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5 Reasons Why Social Media Is Not Fun Anymore

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Categories: Social Media, Social Media Marketing

Social media has always had a credibility gap as a business marketing tool, they were created for fun but are now being used to market billion dollar brands.

5 Reasons Why Social Media Is Not Fun Anymore

It wants to be taken seriously as a grown up marketing medium but that is difficult when the CEO knows that Facebook started as a social platform to connect with your classmates at college and is used by his daughter to share the weekend’s party photos.

Social Networking Was Always About Fun

YouTube was started when the founders experienced difficulty sharing videos that had been shot at a dinner party at an apartment in San Francisco. It’s these frivolous origins that continue to slow the take up by serious people running serious businesses.

Despite the fun foundations of some of the largest global social networks, business are discovering and are using social media’s power as credible and highly leveraged marketing tools.

Social Media Gets Serious

Some of the platforms such as LinkedIn and Slideshare were started by their founders as corporate tools from day one because they already knew the power of the social web to communicate, share and engage with online audiences. They “Got  It”.

So it’s not just about the fun and frivolity anymore as social media is growing up from playful adolesence but its about the efficiency to target large global or local audiences in real time with content and get ideas to spread through its viral power.

The credibility gap still exists in the mind of a lot CEO’s and executives but social media slowly and surely is cementing its place as a new media platform that gets the marketing job done.

5 Reasons Why Social Media Is Not Just About Fun

YouTube

YouTube is no longer just a tool for sharing fun videos that were taken at a party but is an educational resource that is used by companies to train and educate.  YouTube videos are embedded in blogs, emails and shared on Twitter and Facebook. Video productions with large budgets are now planned and run by global advertising agencies and marketing campaigns such as the Old Spice YouTube series are used to take a tiring brand from obscurity to top of mind with a video that goes viral.

For more reading

The 10 Best Social Media Campaigns

Facebook

Facebook has moved on from just being being a college and party social networking facilitator to a channel with 600 million users that is used to market to millions of consumers with targeted banner ads. Corporate Facebook pages are the marketing tool of choice that have millions of Fans that have video trailers and promotions shared to launch billion dollar movies and megastar musician’s latest albums

For more reading

The Worlds 20 Most Popular Facebook Pages

Twitter

Twitter is not just about superficial 140 character Tweets about what you had for breakfast but is now used to respond to customer service issues in real time and spread the brands message instantly and globally. Computer companies such as Dell offer special discounts for its computers and products on Twitter and drive millions of dollars in sales.

For more reading

Twitter: 5 Busines Case Studies

Blogs

They are now not just about your hobbies but have now been adopted by companies such as Zappos to engage with their customers and communicate information that educates and inspires.

For more reading

Why Would Your Company Need 13 Blogs

Flickr

Flickr is not just a repository for happy snaps but now used by corporates to display their activities to their marketplace that reinforces their brand message, especially if they are a visually oriented brand.

So will social media maintain its fun origins or will big corporate marketing take the fun out of social media and turn them into business tools that are organised and sterilized?

I think that both will happily coexist and social networks will continue to keep us entertained, amused, informed and educated all at the same time because we as humans are both fun and serious.

What do you think?

Image by rutty


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  • http://womeninbusinessradio.com Michele Price

    Jeff, as much as social media is not “fun” anymore, it has become more fun for me and my business.

    We joke, I came out of my Mother’s womb a business woman always seeing opportunity in what was around me. Social Media is the same for businesses today, it is allowing them to find the opportunity around themselves so they can be a part of the party.

    No matter how serious folks thing business is, if you are unable to find ways to integrate a form of fun and happiness in your products or services, you miss the mark in sharing an experience with to your customers.

    All the cliches of doing business with those who know, like and trust…it is true I will do without than do business with you if I do not like you.

  • http://www.experiate.net Paul Flanigan

    I think money is the reason. It’s always fun until someone makes (or loses) money at it.

