Is Content Becoming Dust in the Wind?

Are we reaching a point where content becomes dust in the wind – like the song by Kansas? Or, is the dust growing with all those memories and dreams recorded forever along with the observers and seekers? It seems like a part of both as people create 1 billion posts per day on Facebook, 12 million tweets per day on Twitter, upload 1.7 million minutes of video to YouTube each day, post over 1 million blogs per day, and that’s just a start to the daily growth.

 That’s a lot of content or dust, but hey… Google is indexing all of it, supposedly forever, so the dreams and memories should continue, and Facebook will help to create more memories as people share their thoughts and get photos of them uploaded and tagged by friends. So, what better way to market your company than to throw more dust to the wind, so long as it’s not forgotten?

That's partially what some social media “experts” are preaching now day. Create more and more content so your company will be found on the net. Your home page is no longer enough, you need posts on Facebook, Tweets, more video on YouTube, and blog posts with relevant and valuable information – as if you’ve got time and relevant information to regularly blog about.

So I sound a bit skeptical? Well, not really. But I am wondering where this is taking us. Will information become so diluted by it’s own mass that finding relevant information will be akin to finding a quark in the universe? Is this really a long term, effective way to market your company? Or will people just get tired of it all – which is already happening. Many long term users of Facebook are leaving it, and people are getting more concerned with personal data becoming public or kept forever in that large search engine of dust.

I wrote a few weeks back on how people are leaving social networks for the real world and I continue to read more about that trend. Do a search for “why I quite Facebook” and see how and why people are leaving, but keep in mind that your search results will also be kept forever in a database by Google – possibly with your name or address. Watch the program “Inside the Mind of Google” for an eye opener, or a piece from the New York Times on the program. Keep in mind that even if you aren’t logged into Google they could get your street address from the IP address on your computer – I have proven that to myself from more than one location, and it was eye opening.

My conclusion from all of this is to recognize potential pitfalls and make a plan to use the web wisely. I really don’t want to visit Facebook to learn more about your company. The fact is I get frustrated when companies send me away from their website. Even for video… don’t send me away to YouTube. Upload there if you want but embed the video on your own site. It doesn’t take any of your bandwidth, and there are lots of other options with BlipTV, Vimeo, and other video service providers.

Experiment with Facebook and Twitter before you jump onto the bandwagon. You might just learn why it's easy to get tired of it, and the current hype could be just that. There may be situations where I’m totally off with my observations, but I don’t think it’s the win for all that’s being sold to all. To some extent a lot of this is about getting information on you for selling to you… remember when we worried about that with television.

Sources: #

“You Can’t Friend Me, I Quit” On Facebook’s fifth anniversary, a not-so-fond farewell by Steve Tuttle, Newsweek Web Exclusive, Feb 4, 2009

“Facebook Exodus” by Virginia Heffernan, The New York Times, August 26, 2009.

“How to Quit Facebook” on Wikihow.

“Tweeting, texting render avid users ‘present yet absent’ by Olivia Baker, USA Today, Aug. 3, 2009.

“Marketing Mecca and Business Panacea?" By Roger Bindl, Viodi View.

"Inbound Marketing," VideoBlog by Roger Bindl on HubSpot.

"Facebook Chat: 1 Billion Messages Sent Per Day," by Ben Parr, June 15 2009, Mashable The Social Media Guide.

“Tweets Per Day” Social Media.

“Zoinks! 20 Hours of Video Uploaded Every Minute” YouTube Blog, May 20, 2009.

“Inside the Company That Mistook Itself for a verb” Neil Genzlinger, Dec 2, 2009, The New York Times.

“49 Amazing Social Media, Web 2.0 And Internet Stats”, Adam Singer, TheFutureBuzz, Jan 12, 2009.

Dust Storm Photo" WikiMidea Commons, George G. Marsh Album. April 18, 1935, Texas.