The Science of Social Media

The Science of Social MediaHow to engineer contagious ideas. Dan Zarrella Social Media Scientist

Unicorns andRainbows

Unicorns & Rainbows Myth:Don’t call yourself aguru.

Science: `

Ideas do notspread becausethey are “good.”

Meme:A unit of culturalinheritance.

Our worldis made ofmemes.

Memetics:The study ofcultural transfer.

Variation+ Competition Evolution

Takeaway:Try lots of campaignsand iterate on whatworks.

R0Reproduction Rate(The average number of new infections asingle infection case will cause)

Selectionpressure: a factor thatreduces R0.

The variationbest suited topressures wins.

Fruit Flies Fecundity Longevity Elephants

ReTweets Fecundity Longevity Religions

R0 >1 EpidemicR0 =1 EndemicR0 <1 Die out

Myth:All “viral” ideas spreadexponentially.

Seed Spread

Reality:Most ideas have anR0 under 1.

If I’m going to spreadyour idea 3 things haveto happen…

ExposureAwarenessMotivation

As marketers we canoptimize for each step…

Reach Exposure Awareness Motivation

Let R0 = .1•If seed = 10 •If seed = 100,000 •Generation 2 = 1 •Generation 2 = 10,000 •Generation 3 < 1 •Generation 3 = 1,000 •Generation 4 = 100 •Generation 5 = 10 •Generation 6 = 1

Big Seeds

Takeaway:Audience size doesmatter.

Influencers

Takeaway:Find and target yourinfluencers.

Exposure AwarenessAttention Motivation

Breaking throughthe noise

Takeaway:Bigger & louderworks – to a point.

Selective attention:hearing your name acrossa crowded,noisy room.

Takeaway:Personalize: talk toyour audience.

Avoiding crowds

Takeaway:Avoid link fatigue.

Exposure AwarenessSharing Motivation

Why do people share?

Performance:Social media users are alwaysperforming in front of a crowdof their friends.

Reputation:People share content to increasetheir reputations.

Takeaway:Help your audiencelook cool.

Social exchange

“… the more valuable the sentiment oractivity the members exchange withone another, the greater the averagefrequency of interaction of themembers.”Social Behavior as ExchangeGeorge C. Homans

Novelty

Scarcity

Warnings

Informationvoids

Takeaway:Don’t let informationvoids form.

Imitation

Social Proof

“We view a behavior as more correct…to the degree that we see othersperforming it”-Robert Cialdini

Informationcascades

A ? ? ? ? ?B

Which restaurant wouldyou pick?

The goliatheffect

The villainis wrongingthe victim.

CommunalRecreation

Zombies Marketing Me

Anytime my friends see an articleabout “marketing to zombies”they send it to me.

Takeaway:Use combinedrelevance.

What do peopleshare?

Gossip is just newsrunning ahead of itself in ared satin dress.-Liz Smith

“…advertisements that wereboth original and familiarattracted the largest amount ofattention…”Breaking Through the Clutter: Benefits of Advertisement Originality andFamiliarity for Brand Attention and MemoryRik Pieters, Luk Warlop and Michel Wedel 2002

New/Old

Most ReTweetable Words & Phrases 1. you 11. please retweet 2. twitter 12. great 3. please 13. social media 4. retweet 14. 10 5. post 15. follow 6. blog 16. how to 7. social 17. top 8. free 18. blog post 9. media 19. check out 10. help 20. new blog post

Takeaway:Don’t forget calls-to-action.

Least ReTweetable Words & Phrases 1. game 11. well 2. going 12. sleep 3. haha 13. gonna 4. lol 14. hey 5. but 15. tomorrow 6. watching 16. tired 7. work 17. some 8. home 18. back 9. night 19. bored 10. bed 20. listening

Takeaway:Don’t talk aboutyourself so much.

Dan Zarrella@DanZarrella

http://etraining.org.nz	260
http://marketing.ac.nz	153
http://www.slideshare.net	48
http://paper.li	19
http://www.wake.com	5
http://wake.mgigz.com	3
https://si0.twimg.com	2
http://twitter.com	1
http://dev1.slideshare.com	1
http://socialwayne.com	1
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The Science of Social Media

by O'Reilly Media on Feb 17, 2011

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