Topic Driven vs. Community Driven Social Media

Like others have shared recently, Digg has me posting and commenting again for the first time in years, and it’s got me thinking. There’s something special about topic-driven social platforms like Digg and Reddit that every other social media platform loses out on. Community discussion.

Where other platforms incentivize individual profiles to grow their following, topic-driven platform focus on the communities and the discussions within them. Neither approach is perfect, but when profile-driven platform eventually mature, and there are a select number of large, established profiles, it stiffens the average user from doing anything other than consuming.

The same thing can and will eventually happen to individuals subreddits or communities here on Digg, but at least within those groups, there is still focus on discussion from many users instead of few. At least, that’s the goal.

I’ve been enjoying this breath of fresh air and wanted to share. Do you have thoughts on this difference in social media platforms?