Hold my calls! I’m trying to figure out why one brand of online network is better than another!
Instead of hanging out on my own blog site these past few months I’ve been hanging out in a number of other online spaces, blog and otherwise, doing research for my new book, BrandDigital, which I hope will demystify this potentially mystifying marketing space. In order to help others make sense of the digital territory I’ve had to make sense of it for myself which has meant, in part, creating personal profiles on a couple of the online networking sites of which there are many, LinkedIn, Ryze, Friendster, Spoke, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and EntreMate, to name just a few. Since beginning my book less than a year ago the number of these online hangouts have continued to increase, some supposedly more business oriented than others, some skewed to a somewhat younger demographic, and some promising to keep out the hoi polloi ( Aren’t we all hoi polloi online?). But in my perusing I’ve found that these sites are all pretty much the same and breed the same sort of behavior: As soon as you post your profile you have hundreds of people who want to ‘friend’ you; you run into the same ‘friends’ from site to site; it takes an inordinate amount of effort to keep your identity consistently updated across sites; and these sites can be incredible time suckers. In fact, whenever I log onto one site or another I think about one of the many interviews I had in preparation for writing my new book. This particular interview was with Phil McIntyre, an online marketing and production veteran who told me about a viral marketing initiative he created. It was a spoof of YouTube called “PhilTube” which, in the style of “The Office” parodied life in the digital-office age. In one episode the Phil of PhilTube calls out manically to his secretary “Hold all my calls. I’m blogging!” Even when told that some major mogul, a la Donald Trump, is on the line, Phil yells, “Not now – I’m blogging!”
Well, as I try to keep track of my all my online identities along with all the online identities of my ‘friends’ it’s occurred to me that sooner rather than later there’s bound to be a shake out. Social networking sites are becoming commodities. There isn’t one of them that stand out as offering something that much different or better than any other. As a branding professional I can tell you that this spells trouble. The best brands are those that set themselves apart by representing something relevantly different than their category equivalents. Or, as Bob Pittman, founder of MTV and now a partner in the Pilot Group, told me during another interview, “The best brands make the stuff we already do easier, more convenient or more fun. If you can make it better for me I’ll integrate it into my life. If you can’t, I won’t.”
As interesting as these online networks might seem now, they’re going to become tiresome, as commodities do. And, as much as we’d like to think we can, we can’t really keep track of four or five separate online lives and have enough time left for an offline life. One of these sites is going to recognize this. The brand of online networking site that does, that makes it simpler to integrate the activities of maintaining our personal lives online and makes it easier, more convenient and more fun will be the one worth holding the phone for.
April 1st, 2008 at 9:56 am
Great point, Allen. I also have profiles on all the major networking sites, but find myself spending less and less time with them. Why? I think it’s to your points of a.) these sites are becoming commodoties and not really offering a differentiating factor; b.) too time consuming!
If I were to compare each of the popular social networking sites from a branding persepctive, I would say that LinkedIn has done the best job thus far – carving out a specific niche and, for the most part, remaining relevantly different to its core group of users. However, copy-cat sites are popping up all the time and in order to survive I think they’ll need to find a more sustainable advantage. If you’re looking for a basis for comparison, I think search engines are a great example. The number of “search engines” that exist is astronomical. However, when you hear “search engine,” you think Google. I beleive this is becasue of it’s simple, relevant nature. Google provides more information, offers more products and is one of the largest companies in the world, yet visit their homepage and all you see is their logo, a few text links and a search bar. Social networks, and many companies for that matter, should take note.
As a whole, I tend to feel that networking sites will eventually become a thing of the past, especially as digital media continues moving toward mobile. You speak a lot about brand “experience,” and I believe the time it takes someone to keep up on all of their profiles will become too big a pain, equating to a negative experience and forcing us to find new, quicker ways of keeping in touch.
September 22nd, 2008 at 4:15 am
JDS1 it is good point you have made ! Allen, what do you think what is the next step in communications ? Because, I think it is true that many people just do not want to waste their time in that social networking sites. Is mobile direction is an option ?
And also, one thing which might not directly engages in the issues we are discussing, but I have a great doubt that Starbacks is doing good last days, do not you think that it lost its attraction ?