One big question that is eventually faced by all mature social networking sites is, “how do you breathe new life into an existing social network?” How do you take a site whose popularity and relevance has dropped off over time and revitalize it? How do you attract new members? How do you win back old members who used to be active but have moved on?
Perhaps social networking can take a cue from a completely different medium for some of the answers: television. In many respects, a social media site is a lot like a television series. TV shows are created and debuted with much enthusiasm. A few people try them out for a while before deciding if they like them. Some shows are wildly successful, but most are not. Television networks routinely retool flagging shows in an attempt to attract new viewers or bring back viewers they’ve lost over time…which is exactly the same goal of an aging social network. So let’s examine a few of the tricks that television shows use when ratings begin to decline and see if we can find some best practices that translate to social media.
1) Change the cast of characters. Bring in new characters or promote minor characters to major roles. This allows the writers to think of new and (hopefully) interesting character dynamics and plot lines. Or perhaps bring in a famous guest star for a few episodes. For the social media analog, this might mean recruiting new bloggers or administrators to bring fresh viewpoints to the site and change some of the existing dynamics of the network’s interactions. It might also mean bringing in guest bloggers from other sites, or sponsoring AMA (Ask Me Anything) question and answer sessions from luminaries in a field or other subject matter experts. Part of the excitement of a social networking site is finding new and fresh (and valuable) ideas: new blood is always a good way to bring in fresh viewpoints.
2) Change the location. Take the old characters and upset the apple cart by moving them to a different country or city. Again, this is a commonly used plot device that allows the writers of a show to explore new venues in new ways. For the social media analog, this might mean adding features to the site that it never had before. Or making a feature that wasn’t used much into one that is far more useful. Add a chat or instant messaging feature perhaps, if there wasn’t one before. Allow people to interact in real-time vs. an extended conversation on a forum. Perhaps add a contest or a way for members to play games with each other (hey, it seems to have worked for Facebook). Changing the way the community members can interact with each other can be a catalyst for increased popularity.
3) Change the focus. Perhaps kill off a main character and let the writers focus on a different one. Or fire a character and change the focus from a work situation to a home situation. Give the audience and the writers a chance to learn something new about a favorite character that they didn’t know before, or see a different aspect of his or her persona. For a social network, this might mean a shift in the focus of the website. Instead of being about government change, for instance, perhaps a shift to being about societal change in general might broaden the potential member base. Or if the current focus is broadly based, perhaps a change to a more narrow focus that would interest a smaller, but potentially far more passionate, community.
4) Change the show runner. Let the person (or people) that have been running the show move on and bring in a fresh voice. Bring in someone who has revitalized shows in the past, or who has a history of creating content that people like. For social media, this is all about community management. Community management isn’t just about administration and moderation. It’s about marketing. It’s about finding ways to build excitement among existing members and to attract new ones. It’s about finding interesting people with challenging viewpoints and recruiting them to be involved in the network. It’s about promoting the value of the social experience to existing and potential members.
You’ll notice one thing all these ideas have in common: the element of change. Change the characters, change the location, change the focus, and change the people in charge. And of these things I would argue that the most critical one is the last one. People with fresh eyes and fresh viewpoints are often the driving force behind the other types of change I’ve mentioned. And when those people are successful, they are usually given the majority of credit when a show pulls out of a ratings slump.
As with television shows, not all change in social media is for the positive (i.e., Digg…also known as the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” rule). We’ve all seen shows that introduced change in such a way that they alienated their original base without attracting enough new viewers to matter.
One other lesson to take away from all this is that television series, even the most beloved and enduring ones, are all eventually cancelled. While we are still relatively early into the age of social media, I suspect that lesson will also prove true in the long run (i.e., AOL, Napster, Friendster, MySpace).
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