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Paula Drum has it mostly right. But here's what was missed by all your participants: someone will actually bother to study how the average account holder uses these apps. Someone will thoughtfully pose the question - are social media apps necessary or just a passing fad? I can tell you I have an account, but most people I know use it as a form of a contact book and little more. Most discussions I've had with others about these sites is how to block the crap we don't want - corporate ads, chatterbox friends, news updates about how people are using products I'm not interested in and so on (fill out this quiz, play this game, join this cause, your received a X-mas ornament etc.). Just like Email, social networking is evolving into spam management for most users. My prediction, some major sites will fold, or merge ? just as we see in the news today about a possible MySpace/Facebook merger. Business will continue to ONLY speculate about the usefulness of social networking. The social network application space will shrink, and marketers will move on to the next advertising fad. Paula Drum has it mostly right.
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