Over at the Houston Chronicle’s Techblog, Dwight Silverman wrote about the annoyances of social networks, referring to a PC World piece on the subject.
The comments are worth reading. They come from a group of people who are more web-oriented than average (because they’re on the Chronicle web site, reading a blog about technology, and commenting on it) and the general response to social networking is lukewarm.
Not a scientific sample, of course. But a good reminder for those of us immersed in social technology that it’s still not quite a mainstream activity.
The other interesting thing about the comments? Complaints often have to do with the social network infrastructure - the number of networks, the bad behavior of Facebook apps - more than the concept of social networks itself. And a number of people mention the value of specialized networks - communities for a defined set of people sharing a specific interest, which provide immediate value to users.
Think about specialization and simplicity when you think about social media strategies…