My thoughts on Vero
Facebook is becoming more and more sophisticated in creating a world, a bubble if you may with your latest interactions. Thus disconnecting me from my friends. As I only see the ones I interact with. Which means that the very purpose of staying up to date and in touch with my friends all over the world, is not possible anymore since I’m served with content from my last interactions, groups and what not.
I hardly enter Facebook anymore. I do have the messenger app, since instead of texting a lot of my friends use the app instead.
This is how it is, evolution. Change in behaviour, evolution of platforms.
Mine looks like this:
mIRC, ICQ, Skunk, Lunarstorm, Helgon, Linkedin, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest. Google+, Ble.at (gone). Vegan wall (don’t remember my password). And I’m pondering joining A Small World. Since I’m addicted to travel and like to meet new people.
Then Vero popped up.
I tried it.
I like it.
Why?
- Because it’s like being back in the mIRC and MySpace world in a weird combined way. Where you have all these people just talking to one another. No motive for likes etc.
- None of my friends are on it yet. Why is this a good thing? because I’m chatting to all these people from all over the world, that I don’t know. Its a bit like Twitter in the early days when magic happened. It got that feeling to it. Openness and authenticity. Humanity.
- The feed. It’s not manipulated. I see the hashtags I want to explore or the people I follow.
- I am in control of the information I share and whit whom. I can easily share with different groups of people, close friends, acquaintances or my followers before I post.
- I can combine my private sphere, with my consultancy and vegan profile. Which means for a multipassionate individual, I now have one platform that can do it all for me, rather then various accounts on various platforms.
There are some kinks to work out for sure. When I first got the app, it was to many server errors to my liking trying to tag a place to my post. And view hashtags. But in a very short time they worked that out. So I’m seeing less of that now.
The feeling I get from Facebook today is – overwhelm and totally pointlessness.
Am I putting my foot in my mouth as I work within digital marketing? No. There is still opportunity for brands on Facebook, since ads submissions are surpassing the actual inventory. Creating FB Messenger AI’s to serve customers etc. You can reach a lot of people if you sponsor your post, get great insight into your target audiences and so forth. Facebook is heading in another direction. It’s not was it once was and it will have to evolve. I’m writing this from a personal perspective.
For me I’d rather pay a small fee for a social service that gives me the experience that Vero supplies me. Which is exactly what Vero does. So far so good.
I’ve cut a few snippets from Vero’s manifesto, that I think really hits the nail on it’s famous head on why I like this platform:
“Our subscription model will allow us to keep Vero advertising-free, and to focus solely on delivering the best social experience instead of trying to find new ways to monetize our users’ behavior or tricking them back into the app with notifications.”
The feed
The feed is composed of your posts and the posts of people you’re either connected with or people you follow. We don’t curate it, manipulate it, insert advertising in it, or hold back posts. You see what has been shared with you, when it’s been shared with you.
You won’t have to pay to “boost your post”, or “reach your audience.”
Read more at: https://www.vero.co/vero-manifesto/
Do I think that Vero compete with Facebook?
Not necessarily no. My thoughts are that in the future, we will see more niche areas online. For example Facebook is mainly turning into group interactions. Based on the trends I see, forums, speciality websites, where people interact on a subject that engages them (See ASW recent announcements how they are progressing), that divides us at the same unities us, may the future of social. Separating social from media. Because it’s becoming complicated with Facebook and Instagram, we are both the users and the product.
On a closing note, while writing this, Vero is still free to join. So I think you should get the app and see for yourself.