The Bennett Scoop – November Edition, 2011 By Rebecca Bennett

The Next Form of Social Media:

Moving Towards A 1-Stop Shop

Is social media becoming outdated? There was MySpace and Friendster. Now’s there’s

Facebook, Linked In and Twitter. But just as MySpace and Friendster phased out, what’s to

say that the ever popular Facebook won’t too. “As adoption of social networks soared in previous

years, growth is now plateauing.” eMarketer forecasts “that Facebook growth will hit only 13.4% this

year after experiencing 38.6% acceleration in 2010 and a staggering 90.3% ascension the year before.

Facebook isn’t alone in its sobriety either. The rate of Twitter user adoption fell from 293.1% growth in

2009 to 26.3% this year.” 1 Social Media has been on a steep climb since 2002, but just as

everything does, it will reach its peak and then plummet, as one can see it has already started,

it’s just a matter of when. However, according to social media leader, Brian Solis, a principal at

a major research-based advisory firm, Altimeter, “The end of Social Media 1.0 is the beginning of a

new era of business, consumer engagement, and relevance.” 2 It is unlikely that social media is one of

those trends that goes out the window along with beanie babies and pet rocks. It is probably

here to stay and is just on the verge of a new transformation in order to stay relevant to a

modern society where “consumers are becoming much more guarded” 3 against advertising on social

media platforms. So what is going to be next in social media?

                                                                                                                         1  eMarketer.  What  Changing  Social  Media  Usage  Means  for  Marketers.  http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1008550.  August  22,  2011.  

2  Solis,  Brian.  The  End  of  Social  Media  1.0.  http://www.briansolis.com/2011/08/the-­‐end-­‐of-­‐social-­‐media-­‐1-­‐0/.    Aug  29,  2011. 3  Solis,  Brian.  The  End  of  Social  Media  1.0.  http://www.briansolis.com/2011/08/the-­‐end-­‐of-­‐social-­‐media-­‐1-­‐0/.    Aug  29,  2011.  

 

In order to find the next level in social media, one has to understand its purpose. Having

grown familiar with it for almost a decade now, we have come to the conclusion that there are

four main functions of social media: to network, advertise and market yourself for work; to

connect with friends, peers, & family; to connect with customers and advertise your business;

and to stay connected to products, services, and brands as a fan mainly for promotional

discounts. In the good old days we used personal interaction and land lines to reach out to

friends and network, we used cold calls to help get a business or career started and got

discounts by carrying around a card with hole punches in it every time we bought something.

Now social media is our medium to fulfill these needs. But no matter how innovative the

concept of social media was back in 2002, the so called “half life” of anything in technology is

historically short, so no doubtedly, the next new Facebook is just around the corner.

The fallout points in social media platforms today are that they don’t fully serve all of these

functions in one place. For example, you may use Facebook to connect with friends and advance

business, but would you use it to showcase your work and credentials? Or would you rather use

LinkedIn to do that? It doesn’t have the same degree of professional clout as LinkedIn does.

Likewise, would you post those crazy pictures of yourself partying on LinkedIn? You have to

maintain many different sites in order to fulfill all four functions. According to the Global Web

Index, a “report that delivers insight into how consumers are using social networks and technology,” not

only is “growth in social network usage among 16- to 24-year-olds in the US stalling, and, in a few

countries usage within this group is declining” but “Facebook is no longer the one stop shop for the total

internet experience.” 4 If there was a single social media website that incorporated the best of

Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter and even went so far as to incorporate subscription media

                                                                                                                         4  Wave  5  Trends  –  GlobalWebIndex.  http://www.slideshare.net/Tomtrendstream/wave-­‐5-­‐trends-­‐master-­‐august-­‐2011-­‐slideshare-­‐version.  August  2011.

 

streaming services such as Netflix, Pandora, Time Warner, DISH, DIRECTV, video-

conferencing and integrated mobile apps, then it might have the potential to become king of the

next generation of social media platforms.

To fully envision this new, more integrated, level of social media, I have outlined a

conceptual layout of social media 2.0. Adhering to the aforementioned 4 main functions: Home,

Work, Consumer & Business, your profile would be comprised of 4 related sections.

The HOME section would be “Facebook-esque” serving your personal life and would allow

you to connect to friends and family, post personal pictures and comments, maintain your own

personal blog, etc. An issue, with old school social media platforms however, is once you’re a

friend you can see everything on that person’s profile. Therefore, now, each profile will have

the option to select its own privacy settings in case you want to share that crazy night with

your close friends, but not necessarily with your boss, who might be a connection in your

WORK profile. By breaking the site down into these separate sections you can still keep

personal life and work separate, as they should be. This section would be where you do all your

entertainment consumption as well. You can subscribe to either free or paid services whether

they be an online version of your current service such as DIRECTV or Cable, or streaming

services such as Pandora or Hulu. Similar to TV, you can surf through channels, record shows

via an online DVR service which can synch to your traditional DVR at home and set up alerts

as to when a show or movie becomes available to stream for free. Best of all, you would have

the ability to watch your selections on whatever registered platform you liked. But that’s not

even the center of the pie yet. Since you were already chatting with your friends, why stop

when you want to watch a movie. This is where the novel “e-date” would come into play. Invite

friends or dates to watch a movie or show or listen to music with you, and via a messenger

 

application or video chat on your smart phone, you can share the experience in real-time

running the streams simultaneously, as if you were there together. Plan in advance and

schedule your e-date in your profile calendar which of course would also be synchronized with

the applications you use for your work and home calendars.

