Social Media Is Becoming Like Flash

The more social media projects I work on, the more I’m reminded of my days working as a web designer, around a decade ago.

Back then Flash was new and hot and everyone wanted it on their site. It didn’t matter if it slowed the site to drying honey, the bouncing balls were cool and that coolness was going to translate into dollars.

Project meetings went a little somethin’ like this:

“So the client wants Flash”,

“But it’s an e-commerce site, that doesn’t make sense”,

“To bad, they want their puppy logo running across the monitor every 1minute 45 seconds”,

“It’s gonna slow the site to shit and no one’s going to buy anything”,

“They insist. They don’t want their customers to think they’re old school”.

These days, instead of Flash animations and intros, they want blogs and widgets.

I have read several briefs recently requiring blogs in the build – blogs, plural!

Writing a blog is hard, it requires real skill in writing and understanding. Very few people do it well. So it’s not uncommon to see a company blog languishing after a couple months.

Social networking is another darling. Clients love talking avatars, bios, etc, as if their site will somehow become a destination. Bad idea, usually.

Users don’t want to set up another profile, they have too many already. They want access to information and the ability to share it, fast and with no effort.

Back when Flash was a bell and a whistle, a lot of money was wasted.  The social media brief does not have to share the same fate.

And the agencies that build healthy sites and healthy online relationships for their clients will be seen as having the inside.  They will be the go-to for modern communication marketing.

Be Sociable, Share!

•