Social Networking: Improving Daily or Slowly Dying
Social networking has been increasing over the last couple years although I feel it will slowly fade away and branch off into a whole new system or dissolve completely in the coming years.
Take a look at MySpace. Did they make mistakes or did people simply stop caring about the site? Now ask yourself this, "What's the difference between MySpace and Facebook?" The answer in all honesty is nothing. You are able to do the exact same things on both social network sites. Not so much anymore because MySpace changed direction and focuses on music now. At one time though, they were the exact same thing with the exact same features.
Word of mouth is probably the most powerful tool you can use to spread the word about something and I think that's what happened here. One person got bored and told a friend to switch and then that person agreed and told another person and so on and so on. I don't think anyone really got sick of MySpace, I think word of mouth just spread so fast about Facebook that people just decided to use that instead. And when two social network sites with the same features are competing, one of them is going to be the loser.
So how long will Facebook be around for? Well, until another social network pops up with new and advanced or improved features.You probably have already started to see it with the increase in popularity of Google+. People have already started to migrate to Google because of its privacy features and group settings.
New social networking sites are popping up all the time. If you want to be different from the rest of the them, then you have to create one that has its own niche. Take a look at Pintrest.com. They offer a community that is geared to the creative side of people who show off their arts & crafts. Now look at Findyourserver.com. A community that connects people to bartenders and servers for promotions. Their niche is in food, beverage and service industry.
As you can see, these communities stand apart by focusing on one niche. They aren't seeking everyone in the entire world to join, just those that are interested in what they offer and bringing those people together.
I feel social networking is slowly starting to die out. I feel that way because it's seems people are slowly losing interest. Spammers don't help the situation either. I notice when I'm on Twitter that people are constantly trying to follow me and send me messages related to porn and other nonsense. I'm clearly not interested and I tend to stop logging in as much because of that. As social networks grow, so do the spammers and they get more and more creative every time.
Eventually, when people get bored of using a certain website they will no longer use it and either find another one or just stop using it altogether.
Back to what I said earlier, word of mouth is a powerful tool. If your best friend told you not to eat at a restaurant because their food was bad, would you still eat there? No, you wouldn't. So when a million people tell their friends to stop using Facebook because they found something else, what do you think will happen.
Social networking will be around for a while but when the "next best thing" comes out in technology that's better than social networking, be prepared for society to change its ways. Technology is improving everyday and just like touch screens on phones are becoming the standard, so will a replacement for social networking.
Findyourserver.com
Pintrest.com
