We recently had the opportunity to sit down with Steve Rubel, executive VP for Global Strategy and Insights with Edelman. Edelman is a global public relations firm, well known for being on the forefront of technological change. Click here for more info on Steve and Edelman. In this clip, Steve talks about the concept of over-friending, and shares his predictions for the next era of social media. Very broadly speaking, the internet has gone through several distinct phases, or eras. First, in its infancy, we had the era of commercialisation. The baby steps of the web were taken by large companies and organisations, and while other voices did exist, they were not nearly as dominant. Secondly, in what is referred to by marketing types as “Web 2.0”, we had the era of social media, started by the blogging craze, picked up by MySpace and finally dominated by facebook. Social media has changed the web entirely, so that now you don’t need to be a large organisation to have a web presence. Every 16 year old and their grandma can now tell the world just what’s on their mind. Steve Rubel refers to this as a “democratisation” of the internet. We are now if not in a third era, then in a transitory phase between them, where social media has reached saturation point and is causing information overload. The idea of a ‘friend’ online has been devalued to the point of meaninglessness, and trying to find a true expert in the cacophony of voices is increasingly difficult. Steve suggests that, in this third online era, we will see people become more selective in who they listen to, in an attempt to make more sense from the noise. This means that online marketers will need to work harder to stand out, to appeal to individuals rather than demographics, and build a meaningful relationship with their target market. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8x3-HD9suU
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