Does Social Value = [Social + Media ( X stuff)], as X ⇒ ∞

Now Social Media is maturing, it might be entering adolescence. Growing pains are showing, limits are being found, growth stunted, slowed or exponential and not but a few incidences of acne.

Facebook just debuted it’s latest redesign and it has not exactly been a success.  I don’t know about your FB homepage but mine is starting to look like a mixed-media installation. Seems that poor FB, is trying to be to much to too many people- aspects of  Twitter, Blogging, FriendFeed, Flickr, Gaming, to name a few. The result- a wee bit of acne.

In an effort to understand this, I tried to quantify it. Hey, once a math geek, always one. So as the X (or the amount of stuff/features a social media service tries to do) goes to infinity does its value to its members go down?

Is this why Twitter is so popular? It is simplicity in itself. It’s the second-party apps that surround it, manipulating the variables, that are getting complex. The real difference is that they lie outside Twitter and are optional and only affect how the end user sees and manipulates data Twitter provides. My Twitter experience, both using and viewing it is entirely customizable. I can use Twittergrader, lessfriends, HootSuite, Tweetdeck, Twitterfriends, Tweetie, Twittelator Pro (to name a few) or not, or i can simply default to the Twitter-provided online UI. I don’t have to lose followers or any information in the process. No goofy lil’patches sent. No viral “what 80′s Rock Star are you?” quizzes clogging my in-box.

Does the real value lie in the customization that users are able to do on their own- picking and choosing from the vast array of Social Media offerings in the market place? Perhaps. Some things like UnHub actually try to organize the various sites under one navigation bar  (I have my Twitter, Blip.fm, Facebook, and delicious on one.) 

Is it when one tries to do it all, that it loses value by becoming too dense? Offering too many options? What do you think?

3 Responses to “Does Social Value = [Social + Media ( X stuff)], as X ⇒ ∞”

1. Aaron says:

   April 7, 2009 at 7:01 PM

   Technically speaking, as X goes to infinity, Social Value would go to infinity.

   It would probably be more accurate to simply set it up as a signal/noise ratio, where “signal” would be the utility as a function of all social media, and “noise” would be the sum of all social media available.
2. betsy says:

   April 7, 2009 at 7:19 PM

   Really that’s the query I pose. FB assumes yes. I like your function, I was thinking that the ratio would be more like coefficient of friction. As the value approaches 0 it is less “sticky”/value, with 1 being most value. Of course this is subjective. Still noodling with the concept. Want to work with me on it?
3. Aaron says:

   April 7, 2009 at 10:12 PM

   Sure!

   I’m in mid-level Calculus and Differential Equations right now (last undergrad semester, yes!) so I’ve got math on the brain.