Recently we’ve seen a surge in popularity for new social networks such as ‘Ello’. Not just new social networks, but networks that actually try new things and aren’t as invasive when it comes to privacy. It makes me wonder, is it time for something new that could be reminiscent of the MySpace days when Facebook came along.
Facebook 2.0
As I’ve mention before in previous blogs, as the internet speeds increase we start to see things like HD video and even 4K streaming possible in some regions, so are sites like Facebook utilising the potential of most users internet connection to bring more engaging features and functionality to its network?
Currently, Facebook supports many different apps that, given the right permissions, can post to your network on your behalf with (for example) exercise statistics listing calories burned in a certain time. As nice as this is, at the moment all we get are basic text details about what the app has recorded with many an image of a route that you have ran through. With internet speeds being what they are in most areas today, it would be nice to have a high bandwidth option available. To use the same app example that provides information about your route, would it be possible to offer advanced functionality such as real-time data that is updated and a location marker that changes in real time to show your current position?
My point is to have the option to have a HTML 5 style embed that updates your data in real-time instead of having a snapshot of the data that is only really relevant for the time it was uploaded to the network. Some users might not like obvious privacy issues with this but the old ‘static’ posts could be given as an option as well as the obvious choice of disabling third-party apps completely.
This is just a very basic example of how Facebook could revamp integration with third party apps to support a more modern experience and give more information to the user.
Most people are tired of Facebook
At the moment I think that most users are sticking with Facebook due to the lack of other options that offer a comparable service. Google plus came along but didn’t really pick up speed due to them trying to reinvent the wheel and not offer anything interesting in terms of new features that would make users want to make the switch.
The way Facebook handles its newsfeed is still far from ideal and all you have to do is log on to see the amount of worthless spam posts that aren’t providing any useful content at all.
Facebook is starting to feel stale and recent reports of Facebooks messenger app spying on its users has resulted in many users deleting the app all together limiting the functionality of the network on mobile devices as you need a second app installed to check your private messages (for some reason).
What about Twitter?
I think overall Twitter still achieves what it has set out to do in giving people short and to-the-point updates from people of interest. Third party apps and sponsored updates don’t seem to impact the site (at least for me). I think we could do with seeing improvements to the way data is shared from third party apps in terms of more interactive media, but other than that I think Twitter still does what it sets out to do well.
What are your thoughts? Are you using any new social networks such as Ello? If so, let us know what you think and what you think the big social networks can improve on.
For more information the social media marketing services offered by Opace please see: https://www.opace.co.uk/social.
Image credit – mgysler
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