Social Engagement. Is the party over?

I’ve been paying attention to what’s been happening with online social engagement over the past year and from my observations it looks like pretty much everyone has left. 

So what do I mean by engagement? In a word… interaction. Different perspectives debated, discussed, sometimes contradicted but ending with the topic advanced to some sort of outcome. I don’t have time for irrelevant off-topic comments, but certainly would like to see much more than a ‘me too’ or a thumbs up. Why do you agree? What has your experience been?

How bad has it become?

Looking at a few of our larger online industry marketing groups, one group with over 260,000 members had 108 new conversations yesterday - which seems to be average daily activity. This equates to 0.04%. Of those 108 posts, only sixteen (15%) received any form of response (mostly a thumbs up) with just 4 receiving a comment. While this doesn’t indicate any click-through metrics, it’s not exactly inspiring or comforting is it? 

In mid-August the B2B Marketing group (with over 70,000 existing members) re-launched on Facebook claiming the existing group had “become a rather lonely and desolate place”. Almost 8 weeks later, just 492 members had joined the new Facebook group. And as best as I can tell, the interaction and engagement in this new group is equally low.

Why is this? Too much to do and a lack of time? Are the topics of little or no interest? Are notifications turned off to avoid getting email updates? Is it another symptom of information overload? And if we as an industry don't engage with each other, why do we think our customers and prospects will do anything different?

Like arriving at a party when it’s winding down, no one wants to be the last person there picking up the check. Do social networks still have a future... or has their time gone? 

If you're planning to spend budget on Digital and Social next year (as most brands are) check out “Digital Marketing—Trouble on the Horizon”, I’m sure you’ll find it very informative and well worth the read!