Social Media

1. We want to connect.

2. We want to participate.

3. We want access.

4. We want to know what our favorite celebrities are up to.

5. We want to know someone is reading our complaint to the corporation.

6. We want to put in little to get out a lot.

7. Clutter is our enemy.

8. We hate advertisements.

9. We want to know what's important. Filters are everything.

10. We want information we can use. The more drivel, the less we pay attention.

11. We want to believe the social media site is on the same side as us, since we're providing all the content, that it's just not a Wall Street play.

12. Privacy is everything. Especially in the wake of Snowden and the NSA. If there are controls, they must be easily accessed and understood and not constantly updated in a cat and mouse battle ensuring the site is profitable and the customer is hoodwinked.

13. Self-promotion is anathema.

14. Just because you have our ear, that does not mean we're interested in everything you have to say. Either play to your core or play to everybody. If you're doing the latter give us less information.

15. Photos are almost as important as text, because they convey a humanity and realness text cannot.

16. Most people aren't aware of most social media. Read this "New York Times" story on the girl who committed suicide after being bullied on ask.fm, Kik and Voxer. The average person wouldn't think there are enough people on these sites to make a difference, to drive someone to the brink. But just like every generation needs its pre-fab teen hero, every generation needs its own social network. As Wall Street concentrates on one, the youngsters are on the bleeding edge taking everybody to another. This is the Rock Band/Guitar Hero effect. Once everybody in industry and finance believes the ground has solidified, we know that it's going to be whipped out from underneath them.

"Girl’s Suicide Points to Rise in Apps Used by Cyberbullies": http://nyti.ms/18kyaF6

17. E-mail is more powerful than ever, which is why corporations/e-mailers are complaining about Google's new Gmail filters.

Retailers Fight Exile From Gmail In-Boxes: http://nyti.ms/17HlBRj

18. Social media is no match for word of mouth. They can be one and the same, but frequently are not, consumers know the difference between what is hype and what is genuine.

19. Quantifications end up being meaningless, because the system is being gamed. Look to results, not the number of likes and followers. In other words, you can have a ton of likes but sell no product.

20. Social media is subsidiary to the product. If the product is good enough, the minions will spread the word via social media. You don't need a social media plan if your product is good enough. However, if it's a physical product as opposed to an Internet service, seeding tastemakers with it pays dividends, this is how Samsung has made inroads in mobile.

21. The biggest tech companies have the smallest social media footprint. I.e. Google and Apple are already online, they lead with their product, their goal is to get you to go to their site as opposed to trumpeting how good they are on other sites.

22. Just because Yahoo bought Tumblr that does not mean it's forever. As a matter of fact, insiders believe it's mainly become a repository for porn, ironically replacing Yahoo Groups.

23. No one reads the comments. Not on YouTube, not on the HuffingtonPost. Comments allow the commenter to feel good about himself, seeing his name on screen, but the end effect is essentially meaningless. As for the quantity of comments...ask yourself, have you ever commented? Only those without power and too much time on their hands comment online.

24. We're inured to the new. So we're always looking for social networks. Furthermore, social networks might not be the next big thing. We assume we can connect with everybody, who will provide the next step?

25. Interface counts. MySpace was killed because of its lousy one and Twitter still hasn't come up with a reasonable one understandable by many.

26. We've got social media fatigue. People have seen the movie, they don't need the new site, they don't need to waste more time. Yes, teenagers with too much time on their hands living in the hothouse of school will search for the new, but... It's just like there are people hunting the new in music, yet most people are satisfied letting others do the legwork, only paying attention when something reaches critical mass.

27. Zynga rose and sunk. Social gaming was a fad. Oh, it will continue with massive online games, but all the people who bought mobile phones and tablets who became overnight diehard gamers are done now.

28. The social medium does not want you infiltrating its business, you might think a helper app makes users' lives easier, but even if this is so, the social medium considers you the enemy.

29. Just because Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook that does not make him an expert on anything other than Facebook.

30. Social media is now a feature, like a spell-checker. Once upon a time, spell-check was a separate program you paid extra for, then it was integrated into Microsoft Office and other word processing programs.

31. Social media is here to stay. But not on multiple platforms. There will be a consolidation, a migration to a very few, which just might be integrated into other, larger businesses.

32. The thrill is gone. We know we can connect, but can you affect our regular human everyday lives? That's where the frontier is, making us feel better about ourselves and our existence when we're not tethered to the computer, tablet or phone.


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