Social Networking Or Gratuitous Link Building/dropping?, Is It A Growth/Dying Business Activity Only? Options

[send2paul]

This week I have been mainly investigating social networking websites in order to see if they are all that people say they are cracked up to be. Are they really "sociable", or just another internet business tool?

I also wanted to find something that had a nice Facebook application plug-in as well. I ended up at some of the globe's favourite places - Digg, StumbleUpon, del.icio.us, and Sphinn (Oh yes - this all started from Squidoo as well).
What can I tell you? Well, they are, by their very nature, extremely time consuming - as you have to join a community... a "network". If you want to make use of them as some kind of business tool, what you would want to do on most of these places is...

1. Sign up with an identifiable username that you've used elsewhere in your online business world.
2. Create these "tags", "clouds", keywords etc for the type of things you are going to post - or as you post them.
3. Join like minded subject groups, (perhaps), in the network.... and yes, you guessed it - go post a comment on someone else's favourite website or video etc
4. Link your business website to your network, ("Hey! See my Diggs" etc), your network to your website, and, (where possible), allow others to Stumble etc your business website.

From a business point of view, I can imagine that these social networks could be very useful. However, I'm not sure how they fair in search engine results, (probably pretty poorly I would imagine). Another interesting point is that places like You Tube have network aggregators available for you once you load a video up there. The aggregator has a number of social networks which it links to and enables you to load up the video directly into that network from You Tube.

BUT! What of the "mere mortal"? What about Joe and Josephine Average? What does all this social networking offer them? A social life online perhaps? A chance to make you friends? To boldly go..... ?

Haven't people been making friends online a whole lot easier than this before these structured social networking places came along? Will normal folks get sick of all the bells and whistles attached to theses places and go back to chatrooms/emails and IM's etc? Will the intrusion of data gathering, (and subsequent email spamming or targeted advertising), soon drive people away from these places? Will social network websites be left full of online marketeers trying to link/buddy up/give each other "good rep"/sell each other whatever their business is..... with the occasional funny video?

Outside of the major players mentioned above, there are also a bazillion bespoke social networking software which can create the modules for you to organise your own social networks online - good for large businesses with an intranet, or a college, small community.... or anybody, actually

Does the average person get the same/less/more use/benefit/satisfaction out of social networking than an online business entrepreneur who is using these arenas to peddle their goods around the net?

I haven't dug, (pardon the pun!), too deeply into the mechanics of all these places, so there may well be some great linking/business advantage that one place has over another etc. My intention here wasn't to give a technical review, more of a "Here's How I See It" point of view.

I know that a lot of Cre8asite members use these places. I shall probably narrow my activities to "stumbling" around the net (!) in the future as well - for business and pleasure.

Finally, StumbleUpon are currently in the process of upgrading their Facebook application interface - and that will make it very user friendly and... er... pretty....! So, Iwill probably stick with them as a link into my Facebook account - unless someone has another great online business marketeer tip....lol....

If it seems as though I've rambled my way through this.... you may well be right! I've wanted to post this all week - but never had time to get around to doing it. So..... go back and read it again from the top, please

[bragadocchio]

BUT! What of the "mere mortal"? What about Joe and Josephine Average? What does all this social networking offer them? A social life online perhaps? A chance to make you friends? To boldly go..... ?

I went to barcampblock this summer, and one of the presenters was a game designer. They took the research that they conducted in this whitepaper Why We Play Games: Four Keys to More Emotion Without Story (pdf), and applied it to social networks, asking people who are involved in social networks what they actually got out of being involved with those networks.

Part of the idea behind that research was to see if there was more than one motivation (which there was) and to see if the more successful social networks satisfied multiple motivations.

Thinking about Facebook, for instance, there are a number of things that you can do there. I've identified each of the different kinds of motivations that the game designers where looking at when they were exploriing why people played different kinds of games.

1. Compete with people by seeing who can get the most friends, or the highest scores on "identify the song" or "answer movie trivia" type games. (Hard Fun)

2. Engage is mindless fun, with some of the games and interactive applications that really don't have any rules. (Easy Fun)

3. Have an emotionally positive experience and alleviate boredom. (Altered States)

4. Make connections with people whom you might actually meet offline, and perhaps that will help you to do something like get a new job, or build a business relationship, or a personal relationship. (The people factor).

Getting to the point of her presentation, she told us that the most successful of the social networks seemed to include ways to satisfy at least three of those four motivations.

It's a different way of thinking about why people might use social networks.

[send2paul]

Interesting stuff Bill

Looking at that game playing/social network scenario I would probably agree with the first three kind of motivations. But then, they are still the sort of motivating activities a person would do by themselves at a PC, i.e. like plyaing with one of the applications on Facebook They don't necessarly have to interact, (at all), too much with anybody else. Which, I guess, is what most of us normal folk get up to when we first join a social network group - i.e. what can I do here?

I'm having a bit of difficulty with the leap of logic from a person who has joined a social group to satisfy any, (or other), of the game playing/social network motivations - and then that person meeting someone offline - the People Factor motivation.

I suppose the People Factor would be more in the way of an online business person who could be "using" the social network thing to meet new customers? Off course, they may well be normal folk who go specifically online to meet people, or have decided to meet someone/people offline.

I'd be interested to know what kind of % of people they are from the whole pile of people who join social networks who have meet someone/people offline either as a direct consequence of joining a social network to specifically meet someone offline, or as an "accidental" meeting brought on by.... well.... social networking online

This post has been edited by send2paul: Nov 29 2007, 08:31 AM

[yannis]

I'

m not sure how they fair in search engine results, (probably pretty poorly I would imagine).

