Press Release PR

* Note – some of the following information may not be entirely factual.

In a surprising announcement via an online press conference, five of the leading social media sites have confirmed they will be collaborating on a new social media “super-app”. The new project has a working name of TwiggerUpon Spacebook, in reference to the social media sites taking part – Twitter, Digg, Stumbleupon, MySpace and Facebook.

So what does this mean for the current social media sites? After all, aren’t we all preaching (and being preached to) how social media is the way forward for both everyday and business use? Aren’t they all part of the Web 2.0 phenomenon that will take everyone to places they’ve never been before?

A personal spokesperson for Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg offers some insight into the creation of TwiggerUpon Spacebook, or TWUPS. “Mark got tired of having to justify Facebook’s position as more than just a college student’s MySpace. He’s actually really good friends with Tom Anderson over at MySpace – they regularly play Halo 3 together on the same team.

“So Mark called Tom and they both agreed this race to be the best was silly, since it was taking away users on both networks. On top of that, Mark really wanted to get a hold of the music over at MySpace – the iLike app on Facebook doesn’t quite cut it. And Tom wanted a more intellectual crowd at MySpace rather than the fake topless models that appear every five minutes. This is how the idea was born.”

With the idea taking shape, both Zuckerburg and Anderson knew just how to make it even better – get the guys over at the trendy social media sites involved. Step forward Digg, Twitter and Stumbleupon. Interestingly enough, the project was to originally include a sixth member.

“The plan was to have a really catchy superhero tag – you know, you have the Fantastic Four; we wanted our group to be known as the Social Six. Unfortunately, the sixth site we were after bailed on us – something about not wanting to wear spandex in the adverts.”

Who the sixth member may have been hasn’t been disclosed, but Internet forums are already awash with rumors about the sixth member’s real reason for not wanting to be part of the project – they didn’t want to lose the dots separating the letters in their name.

So what will this new social media super-app bring to the people that matter most – the users? Over to Zuckerburg’s spokesperson again. “Imagine if you can a world where you can immediately let people know what music you’re listening to, while playing Super Slots and landing on web pages you’d never find in a million years – all from one application. You can see the potential – we’re really putting the power into people’s hands.”

When it was pointed out that you’d still have to have separate windows open to run multiple features – albeit from one application – therefore diluting the effect, there was a pause before the spokesperson continued. “Yes, but the power is there to do that. Now that’s how social media should be – offering the power to the user.”

Unfortunately, the spokesperson wouldn’t answer questions asking if this was just a knee-jerk reaction by MySpace and Facebook to the growth in popularity of the newer sites – Twitter and Stumbleupon particularly. Indeed, one question that was met with stonewall silence was why use Facebook at all to keep in touch, when Twitter offers instant short and sweet exchanges.

One of the more interesting points raised was that social media is reaching its zenith and that the collaboration is merely an attempt to hold onto users when the casualties start to appear. Again, this was sidestepped by the spokespeople at the press get-together.

While the project is still in the design stages, it’s hard to see whether TWUPS is the future of social media or not. One thing that is clear – things are about to get interesting.

Copyright © 2008 Press Release PR. If you wish to reprint this article, please list an author credit as “Danny Brown / Press Release PR” and link the credit to http://www.pressreleasepr.com