

Social networking is underhyped. - mspeiser
http://laserlike.com/2008/11/01/social-networking-is-underhyped/

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axod
This suggests social networking is a new thing... It's not IMHO, it's been
around forever. The current crop of "social network sites" have just pulled a
few things together, done some things better than what went before (Finding
people), and some things worse (Email/IM).

The real question is how do you make money out of it.

~~~
electromagnetic
Social Networking is nothing new, and is still inherently useless. It's
somewhat good at keeping in contact with people, but largely there is no
contact between people using it. People stay 'in contact' by reading other
peoples facebook status updates, not actually talking to them.

I met my wife through the internet, but she was a friend of a friend. Ask most
couples how they met and a lot will say they were introduced by a friend. How
do I say it? Well I was introduced by a friend!

Social Networking allows people to spend less time talking to people and still
feel somewhat connected. There's no use in it except staving off the loss of a
friend. I cut all my friends when I left high school, I moved country and I
live in Canada. I don't miss a single friend from back in England, 99% of them
were people who I'd have on a facebook account and completely avoid talking
to.

The way to make social networking sites profitable, is to make people use them
frequently enough without draining resources. Google makes a lot of money,
because the data use by a single user is tiny. The data use by a Facebook user
is huge, my wife probably uses 10 megs of bandwidth every time she checks the
site. Yet everytime she hits google, she probably uses 10k of bandwidth from a
google server to get where she wants to go.

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apsurd
Is it realistic for a social networking site to partner with a record label
and use the network as a means to:

1\. Promote new acts

2\. Promote new events, tours, shows, releases.

3\. Sell music, merch, tickets, and everything else.

The reason why I choose record labels and music is because people are very
connected, social, and passionate about their music tastes. Also I would think
there are many opportunities available in the music industry. For example if
you are huge like fb you partner with Sony and the like. If you are small,
there are countless indie labels to work with.

I've always liked this idea, but I'm not big on SNS so what do you guys think?

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prospero
Facebook's social graph only describes my life if I use it as my primary
medium of communication. Network effect aside, the value it holds for me in my
day-to-day life drops off exponentially the less I use it. Either online
interaction will supplant interaction in the real world, or online
approximations of our lives will continue to be lossy and somewhat trivial.

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fallentimes
Not based on investment dollars.

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qqq
No it's not.

~~~
lhorn
Agreed. He's suggesting that most people haven't realized the possibilities of
it yet.

I am observing the opposite: the mainstream public (looking at my non-techie
friends) have been fully exposured to it, had enough of it, and is slowly
getting tired of it. We're not talking about early adopters anymore: everybody
has an online identity and has learned its limitations and implications.

If anything, social networks are getting boring: outside of your real circle
of friends you see the same strangers posing to be smarter, better looking and
happier than they really are: people aren't that different after all, and your
real social network stays where it has always been: in your cell phone's
address book.

And that's where I'll be turning to for an advice about finding a doctor or a
car mechanic. I don't give a rat's ass about what "people on the internet"
have to say. At least half of them voted for Bush. Twice.

~~~
sanj
Really? Half of your social graph on facebook voted for Bush? I am guessing
that isn't accurate. It _is_ the case that half of all Americans voted for
Bush twice.

But I think that makes the point: what the original post is suggesting is that
your social graph could be used to limit the mechnics you want to those that
are left leaning hippies (like me!) who use vegan vegetable oil in the
crankcase. All because you surround yourself with people like you.

Please note that I am not advocating that this is necessarily a good thing.
Just that you are making the point very well.

