So who’s on Ping? I only got myself enrolled to the latest social media network courtesy of Apple. I am still just getting around Ping and its musical world of wonders. Not that I’m a rookie to iTunes or anything but I’m still just getting around the whole functionality and actual usage of the service. The other thing is that I’ve only managed to find one of my friends from the entire service. Yeah, I follow Diddy and U2, but that’s about it. It would seem that even majority of the artists have not found their way to Ping yet. Within here lies the problem. Will these artists and masses adopt the service and make their own? It was not long ago that I was still finding messages on Facebook from people finding it difficult to adapt to the world of Facebook after abandoning Myspace.

Myspace was always a bit of a mystery to me. I mean I had a profile there and all, but its functionality was not the best one I’ve seen and this leads me to the biggest issue new social media sites/services do. They get too stuck with the entire concept and idea that they forget and sacrifice the actual user experience and usability of the service. I had a great discussion with people developing social media services (actually many good chats) and what always seemed to come up was the importance of the user experience and ease of use. These services need to be so easy to use that checking your account is the first thing you do, even if you’ve just woken up. For me first thing I do is that I say good morning to my wife, grab my iPhone, check my emails, check my Facebook updates and then check what’s happening from Twitter. These basic tools again accompany me throughout the day just for the fact that they are easy to use, always around and I actually find use from their…use?!?! OK, so what other reasons could there be for one to adopt a certain social network as his neck of the social media woods. The friends.

This again brings us back to the very basic human needs, which consist of social needs, self-actualization, esteem, love and belonging, safety and physiological needs. Just to belong is (social needs) is so strong that people drive themselves to Facebook because everyone they know is there. A very important strength of the service. I have seen networks similar to  FB that usually fail because of the poor user experience although the concept might be exactly the same. Even the networks in regions where Facebook is not popping just yet have very, very similar functionality and pretty good user experience as well.

Twitter again fills the need for one’s random expressions although for myself it’s more or less a news channel for all the latest updates from around the world. To prove one’s existence is important enough driver to make one establish an account. The peer pressure does not hurt either. So you can see we get to very basics of our existence with these social media channels. Just taking a look at the AddThis list of sharing choices is overwhelming. Most of the networks you didn’t even know existed, but still they have following in some parts of the world. But how long can these networks stay as “trending topics”? Well some are already arguing that Myspace is riding to the sunset although it was only launched in 2003. Then again, these are just arguments from people not happy with Myspace. But the reality is that the services need to evolve and become more available to people from all corners of the world. When a system ignores this, it’s left behind the competition and that’s it. Game over.

But what about businesses? What can businesses do to make use of these channels? Businesses (as in musicians and record companies) are jumping at the chance to make Ping their newly established home, and why not? Music, sharing functions and updates. All you need to keep your fans and possible buyers up to date on what’s going on in your life (or your business). The same thing goes with other channels that can be efficiently used as a direct interaction channel between the customer and the business. Way too often you see FB Pages that have been established and then just left there. Waiting, waiting for someone to like them and grow. Not likely to happen. Aggression is the key as is straight forward communication and quality of content. If these aspects are there, you can be sure you will have following in hundreds, even thousands. But these people want interaction and that’s something you need to be prepared to provide. That means you need to get active, make that FB Page the first thing you check and make sure you answer fast enough. As this will have a direct influence on your brand’s perceived image. Which again brings us back to the ease of use and functionality of the applications. See, cycles. It’s all about cycles.

It’s a heavy load of text and should serve as a mighty fine start on something I will most likely continue on, but I don’t want to make this post too long. But I hope it gave you something to think about, and maybe even raised some questions. If it did, Soap Box is on the right, commenting below what ever works for you. Life’s good, just need to remember to enjoy it every once in a while. Be easy everyone, I’m logging out. Peace.