29 June 2008
Social Media is what, now?
29/06/08 11:09 Filed in: Human Interaction
What is the value of Social Networking, Social Media in terms of getting things done (just basic gtd, not the GTD system)? I can see a value in having access to and participation in Social Media, but I wonder if there is a further point to it.
Well of course there is, I just can’t see what that point is right now. Something will grow in the soil of Social Media. But right now, there are conversations flying concerning the financial (yes, it always comes down to that) practicalities of the medium. The purpose of a retail site is to make money. What is the purpose of ancillary social sites? To generate “buzz,” or perhaps develop a potential “brand loyalty?”
To bring the thinking out into the sunlight, I’ll make a fast analogy of a bar as a social media site. I have a network of people from that bar, and from others, and they, too, have their networks, a vast three-dimensional fractal puzzle that interlocks and shifts in a dynamic best understood by the fictional Hari Seldon.
But those networks, what do they do? They generate a certain amount of intangible revenue of emotional content, but does that invisible content then spur greater, actual transactive content/interaction?
I can get a recommendation for a mechanic from a guy I know at a local bar. Perhaps I’ve known this guy for a while, and I have learned that his judgements fall pretty close to mine. So I’ll take his recommendation. But if it’s a virtual community, do I feel the same about that recommendation?
And is my hesitation about accepting the ephemeral a measure of my age?
Social Networking/Media (and the whole damn 2.0 thing) are in their infancy. Something will grow from it. But who benefits? Who profits?
Well of course there is, I just can’t see what that point is right now. Something will grow in the soil of Social Media. But right now, there are conversations flying concerning the financial (yes, it always comes down to that) practicalities of the medium. The purpose of a retail site is to make money. What is the purpose of ancillary social sites? To generate “buzz,” or perhaps develop a potential “brand loyalty?”
To bring the thinking out into the sunlight, I’ll make a fast analogy of a bar as a social media site. I have a network of people from that bar, and from others, and they, too, have their networks, a vast three-dimensional fractal puzzle that interlocks and shifts in a dynamic best understood by the fictional Hari Seldon.
But those networks, what do they do? They generate a certain amount of intangible revenue of emotional content, but does that invisible content then spur greater, actual transactive content/interaction?
I can get a recommendation for a mechanic from a guy I know at a local bar. Perhaps I’ve known this guy for a while, and I have learned that his judgements fall pretty close to mine. So I’ll take his recommendation. But if it’s a virtual community, do I feel the same about that recommendation?
And is my hesitation about accepting the ephemeral a measure of my age?
Social Networking/Media (and the whole damn 2.0 thing) are in their infancy. Something will grow from it. But who benefits? Who profits?
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