Social Media Burnout: Too Much of a Good Thing?

I happened to pop out of reader today and cruise through Marnie Webb's sidebar links from Ma.gnolia to land on an interesting article from Monday's SF Chronicle called "Social Sites Becoming Too Much of A good Thing."  The article uses the term "Social Networking Fatique" and the trend about younger people cutting back their use.

If you believe the buzz, the latest incarnation of the Web is all about sharing, connecting and community. Social networking sites such as MySpace and Palo Alto's Facebook have exploded in popularity, drawing new users into the fold each day .... But even as the phenomenon continues to swell, the effort to maintain an active social life on the Web is taking its toll. Some have grown tired of what once was novel. Some feel bombarded by unsolicited messages, friend requests and advertisements. And some are cutting back.

The article goes on to point that while the novelty is wearing off for some social media consumers (aka "younger people" or what has been dubbed "digital natives"), it doesn't necessarily mean that people will stop using them alltogether.  A good point made based on research was: "Social networking Web sites are relevant to people at different times in their lives."   The article describes briefly what some of those needs are and how they change as younger consumers grow up.  What this means is that while one consumer group may move on or cut back, another is growing up and will have a need to use them.

The article include some quotes from Nicole Ellison, Ph.D from Michigan State who is doing research on how younger people are using social networks.  (She's not the only one out there, the Digital Youth Research group is looking at kids informal learning with digital media and of course, Danah Boyd)

The conclusion at the end does not necessarily forest social media burnout as a widespread  theme:

The general expectation is that consumers ultimately will settle down with one or two social networks and that they will become a feature incorporated in more and more sites. YouTube, the popular online video-sharing site, and Flickr, an online photo-sharing site, for instance, include social networking.

"I think it's been both overhyped and underestimated," Dogster's Rheingold said. Although some lofty expectations about how big of a business it could become won't pan out, "in the end it is going to be so much bigger than what people are seeing now.

Recently, my friends on the other side of the pond were talking about what skills sets/job roles nonprofits need in-house to take advantage of social media strategies (here, here, and here).  Steve Bridger posted a pointer over at Netsquared to his thoughts on "Buzz Director."  His post sparked some comments about social media burnout and reflections from the US perspective ...

Ian Wilker makes some excellent points about the need for listening skills in using social media so burnout doesn't occur. "Those tactics are just the same old "push" marketing in social-web contexts. People will develop resistance to it, and quickly. I think a much better strategy is to pursue richer, more authentic relationships with constituents."   

This echoes what Allison Fine writes about the skill of listening in her book Momentum: Igniting Social Change and my favorite quote in the book:  "Using social media without changing how we think about social change will only create more noise."

Ian goes onto suggest hwo use the tools with a different approach: "To really open all the doors and windows and let your staff and constituents mix it up in social-web contexts -- blogs, video- and photo-sharing, etc. Empower your constituents -- let them design your t-shirts, give them tools and assignments to help advance your organization's work. Get your staff and supporters out into the social-media spaces you want to have a real presence in -- and ask them to spread the word and through their personal networks personally engage with potential supporters. Give them badges, even xml-driven widgets that feed back to the world the actions that individual user has taken and the impact those actions have had"

Steve's last comment on the post suggests that the seamless integration of all the tools is necessary, but also laments the lack of second wave adoption.

Steve's original post over at his blog offers us some wonderful tactical and practical suggestions for what a "buzz director" (I don't like that word .. sorry Steve) and skill sets. 

This leaves me some questions ....

• What does a "listening and participatory" culture in a nonprofit look like? What's need to make a shift towards that?  Is this just a new name for a "learning organization?"
• Will the nonprofit sector see second wave adoption in this generation or will be a generational shift that occurs over the next 20 years?
• What are the small steps that an organization, if the culture permits, can take in using social media tools effectively without having the staff feeling social media burnout?  Steve's post offers some great ideas.
• What is the checklist of criteria that a nonprofit can use to determine whether or not social media (minus the buzz word bingo bullsh**) might be an appropriate strategy or not?
• What are the realistic outcomes (both short-term, mid-term, long-term) that an organization might hope to see if employing social media strategies? 

For that last question, I really like this point in Steve's post:

Share what you learn with colleagues and network with people in other organisations who sit in seats like yours to identify new ways to calculate the benefits, costs and risks of blogging. Work with them to create a framework for measuring the ROI of your blogging efforts. Join the search for a new metric for engagement.

Comments

[Steve Bridger]

Beth, you do a terrific job of summarising the 'conversation' we've had so far... and push it on to the next step. You ask some good questions, which unfortunately, given the time difference, I constantly pick up just before scheduled bedtime! Do I stay up, or sleep on these questions? Hmm...

Off the top of my head, there are a few things bugging me... spanners in the works (real or perceived) which perhaps may be stalling some not-for-profits from moving forward more quickly to experiment.

Some of these are: how this new stuff integrates into current systems (particularly if you've just spent shed loads on a new CMS), using other technologies on your site, collaborating with others and the downside in terms of look and feel compromises. Then there's the accessibility of many of these tools (not much being said about that yet), and those fears about being inundated with comments and the time to respond.

If you're stuck in a project timeline to deliver a funky new corporate-like website (your "web presence" in 6 months time, there is less time to think about your "presence on the web" (your reachability in existing communities and networks).

My bottom line remains, however, that not-for-profits do not have time to dawdle, even if many of their existing supporters are not early adopters. For a start there is increasing pressure from social enterprises and social entrepreneurs who carry less baggage with them and want quicker measurable returns (I'm moving into another debate here, around accountability... it must be very late).