I was listening to the Music Biz Weekly podcast over the weekend and they were talking about a new social network called Chime.in. Michael and Brian both seemed to like it an get some traction on it early. So I thought I’d give it a go. My profile is at http://chime.in/user/PhilJohnsonComedy
Your thought is probably the same as mine. “Oh geez… Another social network.” I agree, there’s too many. Unfortunately, or fortunately, we’re in a spot in internet-time now where the bar to entry has been lowered and anyone can come in at anytime. Sometimes the stuff will work right, sometimes it won’t. And yet it pays to be an early adopter on some of this stuff.
Yep, I tried Google+ too, but I don’t use it that much. Simply because the API hasn’t been worked into the services that I use to post a lot like Ping.fm. So I have to actually remember to post stuff on G+ and I often don’t remember.
Even though it seems there’s something new ever day to jump on board with, I do wonder if there will be a “Walmart” in social networking. Will we still be on Facebook in 10 years? It can happen. Nobody can compete with Amazon. But then again, Amazon is just a store. It’s a place you go when you need something and not if you don’t. So we have less invested in it than we do a social network that we’re spending a lot of time on.
The other thing about a new social network is that you often just transfer over the friends you already have to a new system. Doesn’t seem like a good use of time. And right off the bat that’s something I kind of like about Chime.in. The first message they send on the site isn’t “invite all your friends!” even though that is available. They immediately focus you on finding new people to communicate with via interests.
Right now it’s very much a sharing site. Pix, videos, links, yadda yadda yadda. We’ve seen it all before. It’s way less focused on conversation and more into “look what I found.” Digg meets facebook? And it’s more of a “follow” idea like G+ than friending. So the connections seem even more tenuous.
The big turnoff I saw as soon as I logged on was that most of the posts were from brands. I like Mashable. But I already get an RSS feed. Do I really need another feed from them? Or SitcomsOnline for Pete’s sake? Since brands have more invested in being able to push content out, they’re always going to be the first ones to jump in. And I thought it was good of Google+ to hold them off a little bit to let regular people gain some traction first. Unfortunately they waited too long and brands are starting not to care now. But I saw very few posts from regular people on Chime. Have to see if how that pans out.
So anyway, if you’d like to check it out you can visit my Chime.in profile. Leave me a comment below and let me know what you think about it.
Phil Johnson
http://www.RoadsideAttraction.com