    Social Media will become part of work because work is what generates money. While I applaud CEOs and C-level executives that love the idea of social media engagement as organizational initiatives, they will only consider those initiatives that will generate revenue and grow the business.

    That’s the non-fun side of it. Sadly.

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  • http://unbounce.com Oli Gardner

    I apply two rules to the work I produce and how I engage with people using social media:

    1. It should be useful
    2. It should be entertaining

    You can’t *always* hit them both at the same time, but at least by keeping it in mind you head in the right direction.

    The more you mix the two together, the less business actually feels like a job for everyone involved. And work (and business) needs to be fun.

  • http://blog.esimplestudios.com Gabriele Maidecchi

    I think that social media can still be fun, according to how you approach it. If you are into social media just for work, the chances of “fun” are limited, but still present, depends on you really.
    Some people use Facebook just for work (I use it just to admin some business pages for example) but it’s a choice, not something intrinsic to the platforms.

  • Roberta Gerrick

    Another great post.TY so much. I try to mix it up with fun and business. I am not sure that people can afford not to brand themselves by blogging valuable information or using social media to promote.Just a sign of the times

  • http://www.iyogi.net/antivirus/ Alyn William

    Social networking sites are used by most people. Orkut, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter are all popular social networking sites. Most of us would have the same opinion that it is the most useful tool today to bond with friends anywhere in the world; talk to numerous people at once, or just for pure entertainment.

    Remember that one of the biggest advantages of social media is that it gives us another way to talk to other—to ask us questions directly and to share their feedback. But always treat others (including customers, non-customers, shareholders, co-workers, vendors and competitors) as you would be expecting to be treated.

  • Aaauva

    This is timely, Jeff. We were having this discussion in our offices this week as we develop a “social media microsite” with a separate look and feel from the corporate site.

    All good points.

    We wanted a social site that represents “social media” … Engaging, responsive and casual

  • Bebeep

    Yahoo is not fun anymore.

  • http://slavicavista.wordpress.com/ Slavica

    I don’t see Facebook nor Twitter as places to have some fun/or only fun,it stays fact we all wish to share some free moments and amuse ourselves,share informations with others,learn the news../My presence on Social networks is complete serious,my posts are about links i regard to be important to be heard by the others,it is about my writing as well,and of course i think to find a way to make money.If you watch users on these networks you can see different profiles:still there are ones to play games,share party photos and similar,and people i am interested in more,to represent own business projects,to share their blogs,books,writings.I see them /networks/as place to learn about innovations,get ideas and inspirations…many possibility…

  • http://twitter.com/Galactic Cristian Gonzales

    The article’s a bit confusing…the title talks about how it isn’t fun anymore, but really, the actual content of the article describes how social media has simply grown up a bit, not necessarily become “un-fun”. The ‘Old Spice’ campaign was pretty much built on fun, so that’s a pretty solid example of social media continuing to remain a fun atmosphere.

    But as some others have pointed out, once you can make money off of something, some of the “fun” is going to be taken out of it. But heck, it doesn’t mean that the fun is completely killed. It’s just tweaked and made more strategic. Just because you launch something from a place where a brand or company is looking to make some money, doesn’t mean it can’t also be fun.

    Nice snippets on how the social platforms have grown btw.

  • http://www.moxby.org.uk mOxby Design

    I think that social media is what you make it. That means if you want to use Facebook or Twitter (etc) for fun, socialising with friends then that’s what you choose to do and that’s how you harness the tool. If this is your focus, then you won’t see the ‘serious’ stuff.

    However, social media – especially in terms of engaging visitors, customers etc is of great importance. People use these tools and like to contribute to the community or knowledge base. That means you harness it more in this way and it becomes less ‘fun’. However I enjoy using social media for business, so for me that’s ‘fun’ but maybe not ‘entertainment’.

    The two will need to sit side-by-side but as with most tools in the world, what you get out of your social media will be a result of what you put into it and that choice is down to the user.

