After so much initial excitement and potential around social networking sites, we are witnessing a plateau in the popularity of web communities, according to research from Nielsen Online.
This is largely because the modern lifestyle of the new internet generation demands these services to be available on the go. Social networks are most desired when people are away from their PCs.
While the reasons for this supposed ‘Facebook backlash’ range from privacy intrusion concerns to seasonal fluctuations, ultimately, many people have already signed up and the novelty of these sites accessed from a computer has worn off. Members need to be tempted back again and again with new applications and services, and ‘anywhere, anytime access’.
Having this access connectivity embedded in the natural phone functions will enable people to connect to their communities via their habitual communication uses wherever and whenever they want. Much of the activity in social networks, virtual worlds and social media sites is interactive and facilitating it for mobile devices over mobile networks will increase usage.
Just as an operator has to keep adding new functions or offer additional services (like being able to access the web and email, download music, watch TV, instant message friends, take photos or even personalise your phone with avatars and ringback tones), social networking site operators need to create new experiences to encourage users to keep coming back. Mobile access could be a simple yet effective way of keeping members online.
This needs to be balanced with the sites’ desire to generate an income, for example through data harvesting and online advertising, but the user’s needs have to come first.
As with a mobile phone, the consumer has to consider the social networking site useful, entertaining and easily accessible, and not just a ‘bit-pipe’, as we’ve already seen in the mobile industry.
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