I've been fussing around with Google+ and although I don't exactly get it yet I must admit the idea of placing people in concentric circles that you either care about or just want to keep on the fringe appeals to me. Maybe it's the idea that sometimes you want to share feelings, things, ideas, photos with only those close to you who would actually care rather than be inundated with useless tidbits of people's lives you barely know (thank goodness for the Hide Posts By Person option on FBOOK!)
Or maybe it's just Facebook boredom and the need for yet another media giant to distract society from actually getting real work done! In any case, it will be interesting to see if Google+ takes off, gains followers and can actually convert Facebook devotees to what I call the good side ( open platforms with larger more richer platforms!)
The idea of photos living and breathing and driving many of this new social media world order is not a secret and there are many tech companies trying to capitalize on people's image tastes and likes and photos. The most intriguing thing I find about all of this is that before this so called " social media" transformation images had certain values based on static numbers , size and placement. Now that model has been thrown out with the baby water there has been ( rightfully so ) a major paradigm shift on the life, times and value of said image in the new media landscape we find ourselves in.
While the industry is no where near finding out and/or unlocking the potential of the image per se , what is apparent is the efforts and funding trying to unlock and unleash the image to the consumer so that it's buyers are all aligned like the moon, stars and the sun. Same can be said for video and what that has brought to the table in terms of the value and power a viral video can possess. I'll even go further and say that a unique, tantalizing, interesting viral video will always get a million more time hits than a photo of the same caliber that may drop on the same day. Videos move. Photos are static. One can be more engaging than the other but you can't hit rewind on an amazing photo. One can stare at an image of an exploding building ( i.e. the Stardust Hotel in Vegas being imploded) but watching the act of that building explode over and over again is more likely to get more pick up just because.
The new social media world order ethos is in its infancy and we are its subordinates constantly refreshing, adding, dropping and driving it's conversation and content. The cascade of information has gone from zero to sixty in a nanosecond and we are all but passengers on a fast moving train making up the social media monetization rules as we go. The exciting thing about it for me is that there is room for a marketplace that is realizing the power and ability of images to either sell more products, further the conversation in the many different eco-landscapes it lives in and be shared with one another either through Facebook or Google+ or Twitter , etc.
I'm always so amazed about how slow the networks have been in trying to marry social media to drive a show's mood, attitude and feelings. You've seen it come really in to play on NBC's The Voice. They did a great job in integrating the contestant with the audience and engage with the camera. We have only all touched on the surface of what watching TV will be like in the near future.
In the meantime, I'll try and stay committed to posting and engaging with those on Google+. I've found myself moving away from Facebook just because. I'm sensing a movement against sharing everything in the new social media order and I'm ok with it. Now how these sites make money is another posting all together but what I do know is that if I have a great photo or video and it gets liked by people I know and respect or maybe don't know I'll need to think in the future if I can actually profit from something I've been doing for a few years now!
