3foldComm

Here’s the thing, social media, I like you. I just don’t like like you.

I am a big supporter of innovation and filling a need in a brilliant way. I have personally found major benefits using Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and FourSquare, and marginally enjoy using Facebook and LinkedIn. But, let’s be honest, that is a lot.

Trying to keep up with those mainstream platforms takes time. An amazing amount of it. And social media is part of my job–for myself and for our clients. I can only imagine how people in other industries cope with the time management.

The past two years have simultaneously proven the incredible value of social media participation and monitoring for people and brands. They have also seen almost every major tech brand, and countless start ups, go absolutely bonkers trying to create the next big things in social media. Just this week, Apple even announced their own addition–Ping–built into their latest update of iTunes, where users can follow their favorite artists and friends, see what they’re listening to and downloading, post opinions and thoughts on music, and browse concert listings.

To this I say, enough already. Seriously. Calm it down.

The ideas are fine. It’s the participation expectations that are daunting.

This problem was hinted at with the launch of Google’s now defunct Wave, then Buzz; the fun potential of Foursquare spawned countless location check-in knock-offs — Gowalla, My Town, Facebook Places, and Glue (where you check into things like TV shows, movies, books, and websites instead of physical locations); and Twitter’s crazy growth inspired tons of “killers” set to take it down.

Honestly, I don’t really need 4 different social sites to manage my photos. Choosing between Facebook, YouTube and Vimeo to load my videos makes my head hurt.

I realize, to find the next big thing, a whole lot of “not-its” needs to be tried. However, I can’t help but think I’d rather see innovations for creating better conversation and service within the current major platforms then the constant dilution of  true “social media” potential created by the ever-expanding list of sites. Or maybe re-thinking the idea of the “next big thing” altogether…in, say, another type of media or technology.

What do you think? What platforms do you love? What innovations would you like to see?

A short (and not complete, I’m sure) list of social sites from Traffikd.com:

ARTS:

ArtSlant
deviantART
Humble Voice
imeem
MyArtInfo
PhotographyVoter
Virb

BOOKMARKING:

AllMyFavorites
Backflip
Blinkbits
Blinklist
Blogmarks
Blummy
BuddyMarks
BookmarkTracker
ChangeToLink
Chipmark
del.icio.us
De.lirio.us
Diigo
Dogear
Favoritoo
Feedmarker
Foxmarks
FreeLink
Furl
GiveALink
Hyperlinkomatic
iKeepBookmarks
Jack of All Links
Lilisto
LinkaGoGo
Linkatopia
Linkroll
List Mixer
Lycos iQ
Mister Wong
Mobilicio.us
MyBookmarks
MyHq
Mylinkvault
MyPip
My Stuff
MyVmarks
Namakkal
Netvouz
Online Bookmark Manager
OnlyWire
Oyax
Shadows
Simpy
SiteBar
SiteJot
Snipit
Socializer
StartAid
Stufflinker
Sync2it
SyncOne
Turboclip
Windows Live Favorites
WireFan
Zurpy

CARS AND AUTO:

AutoSpies
Boompa
Car Community
CarDomain
Motorpulse

CONNECTING WITH FRIENDS:

Classmates
ConnectU
Friends Reunited
Graduates
Meetup
MyYearbook
Reunion
SKOUT

CONSUMER REVIEWS:

Cork’d
Chowhound
Epinions
RateItAll
Yelp

COOKING/FOOD

All Recipes Barmano
Bake Space
Epicurious Community
Family Oven
FohBoh
Kitchen Bug
MyDish
Nibbledish
Recipe Key
Recipezaar
Sharecipe
Tasty Planner
We Eatt
WineLifeToday

CULTURES/FOREIGN LANGUAGES:

Acelerame – Spanish (cars)
Amina – Chechen Republic
Black Planet – African American
ClubGh – Ghana
Hyves – Dutch
IRC Galleria – Finland
iWiW – Hungary
IndianPad
LunarStorm – Sweden
MiGente – Latino
Mixi – Japan
Nexopia – Canada
Playahead – Sweden
Scoopeo – French
StudiVZ – German students
Wamba – Spanish social network
Yigg – German

DATING:

Bachelor Place
Chemistry
Crush or Flush
Cupid’s Lab
Flirtomatic
LoveandFriends
OkCupid
SpeedDate
WooMe

EDUCATION/BOOKS:

BookCrossing
Bookins
BookMooch
BookSwim
Carmun
Citeulike
Connect via Books
Curriki
Good Reads
LibraryThing
PaperBackSwap
qoolsqool
Read It Swap It
Shelfari
We The Teachers

EVENT PLANNING

Socializr
Zoji

FAMILY:

Amiglia
Babbiz
CafeMom
Eons
Family 2.0
Family Den
Famiva
Geni
Genoom
GreatSchools
Kinzin
MomJunction
MothersClick
Moxie Moms
MyFamily.com
Parentography
TheFamilyPost
WebBiographies

FASHION/CLOTHING:

2Threads
Chictini
Fashionising
Fashion Network
Metro Friendly
Movmnt
My Kids Fashion
Springleap
StyleCaster Community
Stylehive
StyleHop
StyleMob
Threadless – T-shirts
Us Trendy

FINANCE:

Tip’d

GAMES:

Gaia
Game Diggity
GuildCafe
WeeWorld

GENERAL NETWORKING:

AIM Pages
Badoo
Bebo
CyWorld
EarthFrisk
ECpod
Facebook
Faves
Friendster
Grono
Hi5
iBritz
LiveJournal
Lovento
Multiply
MySpace
MyWebProfile
NetFriendships
Netlog
Orkut
Passado
Plaxo
Skyrock
Tagged
Tribe
Trig
Windows Live Spaces
Yahoo! 360
Zaadz

HEALTH/MEDICAL:

DailyStrength
DrConnected
Health Ranker
icarecafe
MyPharmaNote
Sanewire
Sermo
Walker Tracker
Who is Sick?

