I’ve been using social media for a long time. It all started with using things like Yahoo Messenger or AOL to connect with people. Eventually we wanted more features though. I used Myspace way back in the day. The site was fun to use and great for keeping in touch with friends. After a while though it seemed to get to cluttered with all the crazy animations you could enable on your profile and the auto play music. I wanted something a bit more organized and not so busy to look at. That’s when I abandoned Myspace and jumped on board the Facebook train. Facebook learned from the m
istakes of Myspace and added some great features. I enjoyed using it for many years. Then they started changing things that I liked and the way a user could do things. Pages is a great example and one of the big reasons I’m now looking to escape Facebook. Pages use to be a great way to promote a video series, website, product and more. You create a page, get your friends to spread the word about it and then publish content to your fans on Facebook. Its no longer that easy. There is a great video about the problems with Facebook that I will link to HERE and another by the same guy that talks about the problems with Pages HERE.
I have a few Facebook pages and it drives me nuts that I can’t get content to the people that like my pages without paying Facebook to do so. They already liked my page and want to see content I post, so why do I need to pay to get that content to them? This along with a few other issues is why I have decided to explore the internet for Facebook alternatives. I’m going to be looking for key things that myself and many others might want out of a social network replacement to Facebook.
After resurching other social networking sites
It turns out Facebook has quite the hold on the social media market. There are not very many sites that have similar features. Here is the breakdown on some possible alternatives.
Myspace:
I was thinking of just going back to a familiar friend in Myspace. Well turns out its not so familiar any more. Myspace was bought out a few years back and transformed into like a social network for music. Also the app kinda sucks. It seems to freeze up a lot for me. The site has a new design but could possibly be useful. I just don’t think enough of my friends and family would use it.
Google+:
This one is the most likely alternative as of now. It has a lot of the same features as Facebook with a
different look. Most of the things you can do on Facebook, you can do on Google+. I remember when this first came out. I actually had a Google+ account when it was still being tested. It has some really great stuff but its hard to pull your friends and family away from the death grip on Facebook to go to Google+.
Ello:
Ello is a new social media site that is currently in a closed beta. You have to be invited by a current member or apply to get in. I applied to get in so we will see. I’m curious to see a new social media site start up and how it will try to be better than the competition. I would just build my own social media site if it was that easy. As of yet Ello dose not have a mobile app. Most likely because its still in beta. One thing I’ve learned is that not very many people use a computer to browse online or get on social media. So not having an app can hold people back from using it. Its sad and i hate it that so many people stick to using the internet on there phone and don’t even use a computer any more. Computers seem to be for content creators and viewers just use their mobile phone. If or when i get access to Ello ill update this with my findings.
So there you have it. I was hoping this was going to be a comparison between different social media sites like Facebook and what features they have to offer, but there are very few out there.
I might be stuck with Facebook until someone can program the next big social media site.
Q: Is there a site out there that you have seen that could crush Facebook or what do you think it would take from a social media site to get you to abandon Facebook?
Leave a Reply