Comments on: Are All Social Networking Sites Doomed?

By: You Got Elfed, and Other Viral Marketing Disconnects « the wet foot journey

You Got Elfed, and Other Viral Marketing Disconnects « the wet foot journey — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 19:38:02 +0000

[…] link to my blog, I have to write kathrynmilette.gooruze.com in the first few lines of my post. As Tanya Ferrell noted, this is a pretty slick marketing […]

By: Tanya Ferrell

Tanya Ferrell — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 08:18:45 +0000

Communities with funky names? I like that. As you said, the community aspect will always remain, and I can definitely see sites becoming more niche, but I think the term “social networking site” will become outdated. More and more sites are adding social networking/community features to their sites. Eventually every site will have some kind of community aspect to it. As more sites adapt the features, “social networking” won’t be considered a huge category anymore. Sites like Sphinn and Digg will just be news sites. They won’t be so special in their delivery of content. The only “social networking sites” will be ones like MySpace and Facebook, which have the sole purpose of connecting friends.

By: Brandon

Brandon — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 17:30:16 +0000

You make some valid points, and I like where your head is at. I think you should start writing for our blog as well!

Couple quick comments:

There are too many social networking websites. The proof of that is once they make a website (www.onlywire.com) to ease to submission process to 25+ social sites, that’s a red flag. SEOs began using these sites to create backlinks very quickly (social bookmarking spam). Some like Del.icio.us employ no-follow, but there is speculation that engines may be picking and choosing what to ‘follow’ or ‘not follow’. For example the elements of branding was saved by 355 people and all those links show up in our Google Webmaster Tools, that doesn’t mean they count… but if you were Google, would you count those?

The bubble crashed because business models were based on obtaining eyeballs on your website, and then generating the revenue. When it should have been vice-a-versa. I experienced it.

I don’t necessarily foresee social media websites falling out of fashion, but I do foresee them becoming more niche. Best example is Sphinn.com, it’s like Digg for internet marketing only. I believe the community aspect of the internet will always exist. Because when you break it down, social media websites are just communities with funky names.

By: Tanya Ferrell

Tanya Ferrell — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 02:25:25 +0000

Google is definitely evolving. I think the acquisition of DoubleClick is good for them if their goal is to become an advertising company, which I think it is. I love Google. I’m really hoping they come out with a way to bring social media and advertising together. Harness a new behavior, as you said.

By: kathryn milette

kathryn milette — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 00:27:05 +0000

Being relatively new to social networking, I can’t really comment on it being a bubble experience.

However, I just did a case on Google in school, and we talked about the future of their business model. Their mantra, charters, vision, etc are all about search and doing good. But really, they are evolving from a search company to an advertising company. I think they are a “relevance” company. I think the way advertising now exists on their site will change - maybe their AdSense sites will have tailored advertising that those site owners are familiar with and recommend.

It’s all about trust with advertising. You’ve got to trust the source. It feels like social media is all about trust in the form of referrals and recommendations. The question is how do we harness that new type of behavior to advertise. Its not sexy when it comes down to the bottom line.