The Forgotten Platforms
Combing through my email each morning, I am regularly greeted by LinkedIn Groups messages, bringing me up to speed on the conversations that have taken place over the last day or two. I like being able to keep up with several groups this way, and see what is happening that may be relevant to my world. I’ve noticed, though, that there is an ever-increasing amount of noise in these groups that has little or nothing to do with the topic. For example:
- We’re Hiring Blog Posters And Proofreaders – Quick Cash
- HIRING again!!! Needing a few more employess…
- Make Money Taking Paid Surveys
- Earn Up To $325/day From Home!
- Wanna Drop 20 Lbs Fast?
- Are you looking for a job as a human resources consultant, human resources manager, human resources specialist or recruiter?
- Tripling Your Salary is Easy With Linkedin Power Techniques!
- Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid While Attending an Interview
- Daily Jang Epaper, Urdu Multimedia E-Newspaper of Pakistan with video…
These are all headlines from a very large, very popular HR LinkedIn Group. Tragic.
Every time we see a platform for engagement arise, it doesn’t take long for the spammers and junk mail marketing types to show up. After all, they fish where the fish are. At first, attentive moderators and engaged audiences will keep them at bay, but it doesn’t take much inattention for them to overwhelm the real audience. That’s when the virtual weeds begin to grow in the tracks and eTumbleweeds are seen blowing through your once thriving online community.
It’s not always spammers, of course. Sometimes it is a general malaise within the user group. Familiarity, contempt and all that. Trying to hard to be all things to all people will create a mediocre product, which can push your most passionate fans to look elsewhere. Sometimes the early adopters move on to the next big thing, and there hasn’t been enough of a draw for the long term users to join and help sustain. Sometimes a better mousetrap comes along and swallows groups of users whole. (I’m sure the MySpace team can speak to that one.)
The key to long-term success in any platform is a gentle learning curve, intuitive interface and functionality that actually means something to the user. Those things go a long way in keeping your audience interested. But it also takes attention from someone running the show to keep pulling the weeds and hosing off the deck from time to time. Inattention to your environment, be it a LinkedIn group, a Twitter following, or even your case management tool, means you run the risk of getting bad data in and good users out.
Make sure you know who is running your show, and that they know what the audience really wants.
