I apologize for this off-topic rant, but it’s been sitting on my mind for a little while…
The best part of using all these social plugins on a site as small as mine is how pathetic it makes the site look. I try not to pollute everything with ‘like this’, ‘share that’, ‘spam your friends!’ and because of my simplistic approach, I never really benefit from any of these things.
But then again, I hardly see any interaction from my own friends with these little plugins on any site, not just mine. So I’m pretty sure 80 percent don’t know what they do. Then again, it’s probably more like 90/10. 80/20 is such a stupid generalization. 90 percent don’t know. of the 10 percent that do, 90 percent don’t care, leaving the one percent that’ll actually use it. Go team.
It seems to me as though all the things that “get popular” with these social plugins are ones that do something stupid (like an ascii smiley face, or “like this page to see these pictures!”) and basically, they force users to send it viral, even though it’s of no use to anybody and it’s not even good. 90% of the people have to be forced. 10% know better.
I’m going to force myself to change my approach a bit and see if these pressure tactics work for the better. I mean, I hate treating people like sheep, but if you’re going to act like sheep and only go where you’re herded to, what else is a guy supposed to do?
Here comes the dirty stuff!
Oh, and don’t forget to show some love by hitting the ol’ [recommend] button! It’s over there —->
Social media is designed for people; not the other way around. Maybe if a feature is useless to 90% of people the problem is with the feature, not the people.
I don’t know. I think people in general have gotten way too lazy – they don’t explore websites anymore. They don’t click or interact with things they see unless it’s served up to them on a shiny platter.