Really. I think social networks - ALL social networks - need a topic/channel/directory feature.
No, tags don't work, nor do circles or list. Google+ and/or Facebook pages work somewhat better, but they're designed for a different purpose - posting on the behalf of 'entities'.
Let me explain: I am a human, my name is Alan Franzoni, and I sometimes want to share with the world my thoughts about something. I often discuss software development, and I've got a Twitter account and a blog which I've setup for discussing such topic; there I write in English for a worldwide audience. I sometimes go a bit astray, but I try to keep mostly focused on such topics there; I've got a separate blog where I collect Linux/OSX/Unix related tips and tricks that don't really fit in the wider software development audience.
I've got a Facebook account as well, where I write in Italian, which I mostly use to talk about personal things that happen in my private life, that only friends and acquaintances can read. I never publish anything that's really private - since anything that reaches the Internet may just go public without further notice - yet such distinction helps drawing a line between my work interests and my private life.
Why? Because I think that focus matters. We live in an era of information overload. Whoever thinks my contributions to software development are valuable proably wouldn't give a damn about what I post on Facebook.
Yet this doesn't seem a concern to many. I often unfollow people on Twitter because the signal to noise ratio is extremely low - for each interesting tweet there're many tweets about kids, events happening somewhere, personal life, photos, checkins, what they ate, and so on. And such behaviour it's getting increasingly common on blogs, Google+, Facebook pages as well.
That's an example from Martin Fowler's bliki: I like his writing very much and I own many of his signature series books, yet its website mingles a lot of interesting software related material with photos he takes while on vacation.
Why? Because it's easy to do so, and hard to create separate topics. I've had such temptations in the past as well.
Whenever I want to share something which is bit different from my main theme - like this very piece - I'm simply stuck. Where should I write it? Doesn't fit my blogs, and I don't use Google+ much (and I wouldn't know to whom should I push it).
Today's social networks make topic selection quite convoluted to implement. On Twitter, you should create multiple accounts for multiple channels. Google+ and Facebook pages need you to switch a lot, and everybody should check what pages you control and subscribe to individual pages - that won't work because that's not what pages are designed for. And you should "spam" every now and then your "other account/page" so your current followers can follow you on another stream if they're interested. Lists and circles can't help either, because they've got a push behaviour.
problem definition:
I am a person, and I've got various interests, and I'd sometimes like to share something about them and discuss. And I'd like that who's interested in such topic could read what I write or share.
Yet the current abstraction of social networks in wrong. It's either an all-or-nothing thing (Twitter) or a push behaviour (FB, G+), where the writer gets to pick who reads what.
How can I know what somebody that follows me, possibly on a public account, is interested in, if I post about multiple topics?
Blogs once encouraged such razor-sharp focus; it was considered "bad design" to talk about many topics on a single blog; a better way was to build multiple blogs, with separate RSS, and let your audience follow just what they wanted.
So, what do I want?
I want topics!
I'd like to setup topics for my social network account, choose which ones are public and which ones are subject to authorization, and then let anyone just follow the topic he/she likes!
That's what I have in mind and that would fit my ideal social network; anybody accessing my profile would see something like that:
- Software development (public) (~10 entries/month)
- The meaning of life and universe (public) (~1 entries/month)
- Politics and society (public) (~5 entries/month)
- Personal ramblings (private) (~30 entries/month) [request authorization]
A social network should offer such topics and give some stats about the traffic I should expect from such topic. Stop. No hassle. Improved focus. Less noise. Whenever I create a new topic, my followers could be notified, in some unobtrusive way, that I did so, and may decide to follow me. And they might just follow my "The meaning of life and universe" topic if I only posted there once a month. Sometimes I could cross-post something on multiple topics and people could get a peek of other things I was writing, but readers shouldn't need to crawl deep in my account to see what pages I'm administering.
"... so nobody will look at the photos of my kids anymore!"
Let's face it: probably very few people are looking at them whatsoever. Maybe they click the link because they don't understand what's in the tweet and they think it might be interesting, since you're an expert in a field. And they swear as soon as they open the link.
Don't just think at who won't see your photos. Think about who won't see your posts about something important in your professional life because they unfollowed you because of a low SnR
"... so whatever important happens in my life shouldn't be shared. Oh, what a gray, dull world we live in."
Alas, no. That's not what I mean. You sometimes want to tell everybody about something. You might want to share something on all your topics sometimes.
Have you got a newborn child? Go on, share the news with everybody!
Did you get a new job in a great place? Joy everywhere!
Do you want to raise the attention on some really important topic, something like CISPA or some freedom-limiting act? Yes, please!
But:
- Did you go fishing and caught an enormous carp?
- Did you shoot great photos during your last vacations?
- Do you think that penguins deserve more attention from the general public?
Please, restrict such entries to a personal or a focused topic. It will help you in the long run.