Are social networking sites all they are cracked up to be?
What is the payback from participation in a social network?
Citing the obvious examples, such as MySpace, Facebook, and Linked in it would seem that there is a need for social networking and it has been considered to be the younger generation who have staked a claim to the huge growth over the last 5 years.
Social networking has virtually taken the place of email for rapid and mobile communications.
Twitter has served as a stop-gap between emails and instant messaging for the 14 to 20 age group. However, there appears to be sea turn regarding the age profile taking the example of Facebook in 2008 where twice as mant 50 – 64 year olds were added – total of 13.6 million compared to 7.3 million under 18s.
Linkedin recorded record traffic in september 2008 and is currently running at over 30 million users and estimated to be worth $100 million+ after only 5 years in business.
And the popularity is still growing – there must be a limit somewhere.
Linked-in prides itself in its statistical analysis – !?
They seem to be able to prove just about anything and claim a standard profile (at least in the USA) that few of us actually recognize – average income, social status, age, gender et.
Twitter goes even further with their statistical analysis…
See:http://www.istrategylabs.com/twitter-2009-demographics-and-statistics/
Facebook claims active members – which is open to interpretation, whilst Twitter and LinkedIn just mention their overall membership – I guess it’s fairly tricky to estimate what constitutes active membership.
The payback from social networking on an individual basis is even more difficult to estimate – what exactly do you stand to gain from microblogging, blogging or other forms of social media?
Opinions appear to be divided as to the use of sites such as Facebook – nicknamed “crackbook” due to its addictive nature – people spend vast ammounts of time ‘networking’ which surely has a knock-on effect on concentration spans, procrastination and productivity levels at work – and why not stress.
Certainly stress should figure among the undesirable effects of constant interruptions due to serial social networking.
Just for fun, you could take a test to find out the value of your network – mine is apparently worth 2.629.060 € ! – I’d cash that in now, were it true.
Have a look to see what your network is worth - http://mynetworkvalue.com/network-value-button
Trawling through the net, it is difficult to find the real value added payback for individuals who participate or join a social network. the consensus seems to be weighted in more spiritual and altruistic spheres – what one can contribute to others and the respect for one-way traffic – i.e. give and share but don’t expect to get the same back.
A lot of social networks seem a great idea at the outset – connecting with people etc. but often the novelty wears off rapidly as social networking requires a great deal of time and effort.
There is also the lurking phenomena that occurs in any form of network – be it virtual or in real life.
A lot of people prefer to observe without necessarily showing their hands, or to some extent, their faces, for whatever reasons – they tend to lurk in the shadows. Do lurkers get anything from social networking ? – This again is even harder to evaluate.
But I guess we all have at least a small appetite for social voyeurism.
For business social networking can help level the ground, in terms of marketing and sales, it can also prove an essential tool to help even out the erratic job market trends especialy in times of heightened job insecurity, where businesses on low budgets and employees can seek out opportunities through their networks.
The number of celebrities who are avid Twitter users, bears witness to the need of staying connected to people who can plug into and enhance career and business openings – just look at Stephen Fry’s tweets, you wouldn’t think he needed to engage in tweeting – but he does avidly.
The buzz on the Internet is that if you’re not using social networking to advance your business, find new customers, partners or contacts then you’re getting left behind, and chances are that you are not among this relatively tiny minority.
In short, it is difficult to evaluate and prove the worth of social networking, however there are surely many people who can testify in some way to the advantages of it – be it for business or socialising or a mix of the two.
The upshot is that you have perhaps a lot to gain and very little to lose apart from a little time.
To learn more have a look at this:
http://www.slideshare.net/TrendsSpotting/social-media-influencers-predictions-2009-by-trendsspotting-presentation
What do you think?
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