Interesting summary from Forrester:
blogs.forrester.com/augie_ray/10-09-28-why_are_social_behaviors_plateauing
I like the categories for social network behavior they use here, particularly Creators and Joiners. It is true that with the simplification of online publication, more people than ever are saying more of what they think, or what others think, on a consistent basis.
Their messages are also read by more people and archived in myriad manners, forcing us to recognize that the traditional reality of gateways of information to not exist as they once did.
Instead the gateways to information are defined by a coupling of which networks people are involved in and to whom they “connect” themselves within those networks.
So for those not so interested in sharing or Creating, there are added the Joiners, those who setup their profiles on the networks they deem indispensable simply so they are availed of the chatter of those more prone to create.
From these grow services that help Joiners aggregate their various profiles so that they can more quickly read and digest the Created “content”.
The main problem that I’ll mention here with this paradigm is that all of these services thrive because they are essentially free. This is also a root of the trouble we have with “news”, specifically that when all content is free, facts take a distant backseat to entertaining and gripping eyeballs.
Makes you wonder what’s really out there anymore. For us here in Connecticut, today, it’s rain, baby!
Stay dry folks!