Hands up, who has TONS of spare time and is ready to join three awesome shiny NEW social networks that are way better than Facebook?!?! haha, kidding. So, apparently ello.co is the new anti-Facebook - an online social network that is ad-free. Its currently invite-only, so you know that always creates pent-up desire to get in. If you hear that people are leaving Facebook in droves to join this new platform, uhm, methinks its not quite accurate! Sure, it may meet a need and certain pockets of peeps will love it. But I guarantee the *masses* wont move. (Cast your mind back to Google+?! Yes, G+ is doing okay but hardly made a dent on Facebooks userbase. I rest my case!) Okay then, how about the virtual neighborhood watch online social network Nextdoor? That platform has been steadily growing and does seem to meet a niche need. I was interviewed yesterday about Nextdoor for an article in The Business Journals. Its a great concept and Ive seriously considered joining Nextdoor, but tbh Im super private about my home address and the first thing you have to do to join is enter your real street address (the app is synched to Google maps). Still, good things are happening as a result of Nextdoor: people getting to know their neighbors IRL, creating safer communities, sharing local info, and even helping lower crime rates, for example. Then there is the new social mobile app Yo with one function: say Yo to your contacts. Thats it. Really? Haha! Sounds like a polite version of the poke feature on Facebook. Surely its easier to send a simple text. :p Anyway, onwards we go. Be careful of having Bright Shiny Object Syndrome and feeling the peer/social pressure to jump on board the next big thing. Remember, Facebook has a ten-year head start on any new networks and a whopping 1.3 BILLION users! So long as our close friends, family members, colleagues, customers and prospects use Facebook regularly, we should stay put. (And, from a business perspective, Facebook is the most targeted traffic your advertising dollars can buy.) Btw, I have seen some journalists recently call Facebook just an ad network. Granted, there is much more paid content in our news feeds these days than ever before. (Frankly, I find it highly tolerable and interesting, even, on mobile with the simple side swipe to view a group of ads at once.) However, from a people-to-people connection standpoint, Facebook is surely responsible for infinitely more school reunions and family reunions, more adopted people reunited, more organ donors matched up, more relationships built, revolutions created even, and the list goes on. Phew, this turned out way longer than intended. I dont mean to be on my soapbox evangelizing Facebook - ha! Just a wee reality check regards the new competition coming along. Thats all. :p Your thoughts?
Posted on: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 17:15:34 +0000
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