Marketing BLOG
Will Social Media Become Less Social?
November 9th, 2009
This visual is the 1st in a series inspired by David Armano’s Six Social Media Trends for 2010.
Will social media become less social? Filtering has already become an essential part of social media listening – With so much social noise, you have to be able to fine tune the signals in order to gain some value.
To some degree I think features like Twitter Lists and tools like Tweetdeck (with their ability to streamline conversations) help make us more social. Fewer, more meaningful social network connections may actually result in all of us becoming more engaged.
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November 9th, 2009 at 10:07 am
I really like the graphics you produce, but when I first looked at this one, I interpreted it to mean that the individual didn’t want any conversations with women. It’s clearly not about this, but the graphic could give that impression.
November 9th, 2009 at 10:44 am
Hi Paul – Definitely not my intention to give the impression that women would be excluded in social media conversations. In this image the pink, orange and green figures that represent filtered groups or lists happen to be male icons – I didn’t really think about it (but maybe I should have). Thanks for pointing it out.
November 11th, 2009 at 9:54 am
My thought on this is “no” social media is not becoming less social. The social part is just getting started. The question is really about bandwidth and the ability of human beings to connect and absorb information.
A Chris Brogan or Guy Kawasaki can only connect with so many people in a day. They might be a little more organized than most but the reality is there is only so much one person can do. Rather than try to join an exclusive club (which is very old school by the way) today I can start my own.
The social web is just getting started with many exciting years ahead.
November 11th, 2009 at 10:53 am
@Kevin – Thanks for the comments. As social media evolves, I feel the tools and services being developed will enrich our experience and help us become more social by making it easier to find relevant conversations (fine tune the signals, so to speak). Great point about exclusivity and trying to join a club…there’s nothing more social than being able to start your own social network!