Welcome to the new Socl – the network where creativity...
Today I received an email with the uplifting message: The New So.cl is here! After a long hard thought I suddenly remembered: This was The Social Network that killed my Hotmail. The horrible attempt from Microsoft to get online presence, now that MSGR was dead.
Actually Microsoft tried to do the same as Google had done with Google+, with a few crucial differences. When Google choose not to buy any of the available Social Networks like Facebook or MySpace but instead launched Google+, the laugh was loud, even among many early adapters. However, Google has a strong brand name and a huge online influence. Nobody really cared, or still cares about Google+ but if you have a Google account, well, then you are an “active” Google+ member. So a new Network was born.
When So.cl launched last year (or was it the year before? nobody remembers and I’m too indifferent to Google it) they tried to do almost the same. They launched overnight, they present a clear visual lay out and they choose to sit and wait until success started raining down the skies.
What big companies fail to understand, regardless what their trendy recruitment video say’s, is that online success needs to build up from the ground. It has to sprout from it’s little tiny seed (usually somewhere in a garage box or an addict in a student house) and has to be nurtured by the very first enthusiastic followers and fans. Then, if the new network doesn’t make too many stupid mistakes, listens to the wishes of the early population and has the patience to wait, 1, 2, maybe even 3 year a valuable and loyal crowd can be gathered.
The Social experiment from Microsoft was doomed to fail from the day they drew it on the white board. First of all the Brand Microsoft is only appealing to a much older generation. Huge computer screens that took minutes to load any decent webpage and expensive software packages are not an image you shred off easily. But even so, Google went straight forward branding its Network Google+ and not some pretentious ‘cool’ name like So.cl.
The other day I wanted to see if there is anybody wondering the empty street of So.cl and I couldn’t even remember the actual URL. Had to quickly Google; “Microsoft Social”. so apart from having a huge budget, Microsoft didn’t capitalize on their famous Name.
Also, what is really missing (actually also the case for Google+) is a scandal, a famous person and some news worthy developments surrounding your network. When nobody was really on Twitter yet, Eminem, Pink en Asthon Kutscher where followed by tens of thousands Tweeps to get rumors going. But hey, that’s consumer marketing and who am I to doubt the company that has sold most software items ever, to consumers..
Back to my email form today, the headline reads:
Welcome to the new Socl – the network where creativity meets... my first thought was; "where creativity dies” but later realized they probably mean: “where creativity get’s copied”
On the new home page http://www.so.cl/now implemented as many crappy video shots and semi-funny Cat pictures with bold quotes to appear a fun to be Network but the painful truth is that nobody uses So.cl, and nobody ever will. Having a great Reputation, a Strong Brand and huge funding’s to back you up does not mean you can surpass the laws of Social. You need to start small, not the other way around.
Sorry to have offended the last 6 So.cl users, I guess they must feel like the last survivors still hiding behind a tree in Second Life.