The second section, WORK, would be the LinkedIn function, where one can network with

industry contacts, gain recommendations, and showcase your work in an online portfolio. This

is also where you would present your resume and discuss any current projects you are working

on. Based on your industry, you will get to choose a different calibrated template for your

profile depending on whether you’re creative, scientific, technical, domestic, etc. with related

designs. For example, an artist might have a profile with a funky background and display a

gallery of their work in their portfolio. Their SM Profile could even replace a costly customized

website to promote their work because it essentially acts as the same thing. Whereas a doctor

would have a more serious background and could post medicinal journals or case studies they

have worked on. You can have the option to start your own “Industry Insights Blog” which you

can share with the colleagues and clients you connect with. This section would also incorporate

a video/web conferencing capability. During a web-conference, people can automatically view

your online WORK profile so they can know who you are as you suggest that stellar idea.

Since starting one’s own business is becoming a more common phenomenon, social media is

a great place for getting your business out there. The third section, called BUSINESS, would

be for the entrepreneurial minded. This would be your platform to inform people what you are

selling, what you can offer loyal customer such as discounts and sales, and even directly book

appointments with clients.

 

Lastly, the fourth section, CONSUMER, would be for fans and loyal customers. If you’re a

fan of let’s say the Lakers, Target, Olive Garden, and Nike, under this section you would select

those businesses as your “Favs” and you would automatically be alerted to Nike brand updates,

pre-sale Lakers game tickets, or fan-only discounts to Target and Olive Garden. You could

even have the option to track and correlate your most common credit card purchases so that

you’ll always be in the loop on new products, upgrades, recalls, additions, rebates, etc based on

what you actually buy and use. This section is where you could also record a Wishlist and you

could receive alerts as to when a product is available and compare prices.

Common features that would occur across all profiles would include: Status bar; Tweets;

Subscription Services; Apps; Devices; and Email.

In your status bar, it would list not only all your friends’ availability, but also what they

are currently streaming, so you could “opt in” and share the experience with them at the exact

same point where they are. At the same time a messenger application of your choice would

startup automatically on any device of your choosing preset in your options, so you can chat at

the same time. You can’t get more connected than that. Part of the idea of this new level of

social media is that it will integrate not only multiple platforms at once allowing you to really

multitask, but also integrate technology allowing you to be more social.

The Twitter function would be throughout all the sections drawing in tweeters. You

can tweet on the main page which will carry across all profiles or on just one individual profile.

You will be able to adjust privacy settings on whether or not you want to share tweets across

all profiles, some or none, either always or on a tweet by tweet basis.

From the main page you would be able to manage all your subscription services for each

profile. For example, you can subscribe to link your Cable and Pandora radio accounts to your

 

HOME section, subscribe to a web/video conference service or office messenger service in your

WORK profile.

You would even be able to link your home and work email accounts to the free email

account provided on your profile so you can check all your email in one place and not have to

sign in separately. Email is not the only thing that could be synched. Websites such as

Meetup.com could synchronize with your profile so that you can schedule a meet-up or look for

a group without having to leave the site and log in separately.

Lastly, apps have endless possibilities. New ones are coming out everyday doing any

function in the world you can think of. Synching your mobile device apps on your phone with

those on your social media profiles will allow you further flexibility in access. You would be

able to buy apps through the site and synch to your profiles and devices. For example, you

could install all your game and life management apps on your HOME profile, price tracking

apps on your CONSUMER profile, tock tracking apps on your BUSINESS profile, and time

and expense tracker apps on your WORK profile.

 

When you utilize these other functions, you would be able to choose which device you

want to work from for different things. For example, when you begin streaming a movie, say

“When Harry Met Sally,” a pop up window (Figure 1), will ask you where would you like to

view your selection?

FIGURE 1

Logging into several different websites to manage your profiles and setting up each

profile with the same basic info is redundant and time-consuming. It would be great if you

could do it just once and it would reach across all your profiles. Many users today complain of

“Facebook fatigue” because of all the work it takes to maintain your profile. Social Media 2.0

eliminates that fatigue by consolidating one’s online social life and real life into one manageable

vehicle. The new generation of social media would be a one stop shop. You would be able to

manage your life and enjoy all your subscriptions through one site, but across multiple

platforms, integrating all technology and optimizing customization at an unprecedented level,

and yet keep each aspect of your life separate from the other. I think we have come to the

realization that there is a future in social media, the question is, when will the next Zuckerman

start the “Face”-off?

Where would you like to view your selection?

ο Home Computer

ο Work Computer ʘ iPad

ο iPhone

ο iPod

ο Living Room TV

ο Bedroom TV

ο Other