Now in the midst of a severe economic downturn, people are looking for places, ideas and models that represent real intrinsic value. At first glance, the current social media craze might seem to easily fit into the category of over-inflated hype, much like the highly abstract financial ‘tools’ that brought Wall St. down. Taking both a historic and long term view of social media means looking at its core elements as well as how it is fundamentally different from what has proceeded it. Looking at it this way, some unique properties emerge that also meet the criteria for ability to help drive an economy.

1. New experiences

People are always looking for new experiences. A big part of what drives many start ups is excitement about a new idea. For end users, the thing that pulls them in is the chance to have a new experience. Twitter is a new way of exchanging information, a whole new protocol. Facebook and Youtube due to their efficiencies and scale, have both redefined friends networks and video viewing. The growth area here is that the delivery mechanism is pretty much the same for everyone and does not necessarily respond to the way that the user makes use of the results. Youtube and Facebook are catching on to this (New features are added daily).

Systems that can respond to how the data is used will be in more high demand. Beyond that, by the time a standard search engine indexes a given resource, it may no longer be relevant. Social media tends to operate more in a real time environment, where specific streams of data exist and can be tapped into and added to by the user base. In addition, that particular flow of resources can be viewed from a variety of perspectives, angles and filters. Attempting to customize a data stream per user may not make the most sense because an individual has many facets and on any given day will be searching with a different objective in mind. Rather than creating predictive technologies that try to tailor information to what is perceived as the users needs, it would be better to create an infrastructure that facilitates the users desire to empower him or her self as an explorer of that information. In other words, we are still thinking in terms of shipping a product to a customer. Perhaps what is needed is a location of filters or views that allow to user to interact according to needs. This, in effect is creating a new experience that couples with research. Thus, the burden of having to create a new design layout or interface is reduced in favor of utility.

2. Exploration and research

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   Social networks allow a user to explore a path connecting friends and associates as one way of finding reliable information and entertainment resources. This method can commonly be faster and more effective than search engine algorithms that must constantly via against SEO gaming tactics. Friends are still the strongest and most reliable filters out there. Coupled with computing power the strength of those filters can be extended.

3. Efficiencies

   Because business is a competitive affair, anyone who can create efficiencies will be appreciated. As social media evolves and as print, radio and television migrate to the internet more complex design and interfaces will evolve. Maintaining these will require a great deal of effort. From photo design and formatting to coding to business prototyping, there will be commonalities emerging. Being able to abstract out these things will continue to be a skill in growing demand. Access to these tools will represent a huge advantage and equal a large potential ROI. In addition, any system that can create greater efficiencies in either gathering or pushing compelling content to the appropriate recipient will be used extensively.

4. Entertainment

Even in the darkest depths of the great depression there was a need for entertainment. Social media represents the opportunity to fuse entertainment with more classically productive uses of time. Networking has always had a place in business, social web sites allow a more personal interaction to occur. This may effectively lengthen the workday but at the same time turn work into less of a hard edged grind. By making work a more social activity tedium can be reduced and time more wisely spent on pursuing relationships that have been carefully researched before any attempt at sales or explicit attention getting is undertaken. The older model of sales and marketing tends to be visualized as a hunt and pursuit effort. The model enabled by social media has more to do with two organizations of individuals of a like mind meeting each other after having spent some time viewing each other from a safe distance. This helps smooth over interactions and delivers a sense of confidence in both parties.

5. Facilitating communication in new ways

   Aside from the obvious growth from text->sound->video, we can learn more about each other with greater efficiency and in more detail. In addition, the amount of detail we wish to expose can be defined on a per group/per individual basis. Because much of this information is available on open systems without having to contact the person that the data refers to, a single individual can be introduced to a potentially infinite number of clients, service providers, friends and associates at any given time. In fact, each person on the web will effectively have their own publicly available library online for perusal by anyone. This means that each person will have to get used to the idea that they are responsible for their own public relations and branding. While the fact that we will all soon be instantaneously auditable at any given time, it may be reassuring to know that in times of recession, the only thing that matters is results. This may in fact be one of the functions of economic recession, as a process to weed out the service providers who are focused more on their own marketing and branding than the service they claim to be providing.

While it is tempting and quite easy to dismiss social media as another dot bomb, it would be more responsible to define it’s value as it pertains to each one of us on a case by case basis. Talking about these new technologies and applications as though they are one thing rather misses the point. There is no one statement that describes what is happening right now. The best we can do is identify the tools that can help us meet a particular goal at a given time. Finally, it is important to keep the law of irony in mind. That is, when everyone was rabidly extolling the web in 1999, the subject of their effusion was quietly imploding. Today, there is a more cautious tone and no lack of sarcasm regarding anyone who sees growth potential in this area. Compounding this problem is the recycling of 1999 type hype and marketing efforts. Some people seemed to have learned nothing from the last bomb and are doing little more than dusting off their skits from last century in hopes that this time things really will pop. The issue is not whether the time for those obsolete ideas has finally come. The issue is whether one can make his or herself aware of the huge change that is taking place and not only capitalize on these opportunities but also in so doing, create them for others.

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