In a nutshell, no – social media is not already over. It is, however, most definitely over-saturated.
Look at the bottom of this post – you’ll see the nice little Share/Save icon, as well as footer options to share this post with your friends on Digg, Reddit, Mixx, Stumbleupon and Delicious (and please do feel free to forward this on – always appreciated!) 🙂
Hover your mouse over the Share/Save icon and it opens up a whole host of other social media sites where you can submit this post to, should you so desire. Go one step further and click on the small downward arrow near the bottom of the Share/Save list. This offers even more social media sites to share this post with – well over 100, in fact.
This is too much (and a reminder to myself to edit the amount of Share This options). Who in their right mind would join 100+ social media sites? I think I may be on about 10 or so and even that feels a little too much, although I do use each end every one of the sites I’m on.
Mention social media and it’s pretty much guaranteed that these names will come out: Facebook, MySpace, Digg, Twitter, Stumbleupon, Technorati, Mixx and Reddit. Yahoo Buzz is becoming more popular while newcomers to the scene like BackType and MeeID are starting to build up a nice head of steam.
But what about the others that make up this 100+ list? Have you heard of Pusha, or Gravee, or Yoolink? How about Twiddla or Taggly? Apart from having names that George Lucas might use in his next movie, the abundance of these social media sites are what’s causing people to be wary about stepping into the social media pool in the first place.
Look back through the ages and it’s clear that the most successful products or services were the ones with the fewest choices – VHS or Betamax video tape, Sega Genesis or Super Nintendo, cable or satellite TV and so on.
While there’s no doubting that social media offers a wonderful opportunity to truly open up the world to everyone for the first time ever, it’s also apparent that there needs to be a reining in of the services available. Yes, choice is great but not at the expense of scaring everybody away through confusion.
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