The Death of Mass Social Platforms?
Web 2.0 is all about social interaction online. It is not going anywhere, that is for sure. But some people, even industry leaders, speculate that what I like to call the Mass Social Platforms, are about to go bust. Facebook.com is a commonly sighted example of a company that will see a downward spiral according to these experts. These Mass Social Platforms will still exist in some capacity but will be overtaken by more segmented or niche services.
The key point in their argument is this. In what other situation have you been in where users of multiple demographics and age groups have successfully co-existed over an extended period of time? What teenager wants their mom or dad as their “friend” on Facebook for all their peers to see? According to this way of thinking we need to add another level to a service like Facebook, to help separate contacts into various buckets. Segmentation. Micro Social Platforms?
I personally do agree that social services will need to change in order to remain a top of their game. I don’t believe 100% in the argument that users from multiple demographics cannot sustain a longterm co-existence. I think that with the most recent generations, youths and adults are much closer and more cohesive in many ways than past generations. But at the end of the day, I want to be able to keep my personal contacts/networking and my business contacts/networking separate. The concept of being able to create multiple profiles for just that purpose within a single account is something that companies are now exploring. Most recently I came across www.moli.com. The key though is can these companies create segmentation in a way that is easy for the common, non-tech user to understand and use?
From a marketing standpoint, the move to more segmented social platforms should prove to be a plus. You know who your target is presumably. Rather than target a large group of people who may or may not be a fit for you (Facebook Marketing today), wouldn’t it make your job that much easier knowing exactly who is seeing your message and that they are who you want to see your message? Facebook does have elements to its advertising service in place that allow you to target particular keywords in user profiles, but you are still left with some sense of not fully getting your moneys worth.
Jack said,
Wrote on June 16, 2008 @ 9:35 am
Hey Mike, I sort of agree and disagree with you. As the viral growth continues with social networks, advertising revenues continue to climb, even if CPM rates are dropped. eMarketer.com and Forrester Research are predicting steady growth in ad revenue over the next couple of years. There are also numerous ad networks popping up working only as vertical ad networks for social media solutions. It is tough, however, to monetize a social network like “MySpace, or Facebook,” as they are vertical in nature, hence their need for user generated groups.
That said, there is also a trend for people to search out smaller niche/vertical social networks emerging. These people have found the horizontal networks to be too vast and vanilla for them, so they have gone in search of their interest elsewhere. This is why sites like Ning.com have been wildly successful building users in such a short period of time. If you can’t fund your interest, you can build it yourself.
So, you could almost say that social networks are sliding into the long tail much quicker than anticipated. And, the long tail is really where your advertising revenues will benefit both the social network publisher and the advertiser - as they can approach the niche advertiser. Typically, because the advertiser hits the vertical market directly through the social network, they pay a higher premium. In some cases the ad CPM in a horizontal network may be $1.00 U.S. per CPM. In the niche site, you can command a higher rate, which I have seen as high as $12.00 U.S. per CPM. $12.00 is a bit extreme, but depending on the vertical, you can push up your rate quite a bit.
To your point, however, horizontal sites are struggling to make it, and if you are in a vertical niche, it takes much more money to market your vertical and build membership. SO your ROI may be less in the short term than the long term.
Jack said,
Wrote on June 16, 2008 @ 9:38 am
Correction in my first paragraph please. “MySpace, or Facebook,” as they are vertical in nature, hence their need for user generated groups. should read, “MySpace, or Facebook,” as they are NOT vertical in nature, hence their need for user generated groups.
friends mom said,
Wrote on July 10, 2008 @ 1:51 am
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