The Growing Economy and the Decline of Social Media
Feb 3rd, 2010 by David Svet
Late last year I wrote a post wondering what would happen to social media as the economy recovers. Well, the pundits say that the economy is starting to recover and other pundits say that social media is changing. Twitter adoption is flattening out pretty quickly. My question to you is, why?
Have you personally changed your social networking habits? Is work playing a factor? Are you busier at work now? Do you have less time to devote to your online activity? Or is it that your not getting the results that you hoped to get? Is social media ending up as nothing but a giant time suck for you? That’s not the case for me. I get a lot of value out of my relationships, exposure to material I otherwise wouldn’t see, and access to people I otherwise wouldn’t meet.
However, I’ve noticed a significant change on Twitter. It’s much harder for me to spend time keeping up with it now. I’m too busy with work. A lot of the people that I follow are using it a lot less as well. They also say it’s due to their workload.
So, do you think I was on to something in my post last year or not? Is real work getting in the way of social media? Is that a good thing or a bad thing? The floor is yours.
headline’s catchy and almost thought you’d launch right into “decline of social media use = more ppl getting employed again in non online-related positions” type of musing..first, one must remain cautious (either optimistically or pessimistically) regarding said ‘growing economy’. while “i ain’t no expert” in economics i do feel it’s somewhat broad to assume that the perceived steadiness of recovery is necessarily correlated to social media use…my sense is that we are just getting better at being highly targeted with our social media efforts—something i’ve always held as one of the more practical outcomes from leverage off social media.
where some tend to get confused with social media is the well known tendency for it to be time-consuming and addictive (yes, we say ‘addictive’ here in Canada) so perhaps the question is: Are there more and more people who know *get* social media and understand that the invested time and effort to community-building, brand profiling/differentiation, customer relations, lead generation, etc. and all the good wholesome nuggets us MarCom folks are keen to polish—that all that time and effort can in fact be realistically managed along with our day-to-day client work?
you posted earlier of the exclusivity factor–it’s essentially the same phenomenon: because we *choose* our communities, we are better able to manage our time with them. and once we do know how much time and effort we really need to put out there, we end up looking like we’re not often online (or be perceived as being too busy to “cultivate” the tribal experience)
ya okay, some of us have been busy but not to the point where a daily tweet or two or odd interaction is completely absent
blah blah blah..what am i doing here?? gotta get back to work! haha
Perhaps there will be a decline as unemployment declines, but I bellieve it will be temporary. As social media continues to mature, so will the way it’s used. Businesses will hopefully continue to understand the value, so people will be engaging more at work. My hope is that we will continue to engage and connect, and that organizations will understand the value of real communication, not just promoting their businesses.
Interesting Dave. Did Twitter improve our individual working situations and that is the reason that we no longer have the time to “tweet?”
I know that social media (including Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook) has broadened my exposure - to potential readers, subscribers, and clients. Despite having a social media “formula,” truly engaging does take time.
I suspect that what Susan says will be true - as social media matures, so will the way it’s used.
Great topic!
The social media boom will affect how social media works… The more people get attached to the network, the more they will realize that the information load will increas, so usage will drop. Those who claim they have a “social media marketing strategy” only have an outdated one, since it gets outdate the minute you put it in print