I read this paragraph from an article titled 10 Ways Social Media will change in 2009:
“They will connect around meaningful topics and have live and simultaneous conversations within parameters they themselves define, which will bring relevance back to their interaction with others.”
This got me thinking about my “meaningful topics” and how they related to the social networking technologies I use the most: Facebook, Twitter, BrightKite, LinkedIn and Gyminee.
Facebook is my mindless entertainment
Like everyone it seems, I joined Facebook a while ago and connected with a few old high school friends. That seems like the good ole’ days of Facebook, now I am friends with clients, coworkers, and people I grew up with but were never friends with and my wife and Denver friends. Facebook competes with entertainment like watching TV, reading a magazine, etc. Most of my Facebook activity is at night or triggered by receiving an email notification. Facebook becomes increasingly relevant to my social life as my friends begin to use it and post time sensitive, relevant things like “wanna go skiing tomorrow?”. Find Kelly Taylor on Facebook
Twitter means keeping in touch with the tech community
Most of the people I follow on twitter are tweeps in the Boulder/Denver tech scene, VCs or software developers. Only a small percentage of people I follow are actually friends of mine in real life. Surfing twitter usually sends me down productive, educational rabbit holes, informs me of what’s going on in the community and what is top of mind for the important thinkers in the tech industry. I take twitter very seriously and feel it’s added tremendous value to my career. Find Kelly Taylor on twitter
BrightKite broadcasts how rad I am
I only “Check In” occasionally using BrightKite on my iPhone. Usually I do this because I am somewhere cool like my favorite restaurant Mountain Sun or hanging out skiing in Silverthorne. I love BrightKite’s iPhone app and have fun with the service….but kindof wish twitter would buy them to simplify things. Find Kelly Taylor on BrightKite
LinkedIn is my Career Counselor
I look at and tweak my LinkedIn profile occasionally which helps me perform an internal audit of my career and how things are progressing. The act of joining groups on LinkedIn seems almost more important than participating in them. Occasionally I comment on a discussion or attempt to connect with someone through someone in my network, but that’s about the extent of it. View Kelly Taylor’s profile on LinkedIn
Gyminee is my training reality check
I’ve used web apps before to help with my marathon and triathlon training such as Training Peaks. My latest favorite is Gyminee because of the beautiful UI including graphs and “letter grades” as well as it’s social networking component. Most of my “friends” on Gyminee are similar to my twitter friends, I only know them online and we’ve possibly met once or twice in real life. Even though I don’t know these people it still provides a good motivator for me to keep up on my workouts, post my progress and comment on group discussions. View Kelly Taylor’s Workouts on Gyminee
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It is interesting to ponder the “meaningful topics” in my life that I don’t use social networking technologies for, there aren’t any.
This leads me to the conclusion that the idea of a “Social Network” is going to fade into basic computing and life infrastructure.
I enjoyed reading the above articles for the author’s predictions in 2009: Ad Revenue, Convergence of Networks and Platforms, Social Media Jobs…very similar to 2008 predictions I’ve read. One predication I feel he missed is that today’s “Social Media” is the gateway to interactive TV. Watching Obama’s Inauguration speech on CNN/Facebook with my Facebook “News Feed” showing my friends realtime comments about the event is a good indicator of things to come.
All in all, pondering Social Media’s future from time to time is a good thing. Goodness knows most of my drinking beers, dinner with friends conversation begins with “So, on Facebook I read that…..”.
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