Social media: Some lessons from America

I spent most of April in the USA and apart from going to baseball games I caught up with some great bloggers. Here's some key points from those discussions:

• Although many bloggers are very successful esp in this presidential year there still isn't a sustainable business model. Many high profile bloggers are still operating in start-up mode which means working round the clock and burning people out
• At the same time, it is much harder for new bloggers to carve out a niche than it was a few years ago
• Big media has adapted very quickly to the new environment over the past year or two and organisations like Forbes have some big plans for building communities and marketing in that environment
• Most companies basically have a GMOOT (get me one of those) approach to social media; they don't really 'get it', they just want to do something cool.
• Many early adoptors are blogging less because of micro-blogging (twitter, facebook).
• Second Life has not been a winner for corporates and 'we were all guilty of rushing into it without thinking it through'.