The Secret Life Of Social Media

NASW Annual Meeting
October 17, 2009
Austin, Texas
David Harris
Symmetry magazine,
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
The Secret Life of Social Media

Outline
Principles of social media
Why understand how social media works?
New ways people get/share information
How we can use this knowledge
How social media really works
Examples of social sharing sites

Why understand social media?
As science writers, our trade is information
Information is increasingly flowing in new ways
We all need to really know how these mechanisms work if we are to take advantage of them (whether journalists, writers, or PIOs)
It gives us new ways to think about what we do

Getting information: the old way
Read/watch the standard sources (local/national newspaper/TV news/magazines)
Discuss those topics with friends and colleagues, relying on commonality of sources (Water cooler conversations, pub conversations)
Repeat

Getting information: the new way
“If the news is that important, it will find me.” – Anonymous college student in a focus groupNew York Times, March 27, 2008http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/us/politics/27voters.html
“This micro-knowledge of others has been termed ‘ambient awareness’ by sociologists, a new kind of social proprioception or ethereal limb, and I learned to flex it with ease.” (Referring to the world of Facebook status updates)New York Magazine, April 5, 2009 http://nymag.com/news/features/55878/

Getting information: the new way
Converse with your friends and colleagues, A LOT!(in person, phone, email, txt msg, Facebook status, FriendFeed, tweet, LinkedIn update, etc.)
Let your trust of others guide you
Pick up on some of it and surf/search it further
Contribute to public discussions
Repeat
This is not an ideal, but an observation.

How we can use this knowledge
Changing information ecosystem Old: Authority relationships New: Trust relationships
Journalists: We can’t rely solely on the authoritativeness of our publications. Now we need to develop trust relationships with readers. How?
PIOs: We no longer just want to rely on the news media to reach audiences for us, but need to be active in developing relationships with other audiences ourselves. How?

Examples of social sharing sites
Many user-vote-driven sites seem to present the “best” stories, which rise to the top as people vote for them.
For digg, slashdot, reddit, stumbleupon, and facebook
What the site looks like
How stories really get to the top of the charts
A typical story’s traffic
An analogy

digg traffic

digg is like…a gang
Strong but organic hierarchy
Dominance of an idea depends on who it comes from
Leaders cultivate support from underlings by offering links and help up rankings
Loyalty to the leader is key
Identity is defined by the role in the group
For success: Be in with the leaders, don’t cross the leaders

slashdot

slashdot traffic

slashdot is like…organized crime
Small tight group controls the flow of information
Outsiders are treated with some suspicion
Once you’re part of the family and know the people behind the curtain, you can get things done
/.’s “karma” system compared with OC status
Leaders still have absolute power
For success: Post good stuff to gain positive attention of the admins, cultivate their good graces

reddit traffic

reddit is like…an ADHD direct democracy
Any idea can get to the top BUT...
Many people need to respond positively to an idea rapidly or it will be forgotten
For success: Post things lots of people will like and can easily see the appeal of from the headline

stumbleupon

stumbleupon traffic

stumbleupon is like…a book club
Ideas don’t need to be fresh
Topics keep coming back for attention/discussion
Demographic trends older and female
People rate quality after reflection on the work
For success: High quality content

facebook

facebook traffic
Occurs too rapidly to show day by day
Most in the first few minutes/hours, some residual over following days
Adds a steady amount of traffic to our site
Twitter is similar
Facebook+twitter send about 15% of traffic

facebook is like…a clique
Information circulates within peer groups
Information can spread to other groups through overlap, and ideas can revive and seem new again
For success: Have lots of friends and know what they like

Conclusion
Social media both drives and reflects a changing information ecosystem—it has new rules
Things are not always what they seem, so dig(g) a little deeper and never trust what anybody says about social media (not even me)
If you’re not playing the game enough to know the rules, you’re not going win in the future

The Secret Life Of Social Media

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