2009 is the Year of Meta-Social Media: 6 Services Compared

While taking a look at this list of social search engines collected of at the TopRank Online Marketing Blog it dawned on me: 2009 is the year of meta-social media. I’ve been encountering tools that fit the description all over recently but I couldn’t find an apt term to describe them. Today I will introduce and compare 6 meta-social media services.

What are Meta-Social Media? Let me give you three well known examples that gained a huge popularity in 2008 already:

1. Twitter
2. FriendFeed
3. Social|Median

Twitter has been established long ago measured in Internet time but it’s a transitional form. It’s 50/50 a social media and meta-social media site or service. Both FriendFeed and Social|Median are two thirds meta and one third “simple” social site. We have several new less known meta social media sites now out there but let show you what I mean based on those sites you know.

First wave social sites like StumbleUpon, Delicious or Digg have one thing in comon inspie of huge differences: They collect links to original stories.

Simple social sites create value or conversation around stories from original sources. They assist users in finding out what’s truly important or high quality by managing the wisdom of crowds. We have seen that often it’s the ignorance of crowds but to some extent this model works.

The most important factor from the user or contributor perspective is: You have to actively spend time and effort to participate and add content to those sites. This had some huge impact ob the whole Web, just think of the new aristocracy or rather meritocracy of social media power users.

Now compare those to Twitter:

You don’t have to add original sources to Twitter, you can but you also can link to your social media submissions elsewhere.

This way Twitter collects, fosters and focuses conversation from several places while it still works like first wave or non-meta social sites: You submit originals (that is direct links to original sources, without other social media interfering) and talk about them as well. While this combines approach is fine it also adds workload and it mkes yu link-hop. You get a link to Digg on Tiwtter and then you get to see the original. So Twitter is half social media site hlaf a hub connecting other social sites.

Take a look at FriendFeed and Social|Median and you notice the difference: Both sites collect social media submissions from elsewhere while still maintaining a one third part of a conversational social media site that collects and assesses original submissions.

You will notice that you need far less effort to make FriendFeed and Social|Media work for you. You don’t need to be very active there to get really tailored news and links. My SEO 2.0 network on Social|Median by now outgrew my first SEO 2.0 group on Mixx and exceeded 200 members. Most of the time it works on autopilot. I use FriendFeed much in the same way, as a meta-social site that gives me an overview about waht’s going on elsehwere. It’s largely automated but it adds the right amount of crowd wisdom.

Still there is a problem with Twitter, FriendFeed and Social|Median: You have to spend some of your precious time over there. It adds to the time already spent on the first wave social sites where you add content etc.

In 2009 meta-social media that predominantly organizes information and links contributed elsewhere will rise to popularity.

Those social sites allow you a quick overview n waht’s going on based on the info added, submitted, collected and assessed elsewhere. So let me move on to three exapmles of full fledged meta-social media:

1. MicroBlogBuzz
2. ReadBurner
3. POPrl

MicroBlogBuzz is a very simple site both from the layout and the function: It collect and sorts links shared on several microblogging services like Twitter in a Digg-like manner.
ReadBurner does the same but taking web based RSS readers/starting pages as input. It collects and sorts items shared n Google Raeder, Netvibes and Newsgator.
The simplest example is POPrl, it’s a combination of a URL shortening service with a Digg-like interface. The popularity is measured by actual clicks on the POPrl links on Twitter (or elsewhere).

I collected those sites in a bookmark folder called social media 3.0 due to a lack of an apt term, but meta-social media is the most logical descriptive term for those. They have several things in common.

Meta-social media

* rely on input from other social sites
* are largely automated
* add value by organizing and structuring data
* offer a quick overview
* change your position to a bird perspective

Meta-social sites have advantages for all involved parties:

* Social sites and contributors get additional exposure
* Users save time and effort
* Meta-social sites work on auto pilot so the costs are low

So the rise of these new wave of social media 3.0 (Digg being 1.0, Twitter being 2.0) or meta-social media is inevitable and very useful for all netizens. Meet me on Twitter, FriendFeed and/or Social|Median.

via seo2