The Evolution of Social Networking: A Look at Sprouter

Social media / social networking has obviously taken the Internet by storm - individuals continue to flock to it, mainstream companies have developed marketing strategies to leverage it, budgets once assigned for traditional marketing campaigns are now starting to be used in social media experiments and sites/services like Facebook and Twitter continue to enjoy growth (and are challenging other traditional players like Google).  In one of my most recent client engagements, students in high schools were viewing email as no longer relevant, as all their communications were occurring via Facebook.  The social networking paradigm is transforming things in a major way.  

It won't last though.

Yes, in one way, I threw that statement out to get a reaction, but I'm serious, in a certain way.  The utilization of these social networking tools will continue, but the sites/services themselves as destinations aren't going to last.  The reason for this is that sites like Facebook and Twitter are really becoming platforms that others will build atop.   

Let's take Twitter as an example to illustrate what I mean.  

At the highest level of transformation that is going to occur, we are seeing that every service, site and tool is building a hook into Twitter.  I'm hardly surprised any more when I see a tool I've been using that suddenly let's me "Tweet" from it.  Even the video games that my children play allow them to link their Twitter accounts so that high score, awards and level completion can all be automatically Tweeted.  Applications over the next twelve months will continue this trend and we should be surprised to find mainstream apps like Microsoft Office will start to include this functionality into.  

This integration will of course continue to push Twitter towards becoming underlying infrastructure that allows for social networking to be enabled across other tools that people use.  Sites like Twitter will become like "the internet" because when the famous "www" was introduced and the web itself was born.  The internet enabled the web.  Twitter will enable social networking.  Just as the web sits atop the internet, so too will other innovative tools and services end up sitting atop Twitter.

People are going to want the social networking functionality, but it is going to have to come with content & context.  They are going to want value.  An excellent example of this is Sprouter.  By registering for Sprouter, you are tapping into a community.  In this case, it is a community of entrepreneurs. If you are a start-up, you get access to a valuable pool of resources that would be otherwise hard to tap.  Through Sprouter you get connected to people, ideas and events that are of interest and of value.  

When you are logged into Sprouter, you are presented with a question "What are you working on?"  In this regard, it's paradigm is similar to Twitter.  You update your status and the people who are following you see that update.  It is a like-minded community though, and so the updates of status are targeted and hence, in my opinion, provides a greater degree of value.  Why?  The social networking that is going on is of benefit directly to start-ups and entrepreneurs.  That social networking is coupled with real world events/meet-ups, newsletters and other things that start-ups need.  

Sprouter's founder, Sarah Prevette, is giving us a look at what the future of social networking will be.  In my opinion, over the next couple of years, sites like Twitter and Facebook, while still existing, will have faded into the background.  Everything will hook into them, but they won't be destination sites.  Instead, sites / services of interest will be where we will congregate and socially/professionally network, leveraging the foundation that Facebook and Twitter have laid down.  

Comments

[Shawn]

Great vision! I like Twitter but there is too much noise. I will check out Sprouter out of interest. Any similar services like Sprouter but aimed at the education market? Thanks for the interesting post mip!

[Garvey T.]

I personally find the whole Twitter/Facebook thing to be a self-indulgent fad. Real work, real business, real relationships are fostered in person. I find all this social networking stuff gives people the false perception that they are busy and doing things but they are really just sitting at their computer. No successful business was built on simply exchanging messages. Thats like saying that businesses were built on email or because of email. Face-to-face is the way to go in my books.

[Jason Phellps]

Do you think social networking is an emerging trend all on its own, or do you think it is being driven by the increased us of mobile phones and smartphones?

[2nd Wave]

Haven't used Sprouter but do agree that eventually Twitter and the other will become disintermediated. I think that some of the big players though like Google or Microsoft are going to play a bigger role in this type of collaborative environment. Wave already shows signs of this, no? I'm surprised you didn't talk about Wave's place in all of this networking.

[Sams]

Great post! Thanks for the info on Sprouter. Sounds fantastic. Passed it on to a friend who just launched a startup.

[Leslie Nacmie]

Garvey T.: You are correct, a face-to-face is obviously a key element to building relationships of a certain nature. Social networking however allows you to expand your network of resources/ideas/contacts beyond your physical geography. I wouldn't pretend that a simple Tweet could replace a a face-to-face meeting for me here in Texas, but the reverse is true as well. Left only to face-to-face meetings a conversation like this one wouldn't be possible! I think Twitter and whatever sites or services evolve from them facilitate new connections that can then evolve into working and professional relationships. In the cases where those relationships don't end-up in face-to-face-type encounters you have still expanded the pool of resources available to you and that is always a good thing.

[AV]

Can't you achieve the same thing using Tweetdeck? Just create groups that are entrepreneur or startup related? I like getting everything in one spot and don't want to have to go from site to site to see what my network of people I follow are doing.

[Jason]

AV - setting up groups in Tweetdeck doesn't give you the same richness you get from being a part of a group like Sprouter. Like mip's post indicated, you get access to people but also expertise. You get notice of events. You get a deeper level of networking than you can than simply setting groups up.

[Gail]

Sprouter rocks! Great perspective Michael!

[Yves]

Really like this blog post mip! Captured the trend perfectly I think. There was a good write-up on Sprouter a little while ago in the Star.
Enjoy!
http://www.thestar.com/business/smallbusiness/article/773810--new-online-community-sprouts-up