Every so often an app or platform becomes an internet darling. Clubhouse was one of those apps. It had its debut in March of 2020, while another major debut was going on. Within a year it was valued at $4 billion. Soon, Facebook and Twitter feared for their lives and scrambled to add Clubhouse-like features. It promised to be the next big thing. It was one of the most downloaded social media apps in the app store…until it wasn’t. It hardly cracks the top 50 these days.

This isn’t a slam on Clubhouse.

This is a cautionary tale of “the next big thing.”

For every TikTok-like success that comes along, there are 76 different platforms with equal promise that never make it.

Checking in on Foursquare, live video on Periscope, connect with others on Google+, bookmark sharing platforms like StumbleUpon and Delicious, connecting video on Meerkat, and make friends with Tom from MySpace.  What happened to all of those?  They were all going to be the next big thing.

 

Your friend Tom from MySpace

Is BeBee the next big thing? Or MeWe? Remember when you said you’d dominate Tumblr? Are you maintaining your LiveJournal? It’s still there, ya know. MocoSpace is busy these days, as is iTalki. Did your article make it on Medium? Do you have a profile on The Dots?

Are you dizzy yet?

There’s nothing wrong with any of them.  But there IS something wrong with all of them.

You’ll never make them all work. If Facebook and LinkedIn are working for you, go for it and don’t let up. Are you running a mass media campaign on radio with performance ads going through email? Awesome. Own it.

Resist the fomenters of FOMO. They’ll tell you you’re missing out by not being on Discord or TikTok. You’ll hear them say “everyone I know is on it,” therefore “everyone is on it.”

But everyone isn’t on anything.  Twitter has about 320 million users.  About 4% of the planet.  Facebook clocks in at 36% of the planet at 2.6 billion.  A lot of people, sure.  Is it everyone?  No.

7.5 million are still active on MySpace each month.  You could probably make some serious money selling stuff to 7.5 million people.

But if you’re going to do it…own it.  Relentlessly.  Don’t get distracted by the others.

Apply this approach to any kind of advertising you do.  Dominate what you can afford to dominate before entertaining the next.

If you don’t have the mental capacity plus the monetary capacity to dedicate to it, just leave it alone.

Now… what about Perkolatr? It’s the must-have business app today. It will make you richer can imagine.

But, for now, you’ll have to just imagine it. I just made it up. Complete with silly spelling, just like everything else on the internet. It might exist someday… and you’ll have to decide if you’re going to dominate it, or disregard it. You can’t do it all. More importantly: You shouldn’t do it all.

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