Mike Arauz is a strategist at Pass-along Is Made of People! Peeeeeeeopllllle!
Last week, Faris Yakob did his part in the noble endeavor to put the term "viral" to rest, once and for all. He pointed out that the fundamental problem with the term is that it implies that the host of the virus has no control over the spreading of the virus. In the context of new media communications, however, ideas spread only as a result of conscious action taken by individual audience members. Content achieves exponential exposure as a direct result of many individuals choosing to tell many other people about it. As I illustrated in my post Is Your Video Viral?, pass-along behavior is the only way that any online experience (video, blog post, picture, etc.) can achieve rapid exposure beyond any deliberate exposure by the creator. And this pass-along behavior is always the result of individuals making a deliberate choice to tell someone else about what they found (As Noah pointed out, whether people are passing along the message they want to spread is another thing).
The reason why this concept has become such a fascinating subject in recent years is because media has become social in a much more functional way than we ever imagined before. We're seeing the effects of Social Media, as I define it:
So, in our newly networked digital world, every piece of content we come across is experienced in a functional social environment; we are never more than a few clicks away from sharing the experience with a friend.
If you are creating something that you hope will be passed-along from one audience member to another, giving you greater exposure beyond your initial investment, then you need to make sure you're designing for spreadibility:
Remember that the choice to share content is always a social action. Audience members are deciding how it will help them to strengthen connections with certain communities, or how it may distance them from other groups. Every social action has social consequences and social rewards. What are the potential consequences or rewards of the experience you're creating?
The reason why this concept has become such a fascinating subject in recent years is because media has become social in a much more functional way than we ever imagined before. We're seeing the effects of Social Media, as I define it:
Rather than a wholly new medium of its own, Social Media is the next evolution of all media as we know it. If media refers to our society’s means of communication, e.g. books, newspapers, radio, TV, film, and the Internet, then Social Media is the enhanced experience of media in the context of a self-authored digital network of personal relationships, i.e. a Social Network.
So, in our newly networked digital world, every piece of content we come across is experienced in a functional social environment; we are never more than a few clicks away from sharing the experience with a friend.
If you are creating something that you hope will be passed-along from one audience member to another, giving you greater exposure beyond your initial investment, then you need to make sure you're designing for spreadibility:
- Have a compelling point of view, and ensure that what you're offering is either so useful or so entertaining that each audience member feels like you've given them something that has intrinsic value within their own social networks, i.e. "If I pass this along, will the people I share it with value our relationship more?"
- Put your content in front of the people who care; choose carefully who you introduce your content to first. Toss your demographics out the window, they're too broad. It's easy to find communities of people on the internet around any shared interest. Know what the relevant interest community will be for your work, seek them out, and share your work with them first.
- Give your audience all the tools they need in order to share your work with their network (a working embeddable player, email to a friend, social bookmarking, post to Facebook, etc). Remove every possible obstacle or challenge that may get in their way.
Remember that the choice to share content is always a social action. Audience members are deciding how it will help them to strengthen connections with certain communities, or how it may distance them from other groups. Every social action has social consequences and social rewards. What are the potential consequences or rewards of the experience you're creating?
Monday, December 1, 2008
|
3 Comments:
For some reason or another, I spent a fair time trying to wrap my head around a better metaphor for content dissemination. In a nutshell, it hurt. But I thought I'd share a few rambling disjointed thoughts...
A virus needs a cell host to replicate itself. During the process, there is the potential for genetic drift, recombinance (a faris favorite), and general mutation. Viral reproduction is a satisfying model for ideas or constructs, like say, fascism or democracy or capitalism. The mutation takes place during the enactment of that idea's reason for being. Though, I'd be curious to see a growth rate analysis for something like democratic states.
What's interesting to think about is the concept of resources. What's being consumed in the rapid growth of content dissemination? Surely there's the element of social currency, or the sense that you've shared something that the recipient hasn't seen before, or in essence, you've beaten the clock to disseminate something before someone else. Each piece of content carries with it only so much potential social currency (maybe physics is a better analogy, like potential energy) and the act of spreading it is dispensing that energy through kinetic motion...
Yeah, I disappeared into the weeds on this comment...
Consider your definition of social media stolen. I hope that's cool. :)
And I think you described a reason why so many advertisers have trouble with understanding the nature of sharing. We've spent a bunch of time looking for subconscious motivation, the intrinsic driver - and maybe not enough on simply why people share things...
thanks for the comments, guys.
sparked some questions:
What is lost, if anything, when an idea gets passed on? Obviously, in the digital world the quality of the experience never deteriorates, but the value of the content as social currency maybe does?
What's the difference between why we choose to share anything, and why we choose to share a particular thing?
Post a Comment
<< Home