esoteriic.com

On a cold, rainy Sunday evening I find myself raking through tens of websites that we call Social Networks. Facebook, Twitter, G+ to name a few. Each one trying to cater for a different aspect of our needs / personality / privacy (etc) requirements. I've spent a fair amount of time over the last few days plowing through the descriptions of various websites that I haven't yet joined but have heard something positive about; websites that are providing a service that may be useful in promoting blogs / websites or otherwise making my life easier / provide entertainment. A lot of the functionality across the various websites is redundant and not necessarily that useful. There is potentially an oversaturation of social networks and probably too many time is spent on them (but that's for another day). Here I provide my review of which sites I've found useful and why, as well as which sites have been trickier to figure out. This article won't focus upon using social networks for marketing but the comments and criticism are relevant to it.

 

 

Introduction

In the last couple of months I've had more freetime to write article and update this website. I've added some new pages and functionality. I figure that I should try to make my page more active and potentially attract a few more people to comment on the articles (or even to share their ideas). Content is the most important part for me since I maintain that this website isn't really a blog (as I would define one) nor is it a page for promoting a business or product. I current make no money from it and received little to no comments. Why do it? Well, writing is therapeutic plus it is good to organize my ideas in order to develop them. Having an online web-log ([/irony]) of ideas is a good way to do it, I've opted for an open/public space to do so rather than private. All writers (authors) have an arrogance where they think that people will actually read something they've written (and in the case of authors, they believe people will pay for it ^_^ ).

The first place to consider promoting one's website is on the various social networks. While I was digging through the web I came across an article about blog syndication. This link covers pretty much all the necessary places you should consider when promoting your website. It suggests 30 different websites or forms of promotion that will help you to increase readership. Like the stock market though, not everyone can out-perform the market. In this context, there is a finite number of people on the planet and they only have a finite amount of time and interest to follow a link and get involved. Some websites will succeed and others will "fail" (essentially go unread). There is already a ton of websites promoting social interaction, just like forums many will eventually die of inactivity.

In no specific order I provide a review of the following networking sites:

 

Facebook

The most useful social network for staying connected with people you actually know. It's also best for event organizing and mailing groups of friends (easier to remember their name than their email address). Naturally, it has become the biggest social network since it has the greatest functionality (easy to use, lots of features). It soon overtook Myspace (clunky, awkward but useful for musicians) and Bebo (a fair attempt that didn't take off) which has lead to the obvious desire for businesses to get involved. Recall that businesses was originally not allowed on to facebook, in fact it was for students only. Having a facebook page for your business seems to be a must-have, although I think that use of facebook blurs the lines of personal life and work life if you create a page for your own business.

The myriad apps and extensions can basically subsume all over social networks into one place. I'm sure that's the goal.

 

Linked.In

The supposed professional choice for networking. Less personal and by default more private network for portraying a professional image of oneself. Essentially an online and up-to-date CV (in theory). It has less functionality that facebook and to that extent it would seem redundant except that we have made the distinction in our minds that Linked.In is professional while Facebook is personal. I have found its usefulness to be limited. It serves as a professional personal page but little else.

 

Twitter

I couldn't see the point of restricting posts to 140 characters. Now I can see some wisdom in restricting character count as it keeps everything concise but 140 still seems arbitrary, why not 150? In the first couple of years of Twitter I could not see why anyone would want to use it. It seemed like yet another useful platform that was only attracting hipsters. Confirmation of that assessment came when the only person I knew to recommend it was slightly on the hipster side of life. It has far less functionality that facebook and generally has more downtime too. For a good proportion of its life I've found the website awkward and difficult to navigate.

That said, things have improved in the last year. It is now very easy to navigate and I can finally see a point of it: news aggregation. Click follow then wait for the news to pour in. It is far easier to periodically check Twitter through out the day that it is to go to each news website individually (obviously). As more companies and professionals use it then the usefulness of it has increased, there is now a reason for Twitter to exist. It is open and public (by default) but it doesn't require your life history, it is more about making connections and sharing news or links on topics of common of interest. It isn't the only website to aggregate news but you can tailor it to be just so. To that extent it is useful for advertising the latest content on the web.

 

Google+

Yet another social network. I can't really see how this is any different to the three mentioned above. It has a news feed like Twitter except that it displays pictures and videos by default while Twitter does not. It also adds things to your feed that you might be interested in even though you are not 'following' that particular user. It is sleek and quick, and works seemlessly with your gmail/google account. The amount of functionality rivals that of facebook while mixing in the ability to follow other users while becoming their 'friend'. Twitter has followers, while facebook has friends. The latter is about personal connections while the former is about simply having a connection. G+ is the middle ground of the two.

 

Paper.li

Want to create your own online newspaper? Do it at paper.li. It can automatically update so that you don't have to do a thing. In theory. You set up which sources you want to use for your paper, such as Twitter/ Facebook, then tell it how often you want the front page to be updated with the recent news. Quite a cool idea but the default template is too prevalent (and basic) making it feel quite impersonal. The catch is that you pay for the pro version then re-skin it to suit. I think the idea needs more development to be a winner. It has taken me some time to figure out how to use it. It isn't as intuitive as it should be, which is something that the developments should work on. If a service is too complicated to start or update then the number of users will drop. Functionality is also limited: can't edit sections or modify the layout (perhaps in the premium version but at the moment I'm not inclined to pay for something that might not work as I hope).

While Twitter is great for news aggregation it isn't that great to look at for a long time; having a long list as a feed is fine when you are on your phone and looking for some news on the go but when you have time to sit down and read through articles or watch some videos then you would probably prefer to have the information presented in a more pleasing format: enter paper.li. Nice idea but needs some beautification and an increase to functionality.

My attempt at a paper.li online newspaper is here: Abstruse Courier. Enjoy.

 

Reddit

So...yeah... I've used Reddit and I've promoted some of my links there in the past there isn't a lot I can say about it. I didn't like the layout and its sole purpose is for people to aggregate links, and not in a tailored way like Twitter but rather a morass of spam. Sure there are topics you can delve into, so in that way it is more useful that Twitter if you are looking for the latest information on a particular topic but Reddit feels like little more than a glorified forum. I found that links can be thumbed down (negatively voted) for no reason other than to push them off the front page; hot topics can be dominated by who has the biggest online army. The comments are generally puerile trollbait.

Not a complete waste of time if you are aiming to promote your website. It is one of those necessary steps you take in order to promote your content.

 

Digg

Similar functionality as Reddit except it doesn't look as simple, I found it less obtuse to view but in all honestly I haven't tried to use it. Taking part by commenting on these sites reminds me of debating on forums a decade ago: a lot of time was wasted on pointless topics that were circular and often devolved into ad hominem mud slinging. Futile. Since typing this out I decided to take another look at Digg to see how it was. The design has improved and actually looks quite slick. My impression is that Digg is less popular than Reddit though.

Reddit lets you post and view all the links that have been submitted while Digg only shows links that are popular. The pages (links) which are popular are those which have been submitted the most times.

 

Kiltr

Scottish social network, haven't quite figured out what to use it for (yet).

 

Escape the city

A website for finding a entrepreneurial job / project to help with. A neat idea, at least.

 

Angel list

A network for business angels / entrepreneurs: i.e. finding investors/ business angels or for finding a new project to invest into.

 

Business Model Fiddle

Something I only just discovered. It helps to create business plans online. NIce enough sounding idea but yet another network to join: BMFiddle.

 

 

...  and there is still more that I haven't listed. Seems just a bit too many. I can't see how the will all survive, I'm guessing that there will be some consolidation in the future (next few years).