“Unfriend Everyone” says Sam Biddle of Gizmondo.
Moreover: “You have too many Facebook friends. You’re following too many people on Twitter. You’re connected to too many people who don’t care too much about you. Get rid of them. Get rid of all of them.” (More here)
In the past year I’ve heard a few senior discenting voices of a similar nature, but none have been as high-profile (and as public) as this.
My Perspective:
I’m no futurist, but I see three patterns of response to the deluge of data emerging.
First up there is the ‘tear it all up’, ‘stick your head’ in the sand approach. For the record I can’t stand this. If you’ve been following too many people and can’t keep up, that’s your fault. And if you are spread to thin – across too many networks – that’s your fault too. But adapt, ride the storm. That’s what’s human’s do.
Secondly, you’ve got solutions like Path, who offer a limited, more private, simple, personal, dare I say ‘quality’ approach. For the record I like this perspective a great deal and Path has a truly wonderful user experience.
And then there is the third approach. Take a step forward Content Curators.
Whilst there are lots & lots of content curators (for e.g. Summify – which was just bought by Twitter btw), it is this category of high tech computing that I find incredibly exciting. Why? Because these solutions aim to deliver ONLY the most RELEVENT content (hint: that’s not all of it) from your social networks – and additionally deliver it WHEN (8.00am?) and WHERE (your CRM system?) you need it.
Clearly everyone is entitled to their own opinion and can do what they want to evolve their social strategy. Yes you can stick your head in the sand, but in my humble opinion what is needed are many more efficient web and content filters (of a semantic nature), which will distil the massive amounts of information on the web – in a usable way. After all – Data is the new oil.
The right approach is ’Content Curation’.
For me, that’s the Holy Grail.
