The Effective CIO

Profiles In Burnout June 3, 2009

Posted by Chuck Musciano in Technology.
Tags: Interfaces, Social Media, Users
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Loyal followers of this blog know that I believe strongly in experimenting with new technology, and social media is no exception.  Technically, my experimentation goes back to the early days of LinkedIn, but my more focused efforts started about two years ago.  While my curiosity continues, my enthusiasm is waning.  The idea of trying out yet another social media site seems overwhelming.

It isn’t that these sites don’t seem interesting, or have some promise of community or value.  It’s that getting started takes so much time.

Joining a new social community always involves these steps:

• Begin by creating an account. That’s stressful to begin with. Should you use your real name, a previously used ID from another service, or some new moniker that matches the culture of the new site?  Your very first decision could color your entire experience, and you’re only 30 seconds into the game.
• With a name chosen, you need to create a profile.  How many times do I have to create an online profile?  Pages of prompts ensue, for schools, towns, jobs, and employers.  Haven’t I typed all this before?
• Possibly the worst part: upload your photo.  Which one?  Casual, professional, or formal?  Just a head shot, or should I include a bit of context?  Does it have to scale from thumbnail to fullscreen view? Is everyone on this service using artsy off-center cropping, or black and white?
• Now list all the other services you use.  This is both overwhelming and discouraging.  I usually don’t recognize most of these services, let alone use them.  Is everyone more connected than me? And if I do list the ones I use, what will this new service do with them?  Will it potentially annoy or embarrass me?
• And finally, the big one: connect with your friends! This usually involves uploading every email address you have ever acquired from anyone you’ve ever met.  The new service is guaranteed to interoperate with some email platform you’ve never used, but absolutely will not work with Outlook without the use of a CSV file and a tedious upload.

That last step is the worst.  After going through all these shenanigans, you discover that three people, two of whom you haven’t seen in three years, are actually on the new service.  I went through all this to connect to these people?

As new services compete for our attention, they must improve the enrollment process.  I think most people have grown weary of joining new services, which bodes well for the current sites but not for the newcomers or for further innovation in this space. We’re still in the early formative years of truly effective social networking, and people are already tired of joining and trying new things.

What’s the answer?  I’ve got some thoughts, but I’d like to hear yours first.  How can we make the “onboarding” process for new social services easier and faster?