Over at OMMA Social Charlene Li gave a great presentation on The Future of Social Networks. It was a variation of the presentation that she gave at South by Southwest. Its worth scanning but don't expect to find too much new in it. I'm sure the commentary around it must have really brought it alive.
We all know that influencers matter, that targeting them on social networks is going to be happening more and more and that the portability of the social graphs presents new opportunities for marketers, web product managers and advertisers.
What I wonder about is whether something that I call influencer fatigue will develop. Imagine what it will be like if you're being targeted by several companies because you're perceived as having a lot of influence among a certain group of people. At first it'll probably be flattering but sooner or later you're going to realize that you don't want to be targeted so aggressively. Your influences comes from your reserve as much as it does from what you do and what you say. You're going to want to control the visibility of your influence. You're going to want to hide the fact that you are an influencer. What will you do? That's when things will get even more interesting.
We all know that influencers matter, that targeting them on social networks is going to be happening more and more and that the portability of the social graphs presents new opportunities for marketers, web product managers and advertisers.
What I wonder about is whether something that I call influencer fatigue will develop. Imagine what it will be like if you're being targeted by several companies because you're perceived as having a lot of influence among a certain group of people. At first it'll probably be flattering but sooner or later you're going to realize that you don't want to be targeted so aggressively. Your influences comes from your reserve as much as it does from what you do and what you say. You're going to want to control the visibility of your influence. You're going to want to hide the fact that you are an influencer. What will you do? That's when things will get even more interesting.
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Considering that her original "Social Networks Will Be Like Air" (http://www.slideshare.net/potix2002/the-future-of-social-networks-1204575046606033-51-presentation) presentation was so prescient, this latest deck was a big disappointment.
I agree, when viewed in comparison to her earlier deck it doesn't seem to be that new. What's interesting is that there hasn't been much movement in the social networks as air concepts in any case. We're not much closer to universal identity than we were a year ago.
Social networks need a focus. When the good old days of subject centric networks forums etc everyone knew where to look.
Now with ego centric social networks you end up shouting gems into the ether.
There is no focus. No target.