

    How about you people get real jobs instead of speculating on hyped-up garbage? Some of you sound as if you took a chance doing something you know has no substance, and are now looking for ways to reinvent the wheel over and over again, (like most start ups), and thus call yourselves “Social Strategists”, or “Social Media Experts”. Really? I don’t care what advances you think Social Media brings to peoples personal “lives”, or how can Medical companies, or Government agencies leverage Social Media better, it doesn’t do anything other than provide ONE MORE WAY in which you can communicate “something” about some “thing” to someone. You are already blessed with the ability to –  I don’t know actually TALK to someone at a business instead, AND hears the rub –  ACTUALLY get heard. Wow, what a concept! Please don’t try and confuse yourself with thinking that Social Media is changing peoples lives or the way we think about anything, as a matter of fact, it is actually WASTING peoples lives, and committing them NOT TO THINK. Many of the people here commenting sound intelligent, I think I get it – you either hate the corporate world, or feel like SocialMedia gives you a sense of freedom to be your own boss. The reality is that soon enough “Social Professionals” will fall the way of the Graphic Designer, or the more hilarious – WEBMASTER, DUN DUN DUN!!! Here’s the bottom line with Social Media, – IT’S A WASTE OF TIME FOR EVERYONE INVOLVED!!!!! And SEO nonsense?  Metadata? Tracking, e commerce algorithms? Why? Who cares. What a glorious waste of time that only says “you bought a product, and here’s another one you might like”, or “see what we matched for you”, or “how are you being found mister Dentist?” Good luck chasing dentists!!!

    • Greg B says:

      Hi Elvis!  Thanks for the laugh.  Despite the obvious spoof this entry is, there is a serious point here, that we need to make sure of two things:  We aren’t doing social media for the sake of social media, and that there really needs to be a “reverse flow”, where the social media you decide to use actually enhances your offline experiences.  Too often we are so wrapped up in what’s happening on the computer screen that we forget to look around, check the weather, go for a walk or a run, or a trip to the gym, and don’t get off our butts.  Too often, that’s just what the social media people want.  That’s everyone’s loss.

    • ElvisDonofrio says:

      Hi Greg ha ha you got me. Thanks for response. The trick is how do you enhance you offline experience using Social Media

  49. Ben Watson says:

    I too am aware of an educated and growing disenfranchisement (both from users and from marketers/businesses) as a result of people feeling a bit used and a bit more like the graph alone lacks enough focus to sustain interest.  As a business I am not selling page views, clicks or comments and even though I/we have managed to build a fair amount of those I am no longer sure we got the right ones. 

    I did an informal sit down over the summer with some ‘millenials’ to talk specifically about this.  First of all many of them said that they were tired of being pigeon-holed as always on and device-addicted.  Second they exhibited a strong awareness that their data was being used and sold and confessed to gaming their profiles on purpose.  Most importantly they said their use was dropping, in some cases to near zero, and one 17 year old went so far as to say that the new cool will be ‘not being on Facebook’.   They all laughed nervously…

    Tx for posting.  I did not Like this on Facebook. 😉 

  50. Lesliewilson01 says:

    talking about social businesses and not a word on LinkedIn. Relevant and value for both members and businesses.

  51. Social media responses are temporary. You cannot create a business solely based on social media. There is no alternative to hard core marketing, not including social media. Marketers should primarily focus on WOM marketing.

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