It seems like every day there's some hot, new social platform out there that's supposedly going to be the next big thing. Personally, I'm getting so incredibly burned out by the rate of progress in the social arena, it's not even funny. I mean, I don't blame the progress itself and I understand why everyone gets excited about the latest and greatest thing, but that doesn't make it any less exhausting.
Being in the Internet marketing space like I am, there are social platforms I should be sitting here talking up to everyone and explaining their benefits -- platforms like Klout, Google+, Quora, etc. Now, while they do have their benefits from an Internet marketing and business perspective, I'm struggling to find out why I should personally care about a Klout score or spend my time migrating to Google+ when Facebook already has all of my friends and family tied into it.
It's just... exhausting.
Quora's cool, but it doesn't fit into my life, personally. Professionally and as an Internet marketer, I can tell you that people use Quora to generate unique, useful content to put on their sites. For instance, you hop on Quora, look for a question related to your client's industry, and either pay someone else to write an article that answers that question or you write it yourself. Then, you post that to your client's blog/site/whatever with the right keywords/key phrases and voila: you've got useful, unique content to promote based on an actual question from someone interested in your client's arena.
I mean, I know this stuff. I get it and I think the uses from this aspect are pretty clever/awesome. It's just tiring to keep up with all of it, honestly. As such, they're merely tools in an Internet marketer's toolbox for most people I know within this industry. Google+ is there for us marketers to really take advantage of right now since signals are pretty strong that when it comes to showing social search results, Google favors their own social platform by a wide margin. So... there you go. If you're an Internet marketer and you're looking to promote/rank content socially, you need to jump on the Google+ bandwagon immediately, test some things out, and see how you rank.
Personally, though, I NEVER go to my Google+ account. I signed up for one, sure, but I only use it to promote my content and... that's it. And now, with Google opening up Google+ to business pages, it's pretty clear that Google is simply looking to get in on the massive amount of money to be made from advertising to millions of people in a social network. But as a person and not a dollar figure or Internet marketer, why in the world should I leave Facebook? I understand that Google+ offers some different facets within their social platform, but they aren't facets I would use. In other words, I don't feel like Facebook is lacking anything that Google+ currently provides.
Overall, I understand that we're social creatures and the social space is only going to continue growing like wildfire until it's all figured out, but at the end of the day, I see the social space and new platforms from a totally different light. Social is a bubble right now that's just waiting to burst (meaning, there won't be much innovation left to achieve within social platforms at some point), but until it does, everyone's trying to cash in. We're all just dollar signs to the multitude of marketers and big dogs who are losing sleep, desperately seeking to monetize social media channels.
As for me, I'm good with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Reddit. That's my social media, friend/family/follower networking, professional networking, and social bookmarking all covered. But as someone who must self-promote and stay abreast in this industry, I will persevere do my due diligence with emerging social platforms.
Having said that, I may feel completely different tomorrow and then come right back to this place the day after. Search and social are really exciting to me, but getting overwhelmed and burned out is far too easy in this space right now. I suppose that's where I am with the social platforms: burned out.
What about you, though? Are you getting burned out by the multitude of platforms that emerge seemingly daily, or are you driven by the prospect of finally partaking in a social platform that covers all the bases you feel current ones lack? Also, where do you see the social space ending up, ultimately? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
-Stephen Chapman SEO Whistleblower
