Mashable is an independent news site devoted to digital culture and technology and was one of the first publishers to join Google+. Since joining, Mashable has been building their audience on the platform, growing Google+ into one of their top 10 sources of referral traffic. We chatted with Mashable’s Community Manager, Meghan Peters, about their first few months on Google+ and what’s made them so successful.
I think many of us realize that Google+ was a bit of a bust and most people stopped using after it was launched. I found Mashable's endorsement of Google+ to be a strange one and then was obviously curious about money relations and things of that sort. Recently Facebook bought the social networking website Instagram and also bought a newer social networking website called Viddy. How do you feel about these social media websites coming together? And is Facebook the new 21st century monopoly?
I personally like that the social media sites are coming together. There are so many of them that they are overwhelming and hard to keep track of and stay connected through. Lowering that number would be very helpful. I think Facebook is the new 21st century monopoly. It has become the face of social media and I think it has staying power. Because it adapts to changes in social media by acquiring new sites like Instagram and has strong following, I think it is here to stay.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Haley. On an average day, I usually have around five tabs up on my laptop (Facebook, CNN, Twitter, my e-mail, and my iGoogle homepage). It's getting exhausting trying to keep up with everything, and I attribute my lack of Google+ interactions to that. I created one, poked around on it, and then simply stopped checking it because I didn't want to keep up with it. Also, few of my friends were on it and there was little compelling information (especially of the news variety). Facebook now has a "trending articles" segment, which allows users to see what their friends are reading, which followed the advent of Yahoo! and Washington Post "social reader" applications. Facebook is becoming increasingly more of a host to articles, and often seeing what friends read is a good incentive to check out the same story even if it's not something a user would gravitate towards alone. (I can attest to this--I've read much more about the Kardashians since the "social readers" came to fruition than I had before). Now with the addition of Instagram and Viddy, Facebook has an even greater reach. Though I don't think it's quite a "monopoly" yet (Twitter has integrated Instagram, along with yfrog for "Twitpics") I do think it's slowly progressing in that direction.
ReplyDeleteIt's great to see all these social media networks coming closer together. Because of the number and size of them, it can be tiring and overwhelming to keep up. Like Jamie said, Facebook has been developing beyond the term of a social network. Applications like the social readers and others have are now available on Facebook, increasing the interactivity of the website. The company has really welcomed the new age and has advanced by acquiring Instagram. So Facebook has grown and become a focal point in the media world. However, it's not at that monopoly point yet because it was is growing as well.
ReplyDeleteI think social media coming together would be convenient because like Haley said, there is just too much of it right now to keep up with! I would love if Twitter and facebook could somehow find a way to come together... would that mean I would only spend half the time on them?
ReplyDeleteTo some extent I'm still waiting for the next social networking site to come around that will blow facebook out of the water. maybe it will be a tweeting/profile combo! Facebook has become so powerful so quickly and everything fades out eventually.... except maybe google. Remember when we thought we would be on AIM forever and then facebook and gchat replaced it? I think it is only a matter of time...