The Death of Social Media

Are spam, hackers, privacy concerns and commercialization killing social media?

Social media comes in many forms and flavors with new types coming in and some older ones slowly dying out. It has become so ubiquitous that we rarely think about it when we use it.

I primarily use Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and LinkedIn, in addition to my blogging, but I have become less and less enamored with social media over time. Although I was never a rabid user of Twitter, I did initially use it on a regular basis but now will frequently go days between tweets or without even looking at it.

The reason for this isn't just the novelty of it all wearing off. It's more that it's become less pleasant due to the amount of spam that is permeating the social media space, coupled with the overbearing commercialization that is taking place. Layer on top of this the erosion of privacy and it doesn't look good. Even my college-age daughter, a prime demographic for social media, complains about these same issues.

Many of the people that I get as followers on Twitter seem to offer nothing more than a continual stream of advertisements. It seems that a growing number of "Internet marketers" are taking over Twitter, trying to get business in teaching people how to grow their follower counts and sell advertising.

It's not that business doesn't have a place on Twitter; it is possible to project a corporate presence in social media without it simply being a way to advertise. A good example is Scott Monty who heads up social media for Ford. Monty is very effective in getting Ford's message out by talking with customers rather than just talking to customers.

Social media platforms are also becoming increasingly attractive targets for hackers. Sometimes they do it to get at your data, sometimes it is to hijack your account for spam or phishing purposes and sometimes it is simply mischief. Whatever the reason, it just creates one more impediment to people wanting to use social media.

When we use social media technologies, we are putting our personal data in "the cloud" and very often under terms and conditions where we relinquish rights to our data to the media provider. Because of its popularity, Facebook has gotten a lot of attention regarding its privacy policies and has changed them a number of times due to public pressure--but only due to public pressure.

Facebook's original Terms of Use stated that the company basically had perpetual rights to your content and could use it however it pleased. Facebook has since changed its user terms to give the company full rights to your content subject to your privacy settings and until you delete your content or those that you have shared it with delete it. Although somewhat better, the terms still give Facebook the open rights to your content, something most people don't bother to read about.

So, is social media dead? No, it isn't dead and will likely be around for some time, but I do think we will start to see a significant shift in how it is used. My prediction is that while social media technologies such as Twitter and Facebook may continue to grow in terms of numbers, you will also see more churn as people try it for awhile, become disillusioned and stop. I also expect that those who do stay with it will use it less on average than today's users.

Does this mean I was wrong to advocate the use of social media in the corporate world? I don't think so. I stand by this because I also think we'll see changes to counteract the downsides I mentioned. I think this will be in the area of premium service; we'll pay to avoid the spam and to maintain our privacy.

This premium service will extend to the corporate world where companies will be able to easily deploy in-house solutions that they can keep separate and private from the outside world. The driving force for this is when more executives start asking the question Salesforce.com's Marc Benioff is asking: "Why do I know more about strangers on Facebook than my own employees?"

Premium services will be a big shift perhaps, but one that I think is inevitable.

 

"50 Social Media Icons" http://www.flickr.com/photos/ivanwalsh/ / CC BY 2.0

 

This article is also posted on Forbes.com.  Feel free to join in the discussion either on this site or at Forbes.com

If this topic was of interest, you might also like these:

• Twitter's Dilemma
• Twitter's Corporate Message
• The Not So Silver Lining Behind Cloud Computing - Managing The Risks
• Or the posts in the "Web / Web 2.0 / Internet" category

Comments

[Lori Scott]

I think some of your insights are right on the money - but I do see that you are a bit premature in your statement that social media is dead. I agree with other comments (on the Forbes article) that SM is just in its infancy. However, as with any other new medium, the spammers and advertisers are becoming even more prevalent and annoying. As with the nature of the internet, any kind of attempted regulation (as with what the new FTC regulations that began on December 1)is just going to fail. The Internet since its inception has been its own viral growth monster. I think we just need to take the good with the bad.

[Mike]

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Lori

 

Thanks for the comment.

 

Just to be clear, I’m not saying social media is dead.  As I
stated in the article “So, is social media dead? No, it isn't dead and will
likely be around for some time, but I do think we will start to see a
significant shift in how it is used.”

 

I agree with you about the futility of government regulation trying
to control this.  The very nature of the internet and technology is to open and
ever changing for government regulation to be effective and I think that is
good as I’m not in favor of government regulation of the internet.  The
downside to all of this is that spamming, hackers, privacy concerns will change
the way social media works by driving us to premium services where we have more
individual control (rather than government control). 

 

Mike

 

From: TypePad

[Sean Williams]

Mike, I don't see social media any more dead than any other communication tool that's afflicted with spam. E-mail is still in wide use despite the fusillade of, well, CRAP. Direct mail has a low single digit conversion rate, but that improves with targeting. Social media may well wind up in the same place. If the theoretical foundation of social media is conversation (Cluetrain 101), then the dialogue will win out over advertising -- it won't kill ads, of course, and the "affiliate marketers" will still seek to boost impression counts and "deliver an audience." But, those who maintain the two-way, symmetrical nature of the medium will still find value in it.

Or not...

cheers.
Sean
@commammo

[Mike]

TypePad HTML Email

Sean,

 

Spam may not kill social media but I think it will severely
limit its potential which is why I predicted that eventually we will pay to use
social media apps that shield us from that  - just my opinion.

 

I agree with your statement “. . . those who maintain the
two-way, symmetrical nature of the medium will still find value in it.” 
Unfortunately spam and the other hindrances may make getting to the value
portion so onerous that we start to give up on it.

 

Thanks for commenting.

 

Mike

 

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