Did Social Networking Make a Paradigm Shift?

I’ve thought to myself many times in the past, what’s the next Facebook? Now I’m thinking, is there another Facebook? Has the trend of all-in-one, world wide, all-inclusive, social networking sites ended or will there be another one on the rise?

Certainly we’d all hope to come up with the next Facebook and make boat loads of money. The reason I’ve been thinking about this lately is because I recently saw a tweet with a link to a comprehensive list of networking sites (I use the term “comprehensive” VERY loosely) and I don’t see a single one that will ever be as big as Facebook or MySpace.

What is the paradigm shift I think we’ve all seen? Niche Networking! If you look at any of these “comprehensive” lists how many would YOU actually use? None? 1? 2? 5? 10? Definitely not more than 10. Why do I need to register with a network for sport coaches, or surfers, or “deviant” artists (whatever the heck that is)? I don’t! However, I definitely see the value they bring.

We all can agree social media continues to revolutionize how we communicate. It’s absolutely incredible that there is a network for pretty much any kind of person out there. You can’t not find at least one that fits your personality.

So how did the age of the “Facebooks” end? Well, I can think of two things that helped cause this shift and I’m positive there are many more I just haven’t taken the time to think of them yet. (Let me know if you do!)

The counter-culture of America helped drive social networking into the niche phase. Being trendy isn’t cool. Many people don’t want to jump on the bandwagon because they’re “unique.” Or, at least as unique as everyone else on their niche network. This always happens though. The counter-culture of America (which can mean a lot of things) always makes room for competition in any industry, especially ones driven by trendy teens & young adults.
Integration. I’d say this is the largest contributor to niche networking. I think just about everybody has between 5 and 10 networks they could easily belong to. While seemingly overwhelming, social media integration has made it pretty dang easy. I can integrate Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, MyBlogLog, Diigo, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Kyte, and others into my blog/website. This is great. This allows me to pick what networks appeal to me and combine them into one.

There is one other shift I think may be coming. Yesterday I got an email from Furl. I never use Furl but registered a while back because I wanted to secure my user name (I don’t know why, but I do this all the time). It went something like this:

“The Furl team is very pleased to announce that Furl has become part of Diigo.com. We worked hard to find Furl a home where loyal users like you could continue to benefit from best-of-breed social bookmarking and annotation tools. Hands down, Diigo.com was the winner due to its innovative approach to online research tools and knowledge sharing.”

Furl is now a part of Diigo. This was inevitable. While there are tons of networks out there to appeal to every John, Dick, and Jane, there is no way they are scalable into long lasting companies. The result: Consolidation. We already saw Facebook make an offer to Twitter a few months back. While it was rejected I would not be surprised if this trend picks up industry wide. Why you ask? Look at Facebook for example. Step by step they have torn down every single wall in their way.

Facebook only available to Harvard
Facebook available to Universities in Boston area
Facebook available to all college students nationwide
Facebook available to all college students world wide
Facebook allows all to join
Facebook allows profiles to go public on search engines and more.

While these steps are about as comprehensive as the list of networks I mentioned earlier, you get the point. These large networks are transitioning to do what niche networks do but with a lot more capital resources. It could end up like Hungry Hippos. You know, the game with the balls in the middle and you each have a hippo that eats the balls. Look to Facebook, MySpace, Skyrock, and others to be very, very hungry and eat everyone up.

Again, this is just a thought. This industry is constantly changing, and trying to predict the future is near to impossible. However, for people, organizations, and businesses that heavily utilize these tools, it’s imperative to at least try.

Check out the “comprehensive” list here if you didn’t catch it above.