  • http://twitter.com/nafdm Natalia F. Morais

    I agree with the article but I would add the fact that everything that is fun is a business opportunity as well. If its fun, someone will come up with a way to make money out of it. Social media became much more than just platforms that attract tons of people… it became a new way of communication and it changed the way people relate to each other. It also became a huge business opportunity for brands and companies to bond with customers in a more personal way. That said, I think every person has a different goal when they use social media and unless the platforms start to change just to encourage business, the fun will always be there.

  • Anonymous

    These are some pretty interesting points and I think that the companies that are able to make their social presence fun and entertaining are those that are seeing higher social engagement. The consumer welcomes this type of interaction and rewards companies by spreading the word that otherwise might not have been known. A very good point I like that you brought up was the use of real time interaction through social platforms like Twitter. We are starting to see more and more companies take advantage of these situations and those that aren’t are really missing out on an opportunity to mold brand loyal customers. Thanks for the quality info. 

  • http://www.facebook.com/leighshulman Leigh Shulman

    I think about this a lot.

    Sometimes I enjoy social media. Sometimes I don’t. I think it’s the nature of incorporating these tools into our work. When something becomes a daily task that must be done, it becomes stressful.

    It boils down to balance and perspective for me. I clearly define my work/online hours and my relaxation hours. During work hours, I balance the time I spent connecting with people via social media — which can become a distraction in its own right — with working on proposals and executing projects that directly bring in money.

    Then I remind myself that I’m lucky that reading, sharing and commenting on articles I enjoy is a part of my work life. Which in turn, creates a platform for sharing and growing my own work. Stressing about it is pointless.  I only need do what I can in the time I have allotted.

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  • http://twitter.com/Derek_Schroeder Derek Schroeder

    Being a young digital marketer I believe social media has lost its fun for those who miss the ad-hoc new media campaigns. As social media users have become more experienced the need for structured endeavors arise with set tactics and demographics.

    The fun is still there for those who can produce quality. Its simple, the more that companies or people join a social network the quality of posts will drop and less productive engagement, and specifically interaction, will be had [quality decay].

    CEO’s must realize that while their daughter may post party pictures on Facebook and follow friends on Twitter there is always room for the traditional form of marketing in PPC campaigns. But then there is the new way, a shift for strict control to a focus on engagement and conversation. The most effective sales tool: word of mouth. Get consumers talking and talking is fun.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=927567 Arthur Tew

    Social Media is like any other form of media, with components of fun, as well as those of business. I enjoy my favorite television programs, but not always the commercials in between. The commercials that I do enjoy are those that entertain me or inform me about a topic that I am interested in. The same goes for print or radio broadcast media.

    As a marketer and a consumer, I enjoy creating content that will entertain and inform my audience, whether they be my close friends or potential clients.

  • Joe Ariniello

    I suppose it depends on what you define as “fun.” If by fun, you mean business penetrating a social realm that was once reserved for personal interaction with friends and now is full of marketing campaigns and gimmicks, then perhaps, yes, the fun has been lost.

    However, from the point of view I take as a social marketer, social media is more fun than ever! Why?

    Because it allows brands, business and more to interact directly with their core audience. Crowd sourcing potential is exponentially increased. Marketing takes on an entirely new role in the social world through the various opportunities presented that previously, were never possible.

    I tend to look at social media as a new challenging frontier. What can I formulate next to reach my customers using the abundant social tools at my disposal?

  • http://twitter.com/ankitchkt ankit TheRealScholar

    nice article ; thanks for sharing

  • Alberto Souviron

    I agree. What is happening today is that Social Media has grown to a level that is impossible to be ignored by the business world. But one thing is use it for marketing or business purpose and another for your personal needs (translated many times as a fun moment to share). The challenge comes on have a clear distinction between the two of them, but they can perfectly coexist.

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  • MyDailyComment

    This post is about FUN!