Thread December 10, 2011 editorial: comments

Dear Fellow Audiofanziners!

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/7320_291530210526_49436315526_9351792_6008840_n.jpgThe online social network wars continue.  One week it's Facebook launching this feature, then Google+ launching its brand pages, and for this round we got Twitter which launched it's redesign this past week.  The redesign, includes cleaner profile pages, in-line conversations with media, and discovery via connections (used to be the Activity Stream) so you can see what others are up to and who is retweeting what.   While imitation is the most sincere form of flattery- Twitter is planning to take on Facebook in the near future by launching Brand Pages, thereby providing hooks for businesses to spend more time on Twitter, because if you're not there, you're nowhere- as the saying goes.

I think the problem for me, as a person, which has a Facebook profile, and as a business which manages the Audiofanzine brand page, is that, well, I am already on Facebook.  Making Google+ and Twitter with more Facebook like features is forcing me to manage 3 accounts which do the same thing.  And if I don't, well I am not keeping up with the Jones' so to speak.

Instead of developing similar features why don't social networks strike out on their own and offer a unique reason for me to be on Twitter or on Google+?  What is their unique selling proposition today?

I reflected on this as I uploaded the Fender Kurt Cobain Jaguar review this past week.  I wonder what Kurt would have thought about all the social networks of today.  Nirvana won their war offline, club by club, show by show, with posters and flyers.  Today it has an immense Facebook page with over 13 million 'likes', managed by some Nirvana fan club entity.  Looking at what pages Nirvana as a band today 'likes', I sincerely doubt the band would have liked VH1, Rolling Stones and Spin magazines.  Where is the Sonic Youth 'like'?

Chater-La