Most of these pages do pretty badly except when it comes to long tail search phrases. What I have noticed lately is that stumble upon now is shown in the Google results (I guess only if you have updated to latest version), you can see an example at the image below:



Instinctively I get curious and would click a "stumbled page" even if they are No.5 or No.9, so yes putting effort into stumble is worth it, if you got the kind of content for it as it can get you traffic if not Pagerank.

I personally got onto Facebook and Stumble. I also use Digg for a while and then got bored and left. If you can alleviate boredom with Digg and Facebook I pretty much doubt it. With Stumble is a bit different as I can sort of aimlessly surf (akin too going to a shopping mall and you just do window shopping). I like the fact that in a way Stumble is more fair than Google, where newer websites have a bit of a chance if the content is good. Yes there is a lot of junk but there algorithms sort of weed them out. On average there results are at least interesting.

Obviously the social networks are somehow fulfilling some need otherwise nobody would be there. I compare them in a way to the old 'pen pal' system. People wanted friends just to write to. Most of these pen pal friends disappeared after the third letter. Some of them travelled to meet and rarely very rarely some met and eventually got married. (I know one such couple).

Most youngsters in facebook were initially and they are still there to make friends not to 'collect friends'. Most of them are there seeking boyfriends or girlfriends. One of my daughters (she is going seventeen) she got about 400 friends, it is virtually the whole of her school and the surrounds. It is just the friends one would expect to meet at a club or a school function.

What I also noticed in these networks is that in a way they are being 'dehumanized'. It is ok to make a friend and forget about them. You only make friends because they satisfy a need. One hopes that this is not going to spill over to the 'real world'.


Yannis

[AbleReach]

What I also noticed in these networks is that in a way they are being 'dehumanized'. It is ok to make a friend and forget about them. You only make friends because they satisfy a need. One hopes that this is not going to spill over to the 'real world'.

Yes.

A stranger from MyBloglog sent me a personal note yesterday, sans link drop or advertisement. I guess he'd seen my avatar when I was wandering around the web, and found me that way. His little message was unusual enough to make me want to check out his blog.

I can't remember if I friended him or not, though I did write back!

How odd, not to know if I've called someone a friend.

I'm uneasy with the terminology. "Friend" is different than "contact" or "admired" or "I want to read his stuff later when I have time" or "someone else in my industry."

[AbleReach]

For the flip side, here's a charming read from Marty Weintraub : Why Sphinn Matters So Much to Me

Sphinn’s focused blend of essential search news, commentary, editorial prowess, humor, style, ranting, and skillful moderation provides perspective and camaraderie that transcends “job” and “career.”

Like many, I breathe Sphinn, actually, to the point of near distraction. Point blank: I love the people, who range from my personal heroes to hotshot rising stars.

[kichus]

Yannis, isn't that an option in the StumbleUpon toolbar?

On your stumble upon toolbar Tools>>toolbar options>>Configuration>>Web Search. Do you have the highlight the recommended search results checked?

Or I am mis reading your post... :confused:

[Clark Financial]

If social media/tagging is becoming nothing more than an internet marketing tool for link dropping (which is all I use it for) do you think Google will eventually punish sites ala "link farms" for being there?

I'd hate to find my site devalued, or even dropped, for being in a bad neighborhood.

[Autocrat]

Well... I personally don't use any social sites.... but several friends and family members do.
I can see to some extent why people do...

Fun with Friends - you can create an acocunt and join a group... and play games, get scores and compete against those in you group... great fun

Fun with others - much the same, but tends to be more competitive as it's against "strangers" people tend to take it more seriously (odd?)

Alleviate Boredom (waste time?) - play single games or silly games or even group based games for short spans to simply kill time.

Communication - on some such sites there are PM's, emails etc... as well as chat etc... enabling friends/family to communicate quickly or leave notes. I've sen people without MSM-N/Skype or similar software use such sites as primarily a way to arrange going out after work etc. (also whose picking up the kids!)


There are also sites that I would classify as communial - sort of variations of forums/bloggs - where folk can post various links and information pertaining to key points of interests... they may/may not have group/friend features... some don't even have categories per se.... but the key point for such sites is the specialised focus and interest focus of the users. The fact that they can contribute and discuss with things found (stamp collection?), keeps such sites running., and will probably continue for some time.


Then there are other site... aimed at "social networking" that ae so blatantly aimed at business networking and making money off advertising it's unbeleivable ... you can join groups and PM each other etc.... yet the main aim is to publish articles, hold discussion sessions etc. and get noticed.
The sheer number of people from the same lines of work joinign the same groups and not seeming to realise they are competing still makes me smile - all the while the creators are makign a fair whack from adverts


So to my mind, there are true social sites, psuedo social sites and communal sites - and there are worlds of difference!
Ones is for fun and relaxing - non-serious for "throwing" down.
One is for group mind interaction, sharing and showing and acting as a hive with information.
One if for making contacts and attempting to further yourself/business.

The shame of it is, of the later, I''m yet to see one that I would say is effective/well thought out and not blatantly lying about the purpose.

All of course my opinion

[yannis]

Yannis, isn't that an option in the StumbleUpon toolbar?

I see the option, but is not 'ticked'. I am puzzled. Try it out for say 'art' if you have stumble installed and have a look. I actually think it is a neat idea.


Yannis