KIDS:

imbee
KidLinks

INTERNET MARKETING:

Gooruze
PlugIM
Sphinn

LINK/WEBSITE SHARING:

Ensiting
Faves
StumbleUpon
TagTooga
Trailfire

LOCATION CHECKINS:

Foursquare
Gowalla
My Town
Scavngr

MICROBLOGGING/IM/MOBILE:

BeeMood
Feecle – Japanese 
FlickIM
Frazr – German and French
Google Buzz
IMified
Jaiku
Komoo – Chinese 
loopt
mbuzzy
Numpa – Dutch
Pownce
Radar
Robisz – Polish
Rummble
Twitter
Zannel

MOVIES:

Filmcrave
Reelempire

MUSIC:

10Tune
Buzznet
Fuzz
JamNow
Jango
Last.fm
MOG
Ping
Purevolume
Soundpedia
thesixtyone

NEWS:

Blog Engage
Blogg-Buzz
BloggingZoom
BlogsVine
BookmarkUs.net
BuzzFlash
Content Pop
Digg
Fark
Hubdub
Mad or Love
Mixx
NewsCloud
NewsHeat
Newsvine
NowPublic
Plime
Propeller
RawSugar
Reddit
Shoutwire
Stirr’d Up
Tagza
Wobblog
Zoomit (Canada)

PETS:

Catster
Dogster
Fuzzster
MyCatSpace
MyDogSpace
PetSide
PetZume
Pikapet
UnitedDogs

PHOTO SHARING:

eSnips
Flickr
Fotki
Fotolog
Linkinn
My Opera
Photbucket
Picli
Tagmee
Text America
Zoomr

PHOTOGRAPHY:

MyShutterspace
Photography Mentor
Photography Network
Picture Social
Shutterate
Shutter Social

POLITICS:

Carnival of Politics

POP CULTURE:

Lipstick
Showhype

PROFESSIONAL:

APSense
Biznik
CitiAlly
Cofoundr
CompanyLoop
DoMyStuff
Doostang
Ecademy
Fast Pitch
JASEzone
KillerStartups
Konnects
Lawyrs
LinkedIn
MeetIn
MyCareer.ge
Naymes
NetHooks
Ryze
Small Business Brief
StartupNation
Startupping
Synergy Street
Tapped In
Upspring
Venture Capital Network
Xing
Ziggs

REAL ESTATE:

Puurple
Trulia
Zillow

RELIGIOUS:

Blessedit
GospelShout
MyChurch
Tangle
Xianz

SHOPPING:

AgentB
BiddingBuddies
Deal Comet
Dealigg
Iliketotallyloveit
Judy’s Book
OSoYou
ThisNext
Yub
Zebo

SOCIAL ACTION:

Care2
Hugg
Planet Change
TakingITGlobal

SPORTS:

Armchair GM
Ballhype
eFans
FanNation
Fanspot
GymMeet
KeeCricket
Joga
Prep Champs
ScoreGuru
SportsFlip
Sportsvite
Takkle
SportsCast
Strands

TECHNOLOGY:

Design Bump
Design Float
DesignRelated
DevelopersNiche
DNHour
DotNetKicks
Dzone
Earner’s Club
Hacker News
Hosting Bookmarks
Pixel Groovy
Slashdot
Tweako
SWiK
WPscoop

TEEN:

eCRUSH
eSpintheBottle
Piczo
Profile Heaven
Sconex
Student.com
Stardoll
Teenwag

TRAVEL:

Couch Surfing
EveryTrail
GeckoGo
Groople
Gusto
TravBuddy
Travellerspoint
TrekCafe
Trip Advisor
TripUp
WAYN
Woophy

VIDEO SHARING:

Broadcaster
Panjea
Revver
Tubearoo
Ustream
Viddler
Video Bomb
Video Sift
Vimeo
Vimby
Xillian TV
YouTube

WOMEN:

Kirtsy
PNN
SurgarLoving

MISCELLANEOUS:

9rules
43 Things
Beautiful Society
Clip Clip
ChickAdvisor
Clipmarks
Clipstar
Clubnet UK
Consumating
Dandelife
Dawdle
Daytipper
Digglicious
DigStock
DontStayIn
EnergyPeopleConnect
Experience Project
Faceparty
Fazed
Faqqly
Ficlets
Flixster
Freagle
Gather
Global Voices
GoLark
GreekStrength
Hypediss
I Am Bored
Jambo
JetEye
LinkFilter
Listible
Match A Dream
Neighborrow
Ning
Outside.in
Product Clash
Prosper
Recruiting.com
Scoop.at
Searchles
SEO Tagg
Shared Confession
Spout
Squidoo
StoryLink
Sydney Networkers
Tipstrs
Tribe
Truemors
Value Investing News
Vampire Freaks
Velospace
WeGame
Wists