I am sure if you are like me and have spent more than 10 minutes knee deep in social networking posts you have noticed there seems to be a huge fall-off of the volumes of posts, interaction and overall hoopla.
Why?
Well, I have been on the streets the past few weeks..meaning I have been talking to real live people (yes, there are real people, with real names, out there in the real world…in case you can’t recognize them they are the things walking around on the street NOT looking at their smartphones while they are walking.) about what is going on with the falloff on the use of social media.
What I found is not really surprising to me, but could be to you. Especially if you have been taking the advice of the trillion or so social media marketers who seem to not want to face the reality that social media is not what was just 6 months ago.
Anyway…here are the top three things people are doing in the social spaces that is not only annoying millions of people, but actually is running them off..or in some cases resulting in many people not interacting with ANYONE in their social streams.
#1 No Comment
OK, this one gets me, and I am sure it gets to you as well. There are people who jump into a social stream and seemingly ONLY hitting the +1 Button on every post on Google+ or the Like Button on Facebook. They make no comment..just hit the +1 on dozens of posts a person makes.
What does that Mean? I have been asking that question a lot over the years and was thinking I was alone. But, during my walk about talking to real people I found I was not alone with wanting to know why people take the time to click the +1 Button instead of making a COMMENT.
Over 80% of the people I talked to said that the lack of people making Comments was why they are not using any of the mainstream social spaces as much. It was clear that the only reason they posted anything in their social streams was to start a conversation. Isn’t that was being social is all about?
In relation to the concern people have with nobody making any comments, there is also a concern from over 65% of these people on themselves making a comment on someone’s post and then getting inundated with notification from hundreds of comments made to the post that are SPAM promotions. “Every-time I make a comment on someone’s post I get Tagged by a Troll, Hater or Spammer. It’s just not worth making a comment anymore.”
#2 No Headshot
There are still a larger number of real people, 90% of the people I talked, who just do not like to be associated with “whatever” it is that are online without a headshot photo. This has been an issue since social networking began and until there are social networks who understand the seriousness of these people’s concern, there probably be a large number people who will not post their headshot photo.
The notion the internet being a much better place if the users of the internet were required to use a valid headshot photo is what many people have hopes will eventually happen, but as long as today’s social networks rely on huge user bases to satisfy their investors they are not going to threaten their needs with implementing a strong enforcement of profile validation.
However, until there is some sort of control, there will hundreds of millions of people who will not use those social networks.
#3 Lack of Understanding How to Use Social Media
The lack of so many people understanding how to use social media probably would be the #1 annoyance if it wasn’t for the first two mentioned. How these people narcissistically use the internet and social networks really turns many to just delete their accounts.
The over use of Hashtags…the constant posting of .gif animated files…filling the stream with emoji’s…the purposefully mentioning in a post a list of user knowing it pushes a notification to that user all seem to be done by people who have no idea what they are doing. And if they do, they are doing it in an effort to shine attention on themself.
Since Hashtags came out, they were over used. Why? Because the internet marketers who feed off people’s interest to becoming an “influencer” tell them they need to use Hashtags “to be found”. It appears this erroneous advice was taken to the extreme with thinking that posting dozens of Hashtags would help them be found faster than just posting one. Even Google+ gave up on the auto posting of Hashtags since it only provide validation that posting Hashtags was beneficial..which it has not been proven they do anything.
Emoji’s were cute when they came out, but now, like the people who ONLY hit the +1 button, they are a complete annoyance to millions of people.
Animated .gifs really have never been accepted by the majority of social network user and are only used by a very small portion of the total user base. Yet, the volumes of them being posted in all social networks is resulting in people shutting down their social accounts and going to Real Live Events instead.
Posting unwanted promotional material to Circles, communities, or Groups is now one of the most used tools of Spammers.
These are just the Top 3 reasons people gave for why they do not interact, engage or no longer having a presence online. Eventually, the sponsors and investors of the mainstream social networks are going to start asking why there is a drop off of consumers. Hopefully, that question will come soon since the answer is obviously needing to be addressed.
Anyway…it was a great few weeks of taking the time to sit down with people in real life and asking them direct questions on why they are no longer online.
Maybe you knowing this will persuade you to get offline, reach out to those you know who left the internet, and find out why. Knowing why could help you find an answer to the issues they have.
Until then, let me know how I can help.
