Social Media Technologies and the Fishbowl: What’s In, What’s Out?

Listening today to last week’s Media Bulleye roundtable podcast (in particular their discussion of “social media burnout”) got me to thinking about the status of various technologies relative to our dear old friend the “fishbowl” a.k.a. the echo chamber a.k.a. are we all just a bunch of nerds talking to ourselves?

This list is by no means exhaustive, (not even close!) nor are the statuses I assign going to necessarily be correct next week (or by the time I hit the publish button for that matter) but here’s my current take on some of the most familiar names in Web 2.0-osity as relates to how they are seen by those inside and outside the mythic Bowl…

Facebook
Fishbowl Status: OUT

Facebook is arguably the poster child for a social media technology that has broken through to the mainstream. That’s been good and bad for it. Most of my friends from high school seem to be on Facebook, but many of them wouldn’t know a blog if it hit them in the head. In the meantime bloggers like Neville Hobson have turned up their noses at Facebook — personally I’m still not sure if I consider this elitist or an excellent mental health preservation tactic, but I do find it funny how success with the masses often breeds contempt with the pioneers and early adopters.

Twitter
Fishbowl Status: ON IT’S WAY OUT (?)

It seems like Twitter has been getting a lot of press and attention lately. The Toronto Star published yet another Twitter article this past weekend, which is usually a sign in this country at least that something has broken through to the general consciousness. Personally I’m still not sure if Twitter really has a place in the lives of most people — for the connectors and mavens of the world it plays a clear role, but will the vast majority of people find real value in a stream of Tweets? (And that’s assuming the service is up when they check, a dubious prospect these days at best!)

Myspace
Fishbowl Status: WAY, WAY OUT

Myspace is all but forgotten among the social media elite, but it’s important to remember that it still has larger overall traffic than Facebook or Twitter. As Christopher Penn pointed out in a blog post last year “Myspace is over its Dip.” It may not be relivant to those interested in the cutting edge, but for marketers, musicians and others, there’s still juice to be had in Myspace-land.

Second Life
Fishbowl Status: WAS OUT, NOW BACK IN

A little while back I blogged about how Second Life was and is a concept just a little bit ahead of its time. Since then, there seems to be some renewed interest in last year’s media darling. Part of the reason seems to be the installation of Mark Kingdon as the new CEO for Second Life parent company Linden Lab. That Kingdon comes from an agency background is particularly interesting — it’s useful to remember that Linden never really marketed Second Life, nor did they directly engage with most of the companies who created presences there. Putting Kingdon at the top seems to indicate that they are actually ready to partner and promote what remains a virtual world with amazing potential.

Blogs
Fishbowl Status: READING, OUT. WRITING, IN.

I think there’s a common perception inside the social media fishbowl that everyone has their own blog. It’s not true. It’s really, REALLY not true. For example, I work at a digital marketing agency. Everyone who works there, by definition, has a higher-than-average expertise and understanding of online technology. They are, again by definition, all involved at some level in marketing, design and programming, which are three of the most common blogging topic areas. They are also all pretty darn smart. I would estimate 5-10% have a blog. 15%, absolute tops. Pretty low, all things considered. That said, many of them read blogs of one kind or another. But it’s that old 1% rule at play… a small minority create, the rest consume.

Podcasts
Fishbowl Status: STILL IN. (SIGH…)

I hate to say it, but podcasting may be doomed to be the ham radio of the new millennium. The only podcasts that seem to have much notice by the public at large are those created by traditional media outlets or celebrities. The fact that the CBC or Ricky Gervais can have popular podcasts is great I suppose, but it’s not exactly been the breakthrough medium many of us had hoped.

YouTube
Fishbowl Status: LIKE, TOTALLY OUT

While podcasting seems to have faltered, media producers trying to reach a mass audience do have YouTube as a place to publish. You’ll be up against everything from John Stewart to cats on tricycles, but at least you won’t have to explain to anyone how it works.

FriendFeed
Fishbowl Status: SEEMS TO EXIST TO BE IN

FriendFeed’s primary use is to take all the feeds from all the other networks you use and put them into FriendFeed. Until all its content sources are out of the fishbowl, can FriendFeed itself every truly be out?

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