Social Networking Will Become Business As Usual

From my latest contribution to Advertising Age:

"None of this is inherently bad -- this isn't a gripe or a cry for help. It's simply an observation that not unlike e-mail, many of the social applications we use are becoming so convenient, so utilitarian that they begin to attract activity that we need to learn to filter out. Just ask any metrics analyst, they'll show you the stats of how effective well-designed e-mail initiatives can be. But there's a catch. Most effective e-mails are opted into by users who have decided to hear more from brands (or individuals) they trust. Violate that trust, and you are in the spam business.

As social networks become mainstream, it will be business as usual. We'll log onto our network of choice, just as we log onto e-mail and sift through the spam. And we'll be making up our minds about brands and people along the way. Those who spam us will become a nuisance, something to tolerate. And those who make it worth our time will be rewarded with our trust and maybe even loyalty. As marketers and individuals, the choice to add value or generate more noise is ours to make."

Read the full article on Digital Next

Comments

[Geoff Livingston]

A-fricking men. And I can't wait for that, because the shiny object syndrome is getting old!

[Bukola Ekundayo]

Great article. I'd take it a step further and say that most folks will log onto facebook or myspace as their 'general network' to keep in touch with friends and an increasing number of people will rely on niche-networks to feed their passions (i.e. shopping, celebrity gossip or in my case gaming).

[Garrick Schmitt]

Couldn't agree more. And I'd go slightly beyond, and wonder when we'll get the portability to have the info on our log-on screen of choice (e.g. iGoogle) and consume/interact with the info in a meaningful manner. Perhaps like FriendFeed, but on steroids....

[Dan Thornton]

It already is for me.
The four things I open when I fire up my PC are:
Email
IM
RSS
Twitter.

And occasionally I then venture to Plurk/Facebook if I have the time. And most of the people I interact with via social networks very rarely ever correspond by email/IM or the telephone, and when they do it's for a very specific and relevant reason.

[Adam Cohen]

David - I think your article is spot on. I also think the social networks take the loyalty/trust to another level, allowing people to more than opt in to emails. I'd love to see a study on whether the type of loyalty measured on social media networks is more or less effective than email - perhaps just because it is becoming mainstream and more convenient. Thanks for the post!