The Social Networking Experiment

14 Jul, 2008 Hmmmm..., Social Networking

It’s a busy time on the internet these days. Since the inception of hugely popular Twitter in 2006 we have seen an explosion in micro-blogging. There are now several micro-blogging services available and they are also integrated into the popular social networking services like Facebook. The list is getting really long http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites sufficed to say that if you use more than one or two of the services on that list on a regular basis you are probably a social media junkie ( or are becoming one like I am ). The micro-blog is an extension of the traditional blog and there are a fair number of A-list bloggers out there that use these social networking services.

I have had a great time meeting people, discovering services and learning the jargon. It’s a fantastic world out there and services like Twitter, Plurk, Indent.ca, Tumbler and Pownce are full of great people that have something to share. Sometimes it’s about breakfast and sometimes its about the more serious things in life. There is a fantastic amount of information shared, and it is being used to motivate people, like this recent blood drive in Austin Texas. This is the aspect of the social network that I find so fascinating. The idea that as you build a group of followers, that you interact with, share stories with or just listen to, you can wield a great deal of internet clout. An a-list blogger who undoubtedly uses most if not all of the aforementioned micro-blogging services and has a following of several thousand people can drive traffic to a website for the purposes of promotion or because they don’t like something that is on a particular site.

The addition of easy video services like Seesmic and Stickam will also change the dynamic of the web in a large way. Adding a face takes away the safety of anonymity and provides for a different type of interaction. Leo Laporte is an excellent example of this. He has recently set himself up in his own studio with some cool gear on a reasonable budget (from traditional TV production studios) and is broadcasting 6 days a week at Twitlive.tv. He is usually recording one of his many podcasts with other Twits who are either in the studio or who join him via Skype. He also takes live video calls through Skype and ooVoo as well as from Stickam users in between recordings and just generally talks tech.

It’s going to be really amazing to watch this evolve further over the next few years, but I think we will see a lot more indpendant production making headway over the major traditional broadcasters.