Jeff Stibel discusses why we are looking at social media networks the wrong way. As a society we put a lot of pressure on networks to succeed, and while they do grow tremendously in the beginning, they seem to all eventually collapse. Read more about how we can save our networks and their stocks by shifting from “growth to usability.” Read the full article on LinkedIn where it originally appeared to learn more how we can save our networks and their stocks by shifting from “growth to usability.” Image credit: MKHMarketing / Flickr
The Logic Behind Facebook’s Recent Moves – By Jeff Stibel
Recently, two Princeton graduate students released a study predicting the demise of Facebook by 2017, using concepts from epidemiology. No quicker had the media reported the results of the study than numerous rebuttals were posted. A few Facebook data scientists had great fun by posting their analyses showing that Princeton University would run out of students by 2021 and that the Earth would run out of air by 2060.
Read the whole article where is originally appeared.
Is Twitter in Trouble? – By Jeff Stibel
Last week, Twitter’s stock took a big tumble after it released its first quarterly earnings report. The report showed that revenue is up (and better than expected), but user growth is slowing and engagement is down. Declining user growth is not an issue in itself, and actually can be a great thing for a network (in fact, I wrote a whole book on this topic). Lack of engagement, on the other hand, is something different.
Read the whole article where it originally appeared.
Image Credit:Matt Hamm, Flickr
The Future of Facebook and the Internet | Interview with Jeff Stibel
Breakpoint author Jeff Stibel speaks with Rick Van Cise of KOMO radio about the how the world’s largest social network, Facebook, can take proactive measures to reach equilibrium after its breakpoint instead of following the likes of Friendster and Myspace into obscurity.
Furthermore, he notes that though the internet is not going anywhere, how we access and use it will. Our relationship with the internet has already begun to change, thanks largely to the popularity of apps, and will only continue to as technology progresses.
For reference, How Facebook Can Avoid a Slow, Painful Death is the Wired article mentioned during the interview.
Why Does Growth Stagnate for Companies? For One Thing, It’s Natural
There are countless examples of companies whose life cycles can be represented by the adjoining graph. There is the period of rapid growth, after which the company hits a peak, then settles into a plateau or state of equilibrium. At this point, shareholders start to get worried, share prices go down, and everyone begins to speculate about the future of the company.
The following article explains why this process is natural, and almost essential for a long life cycle of any company. These periodic slowdowns are inevitable, though management can and should strive to make decisions that slow down the decline and reverse it quickly. In order to make these decisions, it is crucial to understand the forces responsible for slowing down these seemingly unstoppable companies.
Read more in this article by Ron Ashkenas: Why Successful Companies Stop Growing