The Long Tail of Social Media

In the break-through book, The Long Tail, the author Chris Anderson presents the new age of economics: an age of abundance rather than scarcity. This new age of abundance has been ushered in by the Internet and the ability the web allows for access to a plethora of niche markets versus substantial blockbuster hits. Instead of the consumer being limited to what is merely popular, the Internet allows consumers to inspect and discover numerous niches in the market place – i.e. the Long Tail.

Anderson’s Long Tail is no different as the social media phenomenon has taken off. In a market dominated by the “blockbuster hits” of Facebook and MySpace, there is a new age of niche social media networks. There is now a social network for every interest: travel, cooking, snowboarding, skateboarding, surfing, shoes etc. We have all seen the advertisements running on the right side of the Facebook panel asking you to join and try a beta version of a new social network.

Now the questions are, will these niche networks detract visitors from frequenting the major blockbusters in search of the focus offered by other social media sites or will internet users never truly accept smaller social networks, instead adopting for focused applications?

In my opinion, numerous niche social media networking guides could save time and money by adopting Facebook applications that offer the same services as their intended site. Here is the reasoning: the users are here and forcing them into another log-in and community is time consuming. Thus, while the economics of abundance has introduced an era of niche markets, the social media market could best serve their needs through adopting the platforms provided by the dominate players.