Is Facebook Going Out Of Style?

By John Disque

An interesting discussion on LinkedIn.com was created by Laura Berdichevsky. The originating question was, "What social media network(s) do you find really exciting, but at the same time overwhelming to learn?"

The responses weren't exactly as expected: Many people are excited about Google's new social network (Google+) but many confess to not taking a whole lot of time to dig in to all Google's new features. Others said they were currently looking into it and are excited about it.

The main issue at this point is "social needs" is defined differently for each person. If you're looking for a never-ending source of new information and conversation most PR experts and media junkies swear by Twitter and, in this particular conversation, they received a lot of support. After a day or two of learning it you can find, read and discuss any current issue on planet earth.

Many people who found Facebook years ago seem to have gotten stuck and were less likely to expand to other networks. At the same time many feel limited; thus, there's a growing frustration with more people looking elsewhere for their Internet social needs.

A few other networks were mentioned including LinkedIn and Youtube but no one talked about MySpace which, a few years ago, was the giant of social media. If this is any indication of how quickly things can change everything would suggest that a social media change is approaching.

In all, most people are saying nothing but good things about Google+. Google is investing heavily in the market and it appears they have managed to take all the best things from each network and put them all into one site. In today's pace and the indefinable changing public needs it would make perfect sense to just give people everything they could ask for in one place. Lastly: the 40 million (and quickly growing) Google+ users seem to agree.

Published September 25, 2011