Why are Facebook and Twitter so popular?

If you’re interested in the growth of social networking sites and their popularity, you’ll want to check out this article by Clive Thompson from the New York Times Magazine (thanks to Techdirt for the link and an introduction). The article gives a bit of insight into Facebook’s history and growth and moves on to discuss a concept called “ambient awareness”: 

Social scientists have a name for this sort of incessant online contact. They call it “ambient awareness.” It is, they say, very much like being physically near someone and picking up on his mood through the little things he does — body language, sighs, stray comments — out of the corner of your eye.

It’s a worthwhile read – share your thoughts in the comments.

Why you don’t need to be innovative

There are new tools and new ideas springing up practically daily on the web, and it really is a full-time job (and more) to keep up with them all. But unless you’re the web editor for Wired, don’t worry about it – you really don’t need to be that cutting edge. Why? Because your readers probably aren’t, either.

What you do need to do, however, is embrace trends when they hit critical mass. The moment your not-so-up-to-date cousin/uncle/grandmother joined Facebook was a good sign your magazine should have had a presence there, too, or at least buttons on your site to help people publish links.

It should be part of your web editor’s job to be on the lookout for new tools that are approaching widespread usage – just make sure they have time in their schedule to do so.