Forget social media, it’s boring

Oh, so you’ve got a startup that’s going to change the world using social media? Tell someone else about it. I’m not listening any more. Here’s why: social media got boring.

Yup, it’s boring and its lost the luster that made it so revolutionary in the first place. I can pinpoint when it happened too:

The Evolution of a Social Media Professional:
2007: Holy crap, this is so cool.

2008: This is really cool. You should check it out.

2009: Why won’t anyone listen to me. This is going to change everything.

2010: Yes! It’s working. I was right.

2011: See how well this works. I told you so.

2012: Oh whatever, I said all this stuff five years ago.

I love change. I love studying human behavior. I love solving puzzles. To me, all the big social media puzzles have been solved. There’s nothing new anymore, it’s all just variations of the same thing and from here on out it’s pretty obvious how things will play out, it’s just a matter of time. And I hate waiting. I feel like Sherlock Holmes when he’s bored waiting between cases (don’t worry, I haven’t resorted to shooting up cocaine like he did).

I don’t mean to sound condescending or arrogant, it’s just that social media has entered a phase where people like me, who fly at 30 000 feet, don’t add as much value as we used to. It’s now time for people who are better at scale and optimization to take over. Those of us that are better at the messy creation part (and find details boring) need to start thinking about what’s next for us.

Just to be clear, I still very much believe in social media. Social is now part of everything we do. But I believe we’re now entering the Post Social Age where we need to start building on top of the social world.