Why is Social Media Constantly Changing?
If you go into any bookstore, or Amazon, you will see stacks of “How-to” or “Dummies” books about social media and marketing. The one thing all of these books have in common is they are out of date by the time they hit the shelves.
Personally, I have never seen the benefit of calling your readers dummies but they have been doing it profitably for decades now.
Many of these books are great, some are written by folks who I have worked with and learned from myself. The thing is the platforms of social media change so quickly in their functions and offerings that it is impossible to keep any print edition up to date.
The reasons the platforms change so quickly is money.
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the others (links are to their stock profiles) all exist to make money. They may have altruistic functions and efforts but they also have boards of directors and investors to answer to.
And there is nothing wrong with that.
The platforms changes so frequently because they are in a battle with each other and other companies for users and advertiser dollars. The more or less daily users they have means the more or less daily and long-term advertisers they have to make money from. These social media platforms are still communications channels but they are now just as marketed up as any NASCAR on the track.
It’s also why you hear talk, due to public relations campaigns, that “Cool Kids Don’t Facebook Anymore” or “Twitter Is The New Myspace” – its all part of the competition for advertiser and investor dollars.
So the constant change of social media platforms is beneficial to you, personally and professionally, in most cases because it brings greater access to content and customers that you wouldn’t get otherwise.
Hang in there, because the only constant in social media is going to be change.
WHAT BOOKS SHOULD YOU READ?
Here are four that changed the way I look at social media. They are all presented from the audience, management and service point of view more than the “how-to” point of view.
Socialnomics by Erik Qualman – You have probably seen this video as well.
Gus with Jay Baer and Amber Naslund upon the release of their first book, “The NOW Revolution.”
