Your Social Media Channel Just Became Uncool.
A social media channel going “uncool”? I’m talking about something like, well, Plurk as an example. Plurk is a microblogging channel and well, it’s losing it’s cool factor. As are other social media services, including MySpace (as Abrams Research recently found.) With the evolution of social media moving quickly and growing, the “tools” are perhaps more at risk of losing value, quickly, than any other form of product in history. Including the Chia Pet and Pet Rocks.
Here is an often undiscussed business risk of engaging in a social media channel. MySpace is already feeling the pinch of becoming “uncool” as advertisers shift their spending to more popular Facebook. Plurk is seeing outward migration to Twitter. Some smart companies still haven’t engaged fully in social media, and that may not be a bad thing.
Walgreen’s didn’t move onto the Web until 2000, preferring instead to watch the mistakes of the first movers then capture that space. They did, and they did it well. The risk today is not just a service becoming “uncoll”, it’s also that the service may shut down due to lack of a business model and subsequent funding.
So, you might say, just move to another service. Certainly, but not easy. Again, you have to “listen” to see where those people you were engaging or marketing to have gone. Then you have to build up your presence again…all of which takes time.
Is there a way to know what’s becoming “uncool”? If you’re listening to the chatter, there are signs as people move, and usually they’ll tell their freinds. If you have a good rapport with them, likely they’ll tell you as well. It’s bound to happen, but by always listening and having a contingency plan, a move to a new service can be a little less painful. What would you do?