Six Signs that Social Media is Dying

The last time I wrote I mentioned that I was going to try podcasting.

Talk about a big flop! I’ve discovered that I’m a much better writer. Perhaps I’m too much of a perfectionist, but I really didn’t come up with a podcast that I’d consider worth sharing.

I did do an interview with Shannon Cherry which I’ll share soon, the end was cut off for some reason, so I’m learning how to do audio editing (to clip the interview at a reasonable place). Thanks so much, Shannon, for the interview and showing me how it’s done! I’ll definitely have to more of them.

In the time that I’ve been avoiding writing, I’ve still been studying social media sites. And I’ve come to a conclusion that I really didn’t want to face.

Social Media is dying.

I guess I should mention that I don’t think it will be dead anytime soon. You won’t wake up tomorrow or even next year to find Soc Med has disappeared off the face of the earth.

So why do I say it then?

1) It’s grown stagnant. For a body of water to stay fresh, it has to have a steady stream of new water coming into it. If that stream is blocked off somehow, the body of water grows stale and stagnant and eventually the things that live in it wither away and die.

Social Media early adopters get laughed at sometimes, since they’re always looking for the next best thing. But the next best thing is like the stream that brings in fresh water and their innovations keep the older sites from going stagnant – and there hasn’t been anything new in a while now.

2) It’s become mainstream. My mom and great aunt are both on Facebook, the flower girl from my wedding is on twitter. I read a statistic the other day that there are more people using the internet to visit social sites than there are people using the net to look up porn. It sounds funny, but that’s a huge change!

The problem with mainstream is that it kills innovation and creativity and the effort is put into crowd control. Think about your favorite non-chain shop or restaurant. At our favorite, they know our names when we walk in. Often, the waitress greets us with our drinks already prepared. They know our favorite foods and will mention something they think we’d enjoy trying if it’s new, or tell us if one of our favorite soups is what’s being prepared that day.

Now think about Wal-mart or any major chain store. In the electronics department of our local Wal-mart, most of the video games are behind glass. When I want to purchase one for my boys, I have to first find someone to wait on me then wait while they figure out who has the key for the cabinets and to find where that person is. Often it can take 20 minutes or more, just to make sure the game is the one the boys were hoping for. If we decide to purchase the game, another 15-30 minutes can easily be added on to the time estimate.

3) Spam is out of control. When I first started using email, spam was practically unknown. Then marketers discovered how great e-mail was for their business and how easy it was to purchase groups of e-mail addresses. Soon after, spam e-mail became a major problem. Now, I only check my e-mail every couple days knowing that even with my spam filter, a good portion will still be unrequested and unwanted junk mail.

When I first started using twitter, spam was practically unknown as well. With the rare exception, a friend request was always from a real person. Now, easily 8 out of every 10 friend requests I get are from spammers, and I can easily spend more time trying to determine if someone is real than I used to spend tweeting.

4) Sites are buying up competitors. A few days ago when I was talking about this subject with Allan, he pointed out the fact that when a company is working to improve, it buys companies that help it in some way. But, when a company feels secure, they start buying up competitors and potential competitors instead. Facebook’s recent purchase of FriendFeed seems to fit the bill here.

5) Removal of Social Media from titles. Among business people who handle social media functions, there has been a growing movement to remove Social Media from their title. Yes, they often do more than only handle social media, and their arguments are well thought out, but it’s still a sign that soc med’s star is fading.

6) The teens and college students have left. Whenever Twitter first came out, it quickly became known as a site where teens could text their friends and tell them what they were doing. Facebook was started to connect college students. Now, when I talk to teen friends, asking if they’re on online social sites often earns me an eye-roll and a “Um, no.” As surprised as I’ve been at the number who use Skype, I’ve been just as shocked at the number who don’t use Twitter or frequently even Facebook.

So what do you think? Is social media here to stay in all it’s glory, or in a few years will we look back and say, “That was fun, what’s next?”