To Share, Or Not To Share
I am tired of every new digital product that comes to market, obsessing over the need to add social and sharing features. I understand the value of social on the web and in some services.
I am, what some people call, a power user of services in the forefront of these trends. I set up my Twitter account within a year or so of the service starting.1 I feel I know every setting in Facebook, which if you use it, you know is no small feat.
But there seems to be a trend to shoe horn social features into every product, even when it doesn’t apply to the product being provided. Sharing for the sake of sharing is not only unproductive, but can hinder finding the true value in an otherwise useful service.
I would think that the main interest of most companies is making money. There is a perception that advertising, marketing, and free services are the only way to make money in our digital world. Social networks have fueled this. I find the public’s comfort with giving up privacy for social sharing a bit disturbing.
More and more I am finding that people are happy to pay for the services and applications they find useful. I don’t mind showing my appreciation to developers by paying for products. And when I pay for products, I feel I’m less likely to be taken advantage of, through marketing or privacy issues.
With the success of things like Apple’s App Stores2, developers should not be afraid to charge reasonable rates for products. If you have a good product, and these products are easy to manage and access, customers will pay.
Focus on making great products, not on being social.
Americans and the Social-Networking Sites They Love
via Rebecca J. Rosen -for The Atlantic
…we present nine charts looking at which Americans are on these sites and what they’re doing there.
The last chart is the most interesting for me. We are spending WAY too much time on Facebook.
