A Shrinking Social Landscape?

The Wall Street Journal today covered the throw off of Bebo by AOL, a capitulation to the accelerating consolidation of the online social space (which I comment on here). Soon, there may just be one online social network, and it’s name will be Facebook, according to Peter Shankman, founder of Help A Reporter Out (“HARO”). Peter, whose wit and candor is legendary, pointed out the other night that both the time and effort necessary to thread together the various parts and passions in one’s life and the need for immediate and viral viewing and sharing of all things personal demand the utility reside in a single interface. Facebook is the only one with the momentum and scale to accomplish this, according to his view, at least in the English-speaking world.

It was my privilege to serve on a panel with Peter and Spencer Baretz of Hellerman Baretz Communications this week in New York for the Law Firm Media Professionals (see below). Frankly, I don’t know why I was invited to this party, except for the fact that I happen to work for a law firm that has embraced social media at the core of its marketing and business development campaigns. I possess neither the irrefutable creative experience of Mr. Baretz nor the dynamic vision of Mr. Shankman.

My hat’s off to both of them. We know where Peter stands. If you had to confine your online social networking activity to a single channel, would it be Facebook? Why? Why not?