Comments on: Social Media is Sun-Setting. Or Is It? part 1

By: Jim Spencer

Jim Spencer — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 13:09:38 +0000

Mark, I think you have hit on the point I was pondering with Peter when the ter “Sunsetting” came to mind. Socil media is becoming less of a “thing” and more of “yet another way” to communicate. Thanks.

By: Jim Spencer

Jim Spencer — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 13:08:07 +0000

Steve, Glad you mentioned mobile, which is certainly another new frontier that is huge. All these things are weaving into our daily lives.

By: Jim Spencer

Jim Spencer — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 13:06:58 +0000

Alan, I love your perspective. The Internet is removing time and space thereby bringing us closer.

By: Jim Spencer

Jim Spencer — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 13:03:31 +0000

Paula, you might just have a point. How are you mastering the marketing game today?

By: Jim Spencer

Jim Spencer — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 13:02:23 +0000

Christine, you are most welcome. I am pleased that your contribution is earning some comments and there are more viewpoints coming this Wednesday. Keep enjoying the ride!

By: Jim Spencer

Jim Spencer — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 12:59:11 +0000

Sheri, thanks for commenting. The move off of paper will take generations, but we are heading in that direction.

By: Jim Spencer

Jim Spencer — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 12:57:58 +0000

Mark, humans socialize. Tools that make this easier will rise to the top and become integrated into our daily lives and less of a shiny new add-on. I am not sure that all will consider this “more desirable”, but I hope it is.

By: Jim Spencer

Jim Spencer — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 12:54:57 +0000

Kent, great point. The definition of social media is quite different for each of us. I was thinking mostly about the launch of Twitter and its rise as I saw from the social media scene here in Boston. Limited, but we all get to start somewhere.

By: Jim Spencer

Jim Spencer — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 12:48:58 +0000

Thanks Jeff. The teenagers. It is wise to listen to those who came before us as well as those coming up after us.

By: Jim Spencer

Jim Spencer — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 12:47:55 +0000

Laura, I will be watching to see your prediction come true. Thanks for your comments.

By: Jim Spencer

Jim Spencer — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 12:46:14 +0000

Lisa, thanks for your comment. In light of Twitter's recent halt to cross posting from Linkedin and other tools like IFTTT it is hard to imagine your dream tool ever seeing the light of day. Each community has its differences, and like people they all seem to want to be treated uniquely. I have to admit though running three brands and trying to maintain accounts across multiple social sites is impossible for me. I would love a super connector too for that reason.

By: Jim Spencer

Jim Spencer — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 12:40:06 +0000

Michelle, as far as specific social networks it willb e interesting to see how G+ matures and whether Google Hangouts become widely adopted. There is certainly room for wider adoption and we do need better monitoring tools.

By: Is Social Media Sunsetting? - Marcela De Vivo

Is Social Media Sunsetting? - Marcela De Vivo — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 14:07:04 +0000

[...] Jim Spencer over at BlogWranglers wrote a very thought provoking post asking some social media experts whether Social Media is Sunsetting. [...]

By: Mark Cahill

Mark Cahill — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 18:49:19 +0000

Social media is what it has been since it’s inception: a tool in the tool box. It was wrong of so many to think of it as an end unto itself. It was and continues to be one of many avenues that allow us to reach our marketing goals.

By: Steve Hughes

Steve Hughes — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 22:47:34 +0000

We’ve just scratched the surface. Unless you’re a good restaurant or Apple, brick and mortar is fading. The Best Buy’s of the world will be toast within a few years. These companies can’t compete with the online giants. This is a Google, Apple, and Amazon world. It’s about growth, and social media is an online mechanism that ties into this philosophy. Online and Mobile, time to board the rocket. I highly suggest not deleting your Twitter account.

By: Alan

Alan — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 22:26:23 +0000

Like Kent, I’ve been socializing online since the days of Compu$erve, back when we paid 8 bucks an hour to be online. To me the idea of social media “sun-setting” is absurd. More and more real interactions, both business and as Laura pointed out personal (intellectual, artistic, etc etc) are conducted on sites like Facebook and Twitter. It seems to me we are still near the dawn of the glory days of social media.

By: Paula

Paula — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 22:12:30 +0000

Not sunsetting, just ever changing and ever evolving. Those who master the art of social will be the future winners of the marketing game.

By: Christine Perkett

Christine Perkett — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 20:50:26 +0000

Jim,

Thanks for including me in your series. I really enjoyed reading the other viewpoints as well as the comments. And I know you have more coming, so I’m staying tuned!

It’s great to learn about what others are doing and how it shapes their opinions and insights. I for one, am enamored enough to enjoy the ride regardless of when or where it ends.

By: Sheri Harper

Sheri Harper — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 20:11:59 +0000

I think that the tools are becoming more sophisticated and so are the users. Where there is media and advertising, I think social media is around and likely to grow as businesses move off of paper.

By: Mark Reynolds

Mark Reynolds — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 14:29:00 +0000

I guess we need to ask ourselves just we think we are referring to as undergoing “sun-setting”. Have brick mobile phones sun-set: sure, but mobile communications have increased and we use better technology. Will Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and a host of other social networks sun-set: maybe, maybe not. What’s certain is that the concept of increased communications, and especially of bringing the power of communication, opinion, and influence that was formerly the domain of the privileged few to the masses, will become more desirable with the passage of time, not less. Perhaps some of the current tools will sun-set. There may be a growing need for consolidation & standardisation, and tools for making more efficient sense of the noise and clutter – but the concept of social networking itself will most certainly not go away.

By: Kent Fillmore

Kent Fillmore — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 13:59:48 +0000

“…the early days of Social Media in Boston (a whopping 5 years ago)”

Boy, are you a newbie! LOL! We’ve been “social networking” since the mid-80′s: The Source, Compuserve, GEnie, AOL.

By: Jeff Jaje

Jeff Jaje — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 13:12:30 +0000

Good article. I always like to hear what other people think on this subject. Then I ask my teenagers, as they are the drivers for whatever the next big thing is.

By: Laura Sykes

Laura Sykes — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 06:41:01 +0000

I think the key is in the word ‘media’, meaning the methods by which we do whatever it is we want to do. People who want to sell things have always used means to do so – in recent history that began with advertisements in newspapers, through direct mail shots, to cold calling by telephone and now online social media. Despite technological advances, advertising in print media still exists (just). In 200 years I predict we will still have social media, though the means of delivery may be different (by becoming universally ‘on’ in some way 24/7?)

I am not trying to sell things via social media, but promote an idea. Thanks to online communications, it is at least theoretically quite easy to do this in a short space of time. I was going to say that without social media it would be impossible to do this in one lifetime, and then I remembered what twelve men achieved, simply by preaching door to door two thousand years ago with no help beyond letters on papyrus and their own feet.

By: Lisa Luhman

Lisa Luhman — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 06:01:02 +0000

I agree with Christine in that it is evolving for how can it not and that Social Media is not at the end of it’s life. I think for the people that work in social media that with all the different networks available a kind of central network that would link them all in real time could be a great tool, sort of a super connector that could benefit everyone.

By: Michelle Gilstrap

Michelle Gilstrap — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 05:17:13 +0000

No one mentioned G+ and google hangouts and I think that is a medium that hasn’t even begun to be utilized to the extent that it can be. It can be used for meetings, for focus groups for many ways of support, that haven’t even been thought about. I do feel that we have not developed the tools to monitor completely what we need.