The Problems and Advantages with Social Media Networks

Posted on March 4th, 2007 in: Social Media, Social Networking

I’ve been on Twitter for a few weeks and have shared a few interesting pieces of info and learned quite a bit, in fact, it’s a great way to learn about people’s media consumption diets (here’s mine) as they’re sharing in real time what they are listening to, reading, or interacting with. I’m on twitter and my profile is here if you want to add me.

Damon Billian was over here today, I wasn’t able to convince him to use Twitter. Mario Sundar is here having dinner, he says he’ll “give it a shot”. I’ve not figured out how to get it to work with my mobile, I’ll spend some time later on that. I’m not really in a big rush to do so, as I don’t want to be hooked to it all the time, and most of the time I’m in front of my PC.

Aside from the over saturation of social networks, there are problems with all these tools. Twitter is a really early adopter thing, I see many of the folks who I read their blogs and watch their flickr pics. I do wish however that there was an easier way to import contacts, either from email, flickr friends, upcoming friends, google groups or something. There’s a big need for a universal identity and network open metadata. There are TOO many profiles, Open ID needs wider adoption.

I don’t really like LinkedIn (too many invites from folks I haven’t interacted enough with to say I’m ‘linked’ to them), I really believe that the blog is the best networking tool, it’s open to all (no login to read) anyone can leave a comment, and anyone can link to it.

It’s also interesting that a majority of the adoption of Twitter is not from any mainstream or traditional marketing, it’s primarily done through the word of mouth network of trusted peers. Is this how the future of products will take off or not?

Oh, and Damon says it’s a bit confusing my relationship with PodTech, so I hope to clear that up = I’m a full time employee that’s paid salary at PodTech. I serve our corporate clients as a social media resource, a consultant of sorts, provide education, guidance, and help them craft plans based upon what I know or did at Hitachi. Again, I’m a full time employee at PodTech. I updated my profile on the right side bar, hope that clears it up.

Filed under: Social Media, Social Networking  
  • http://www.marketersstudio.com David Berkowitz

    Jeremiah, great post, but I don’t agree with the slight at LinkedIn. Consider acquisition and retention models. The blog’s great for network acquisition – you gain a ton of new contacts that way, and some of those ‘down the funnel’ become business partners, friends, long-time clients, etc. LinkedIn is a tool not for acquisition at all (people shouldn’t accept invites from people they don’t know – saying ‘no’ is part of the game there), but it is a great way to stay in touch with them, and to help your existing contacts. With LinkedIn, you can also provide a service by being a spoke on someone else’s network; with your blog, most coming to it will see themselves as spokes on your hub.

  • http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/ jeremiah_owyang

    perhaps my irritation with LinkedIn would reduce if requests were only sent once a week, rather than as it happens. Perhaps an option where I could even choose once a month would be better.

    I get what you’re saying about keeping in touch with folks (esp ex-colleagues) however I figure if they want to find me it’s easy to do, and if I want to find them, I can probably find them too.

    I was discussing linkedin with someone who’s never used LinkedIn, and I told her about how it’s good for keeping in touch with folks from the past, her response was “what if they don’t update their contact info?”

  • http://dbillian.typepad.com Damon Billian

    Hi Jeremiah,

    I haven’t ruled twitter out just yet;-) I just think that it is getting to a point where there’s too many different places to get information (blogs, news, social networks) & I am trying to nail down which ones are a good use of my time.

    I’ve actually found LinkedIn to be a very valuable tool. I recently used their “answers” to ask some questions about setting up a business with my fiancee overseas & got some very intelligent responses. I’ve also had more job offers because of LI than offers from my blog.
    (disclaimer: I know many of the fine folks over there).

    “response was “what if they don’t update their contact info?”

    This is true of any social network, be it a business network or a true “social network”. As the value proposition for LI users is quite high, I would probably say folks are probably more inclined to update their profile there than other networks.

    “I really believe that the blog is the best networking tool, it’s open to all (no login to read) anyone can leave a comment, and anyone can link to it.”

    I think a blog helps you augment your existing social networks more so than being a better option. And I must add that my LinkedIn profile is public & someone doing a search engine query against my name will generally see my LI profile on the first page.

    “perhaps my irritation with LinkedIn would reduce if requests were only sent once a week, rather than as it happens. Perhaps an option where I could even choose once a month would be better.”

    A great idea. I think a tool like LI needs to give people tools that help them manage their time more effectively.

  • http://mindcomet.com MindComet

    Jeremaiah,

    Good insight- I to have been shopping around for a different networking site than LinkedIn so I will be checking out Twitter soon. This also poses another question in my mind. Comparing professional social networks to MySpace, is there anything to compare to YouTube that caters to professional users?

  • http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/ jeremiah_owyang

    MindComet

    Maybe YouTube can help, at the most it can help you find others that like the same videos as you. If that’s in your professional needs, then YES, it can help.

    LinkedIn is probably a good networking tool for business folks.

    Twitter is more for communication within that network

  • http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/ jeremiah_owyang

    MindComet

    Have you seen Podtech.net? (we’ve a lot of videos for pros there)

  • http://mariosundar.wordpress.com/ Mario Sundar

    Thanks, Jeremiah! Now, I’m on Twitter too!

    There definitely is a proliferation of social networks out there and numerous choices. Now, I’ve flixster and twitter to contend with :)

    As for tons of invites via LI, that’s something celebrity bloggers such as yourself have to contend with. I’m sure the benefits of using LI, esp. for a networker such as yourself should far outweigh invite-noise. However, I can understand how your suggestion for monthly/weekly updates would help users such as yourself tame invite-noise.

    Despite my fascination for blogs/networking, I’ve personally benefited far greater from LI (sales wins, leads, networking, maintaining peer contact info, etc…). Also, what about networking with our peers who are non-bloggers? Like Chad Hurley for example :)

  • Pingback: E L S U A ~ A KM Blog by Luis Suarez » Blog Archive » Ok, I Am Finally Giving In - I Am Now Twittering!

  • loui

    hey Jeremiah i was this is the first blog i read on this site, and it really has me asking for more :) , i was wondering if u could help me out with some work i have, its a portfolio for my IB Diploma Program….i need some reliable sources about the advantages and concerns of social networking sites….( mostly about ethical issues), because honestly i haven’t been able to find many reliable sources online, and where i live its rather difficult to find up-to-date books on the topic ( if there were any at all….it would be really great if u could send me an e-mail with you reply as to whether you could help me out… thanks for your time :) Loui Sabha

  • http://mindcomet.com/ MindComet

    Jeremaiah,

    Good insight- I to have been shopping around for a different networking site than LinkedIn so I will be checking out Twitter soon. This also poses another question in my mind. Comparing professional social networks to MySpace, is there anything to compare to YouTube that caters to professional users?