”;

Social media is already an obsolete term – on the web you are either
social or dust. No one pays attention to the “me, me, me” tune. The
“you, you, you” is losing ground too. What matters today is “us” and
how we “share data”, communicate and interact.

The first steps towards a more social Web were made by bookmarking
services like reddit, digg, and del.icio.us and by social networking
sites like MySpace, Facebook, Bebo and others. The problem with so many
bookmarking and networking sites is that the users lose track of their
data sooner or later. Today more and more people are looking for
solutions for the storm clouds of data and services cluttering their
minds.

Social aggregators and social media aggregation services have been
designed to organize this chaos. They’ll pull content from different
bookmarking and networking sites and organize this data into a single
location, creating a “meta profile” page for each user.

Because the systems are somewhat complex, the users are often
unable to understand what social aggregators are all about. Some use
them as “traffic boosters” believing that being part of such a
community and submitting content will somehow boost the Alexa traffic
ranks. Other users exploit the linking functionality of the social
aggregators believing that the strategy will benefit their search
engine positioning or even boost the Google PageRanks of their sites.
While these advantages are obviously there, social aggregation has a
more in-depth meaning and functionality, but there’s still a long way
to go for an aggregation service to truly become a complete platform.

The biggest problem with some of the social sites is that they too
are full of “stuff”. Facebook is not an aggregator, as there is no real
way to store data – only integrate or communicate with services.

Social aggregation sites like FriendFeed and Profilactic offer
still more Twitter like utility that allows us to share our “stuff”
with other people, but the stuff we share is not really data so much as
snippets of a lifestream. Here we sit, stuffed with meaningless pieces
of stuff in most cases, and wondering what or where to put our upcoming
stuff.

There is perhaps only one true social aggregation library out there: Secondbrain (currently running in beta 2.0). This service has both lifestreaming
and content management tools. The social networking aspect is still
incomplete, but as the service develops further we can expect more
improvement every day.

What many web users still need to understand is that social
aggregation is not just a “trend” but a logical step towards Web 3.0.
This is the time to join such services and start building authority
within the community. Authority will eventually lead to a broader reach
and higher social media equity. As to how to build authority… well,
that’s another story, but for now just remember: join a social
aggregator (my recommendation is Secondbrain, which even has a contest where you could win a MacBook Air), connect with other users and start contributing with quality content.

Article Tags:
Social Aggregation, Logical Step, Social Networking, Social Media, Networking Sites, Social Aggregators

Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mihaela Lica public relations and SEO expert, is the managing partner
at Pamil Visions PR. She writes for several popular blogs and represents
a number of Silicon Valley and other international startup companies. You can read Mihaela’s personal blog at eWritings

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