As you may already know, I try a large amount of new and existing social services on the web. One of my most recent explorations is a site called http://formspring.me where users can setup an account and then proceed to invite people to ask them anonymously, if they wish, questions about anything. I really like this idea for many different reasons. One of which is that it gave me a brand new blog topic. One of the questions I was asked was on the topic of watering down online presence.
Well, on to the topic. Here is the question that I was asked:
How many digital forums (i.e FB, Twitter, Formspring, etc.) do you feel that you can sustain without watering down your online presence?
Very interesting and thought provoking question. And I believe it’s something well worth conversation and I’m calling this post “Watering: Growth or Dilution”.
Two forms of watering, two separate results.
Growth
In order to live and grow we all know we must have food and water. I believe a presence on the web is no different. I think there are two main reasons that I try so many different social web services and sites. First of all because I am passionate about them. I enjoy them. But to me at least, the real deal is as follows. Ideas and Opportunities = Life and Growth. It’s that simple. Why would the web be any different than our experiences in face to face life? I mean I think it would be a bit naive, presumptuous and pretty close minded of me to really think that we all like to play, learn, evolve and connect to the same people or information base on a limited amount of venues in the real world. Isn’t that kind of like running on a treadmill or a very large circle? How far do we really travel. At some point I believe we end up returning to where we started. Of course there are many new people joining the community on Facebook and Twitter, and that’s a very valid point. But, what about the next generation of users that we can connect with in different ways in which we never even thought about? What about the early adopters and people that you haven’t reached out to and connected with? There is no question that Facebook has the largest user-base, but I like to think further into the realm of watering growth. Where are others going with similar or even different interests that I may have not had the opportunity to introduce myself to otherwise. What other features and benefits do smaller sites, not so well known up and coming sites, and groups on the web have to offer versus the majority populated community bases. In other words: water, grow, connect, learn, evolve and as a result we have the opportunity to possibly to branch out and grow in other directions we never imagined.
Dilution
If you add too much water you dilute the substance.
This form of thinking is of substance. I believe there is such a thing that exists I call substance abuse. I define it as interruption based personal identity communication awareness, which can be experienced with or without your control. Within your control, if you aren’t taking the substance abuse approach, I don’t believe can you water yourself down by using too many sites and personal communication spaces. I think not and here’s why. As long as we are engaging and not interrupting, we as a community are still deciding with whom and where we chose to empower ourselves by choosing each others’ content. I might think you are of great value to me and you and I are the only ones in this particular community. Sound familiar? Sure, it’s an Instant Message. You might be on Facebook with it’s 300 million users + and post and idea about a site I’ve never heard of before, where we can snap and share photos and type text to communicate and it may sound more interesting to me and therefore connect me with an entirely different community of users. I don’t discount the fact for a second, that if you are yelling, screaming and interrupting on any of these different small niche or highly populated mainstream sites that you are surely taking the watering technique of dilution. But, I think that it holds true in life whether online or face to face, it’s all about the approach and technique by which we garner the results we are hoping to stumble upon. The other point I’d like to make about dilution is ourselves. If we participate in too much, will we dilute by not having the time, energy and effort it takes to give each area the attention it needs and deserves in order to grow. Here’s what I think. Not everything is meant to grow, the diluted die and the growth comes from trying and nurturing where the path takes us. Having said that, I’ve had a decent amount of luck with many different areas growing, therefore it is time consuming and does take a great deal of dedication. But I Love It and that’s why I do it. This spawns one last thought to conclude with that comes to mind. Is it more beneficial to be less of more as opposed to a more of less when it comes to online web presence? I like hitting the less of more. But, I’d love your thoughts on this topic. As always I write one draft, try my best to check for spelling and just create posts from the web arousing thoughts that pop in my head.
That’s why I’m just a jewelry salesman and need your help and opinions in the comments section right down there.
Respectfully,
DG
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