HIRE ME TO SPEAK
HIRE ME TO SPEAK

Ello is Ello. Not Facebook.

I write about strategies to turn fans into customers and customers into fans. I also share ways to use real-time strategies to spread ideas, influence minds, and build business.

Social Media  |  Research and Analysis

There’s tons of hype about Ello, the new social network.

I hadn’t heard of it till recently and now it seems many of my friends are either newly established on Ello or desperately looking for an invite.  (Ello is in beta and is currently invite only.)

Many people think Ello is similar to Facebook. In my opinion, people who insist Ello is a Facebook killer are looking at the idea of Ello in the wrong way.

Successful social Networks allow us to share in a new way

ello_logoAll the best social media allow us to do something a little different. Ello will succeed if it means we do something differently. If not, it will become a ghost town of obscurity. But it won’t replace Facebook.

According to comScore Media Metrix (via page 230 of the dusty old 2007 first edition of my book The New Rules of Marketing and PR), MySpace had 55 million unique visitors and Facebook 14 million unique visitors in August 2006. At that time, Facebook was not built as a “MySpace killer”. Rather, Facebook did social differently – you had to become friends with someone to see their profile unlike MySpace, which was open. And now Facebook says it has has 1.32 billion monthly active users.

Instagram wasn’t a Flickr killer. It does something different. Vimeo isn’t a YouTube killer. Buffer isn’t a TweetDeck killer.

When I showed Ello to my daughter who is in University (and who has not been exposed to the hype), she said it seems more like Tumblr and I’d have to agree. But that doesn’t mean it is a Tumblr killer.

I’ve messed about with Ello at @dmscott for a few days and so far have posted a few images and followed a few people. If it allows me a way to do something just a little different, I’ll keep going. If not, I’m out. And I can’t imagine ditching Facebook.

By the way, what happened to the last Facebook killer that was invite only that everyone was talking about? That one was called Google Plus. I still use it, because it does something different for me.

I have two spare Ello invites. First two people to request through a comment here gets them.  Sorry the invites are now taken.