Stuart Brown, author of Modern Life, has written a great article on The Ebb and Flow of Social Networking.
My Thoughts
- Life Cycle
Just like everything on earth, sites on the internet have a life cycle. Even though they serve a purpose, they cannot last forever. Most just reinvent themselves to attract and appeal to newer audiences. - Generations Affect Usage
As time goes on and your site ages, so does your user base. In order to stay away from the inevitable decline you need to draw in the younger generation(s). - Novelty vs. Purpose
Unless a social network serves a purpose the novelty will begin to wear off fast. It’s simple, if your social network fulfills a need (which wears off) users will keep coming back to fulfill that need. Until something else comes about and fulfills that need even better. It’s a vicious cycle.
Tags: social networking, web 2.0
Stuart wrote a very good article and it makes a lot of sense. Like he says, Facebook is now at the crest, so we’ll have to see who is next