Saturday 21 September 2013

Issue 7: INCENTIVE—FIRST STEP TO INVOLVEMENT



It’s all about me.
"The world revolves around me. Me, me, me. My favorite person: Me. I don't want email from you. I don't want junk mail from you. I want me-mail."- These words of marketer/writer Seth Godin highlight what we all want from our online activity. Pressed for time, overwhelmed by offers, we seek out sites that support us, networks that nourish our needs
"There are so many offers that incentives are required to drive engagement," says keynote PR speaker Patrick Schwerdtfeger.

Commenters on the last blog post shared the incentives that drive them to social media.


Being a creative content producer VitaminCplus acknowledges that the "compelling reason" for returning to a site is the "need to get something out of it"; for her, it’s the opportunity to be creative. She’s not alone. Many media consumers and users are creating their own media content – just as you are doing by commenting on this blog. According to media scholar Axel Bruns, media users should now be referred to as  ‘produsers’.

Bridging physical distances   For  Ianina, Donny and Lee, social media sites offer the chance to maintain relationships with close connections who live far away.  Sociologist Barry Wellman discovered as far back as 1997, even before the advent of social media, that online communities were offering links for family members and friends living far apart.

Offering emotional support Wellman found that virtual communities were also offering generalised emotional support ("a slightly larger form of human embrace, a meta-embrace", in the words of one of his interviewees). Commenter Lee agrees: "On a spiritual level :) I feel FB can also be used to reach out to others in need." 

What do you think?

More about …
Seth Godin on Me me me! http://www.fastcompany.com/events/realtime/miami/blog/godin.html

Patrick Schwerdtfeger’s advice on creating incentives via social media at  http://www.prweb.com/releases/social-media/incentives/prweb10564929.htm

Axel Bruns on produsers:  http://produsage.org/node/67
 

Barry Wellman on virtual communities :
http://groups.chass.utoronto.ca/netlab/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Net-Surfers-Dont-Ride-Alone-Virtual-Community-as-Community.pdf

Example of a  supportive virtual community, listed in my August 22 post: http://themiscarriageblog.blogspot.com.au/2009/02/other-type-of-two-week-wait.html

16 comments:

  1. Too true. It is all about me. But which me? We have no spare time so we are only looking for things that relate to our work, studies and private lives (family, shopping, recipes, travel). Me the lecturer I'm constantly skimming the world for grabs, nibbles and bites that will be of interest to students whose attention spans are shorter than dust mites. I lurk for links and ideas and images. Me the civil engager I seek conspiracies and blunders and political treachery and battles between Davids and Goliaths. And me the frazzled human being I seek friends' stories and successes, recipes and travel ideas and the chance to catch up with the ABC.

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  2. You are so right ... the one thing the digital age has produced is the "me" society. Yes, we are all pushed for time, who isn't time poor these days? Social media certainly makes life a little faster yet easier ... researching (gone are the days of sitting for hours on end in a library, either writing notes or photocopying pages) ... keeping up with family and friends' adventures (gone are the days you wait for them to return and show you their photos) ... catching up with news (gone are the days you bought the paper in the morning and then rushed home by 6pm to see TV news) ... BUT, in the normal course of business & life, I'm not sure businesses offering incentives to participate in their social media activities would be incentive enough for me to take action - if I'm not interested in what they have to say or its not adding value to any part of my life ... sorry, I'm just not interested, incentive or no incentive.

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  3. Both of my previous commenters highlighted thw many conflicting demands on our attention. Do read the Seth godin article for which the link is offered in the post. He presents simply and rather unforgettably the way attention can be engaged in the face of a mire of noise. my next post will look at how communiry can grow from a good idea welk presented via social media. Please continue rwcordong thw incentives that drive yoy to supply me with knowledge for that next post. Thank you. Avril

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  4. Great post Avril - I particularly liked the Seth Godin article you linked. Love how he brings quite a complex issue down to its simplest form; 'me, me me'. And I think that judging from your other comments, it seems that most people are looking through the internet trying to make it relate to their various forms of 'me'. Great concept of the 'me' society. I definitely believe that the challenge for online communicators is how to get their messages, information and conversations to reach into individuals 'me' spheres.

    Olympia

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  5. 'me-mail' ....love it....and loved all the links you've added to this post ...I think links to other sites are a great 'what's in it for me' (WIIFM) value add in social media terms ..you've done the research so I don't have to.....a definite incentive to return to your site as I know I'll be informed and educated and stimulated in my thinking..that's always worth a return visit. I'm not on FB so don't know what incentives you are offering but I think incentives in social media are probably leveraging the power of 'reciprocation' a very powerful influence strategy...http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/six-principles-influence.htm
    Robert Cialdini wrote about it in his book The Power of Influence...it was published in 1984 so written well before social media however I'd suggest the concepts are eminently transferable.

    Thanks for another great post. Rox

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  6. So true! I wonder, though, why so many people see 'the Wonderful World of Me' as something very negative. I'm not saying the 'me-ness' of social media is necessarily good, but I am saying that it isn't as necessarily bad as it is often insinuated to be.

    Through social media, people have a channel for self-expression to the world - whether that self-expression takes the form of fashion pinterest boards, youtube makeup tutorials, or gaming reviews in blogs. We get to share our loves and our inner lives in a way that only artists used to be able to.

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    1. Totally agree this "me me" aspect of social media can be both positive and negative. BUT, as long as this social welcomes all sorts of ideas an identities.

      A number of young social media users are seeking and finding validation via their digital identities. They see the likes and follows, shares and adds as confirming their attractiveness (in the case of a network like Instagram) or popularity (in the case of networks like Twitter or YouTube). The social health of such exercises have been discussed widely on the web: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/tinseltalk/2013/04/protecting-kids-heart-deep-identity-a-note-to-parents-about-instagram/

      Given the mention of virtual communities, its interesting to consider what's being considered as "social" media. As the most frequent home for virtual communities, are forums defined as "social media"? Forums have certainly been around much longer than what we today classify as "social media". Just a thought.

      Interesting discussion!

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  7. I agree that many social structures for family and friendship have been disbanded by the utilisation of social media to broadcast every aspect of each persons life. After a person arrives home from a trip there is no longer as much excitement around looking at the photos they have brought home and hearing the stories from their trip because they are all recorded on social media. I think people have become complacent in thinking that everyone already knows everything about them because of social media. This means we don't have as many opportunities to bond over conversation as we assume there is nothing to talk about, as everything has already been said. I have found myself in situations where I am telling someone how I am, but at the same time my mind is telling me that they already should know certain details because of my Facebook profile. This ruins the conversation because it causes your emotions to be less expressive and for you to race through the stories and to dismiss questions. I also find myself in the situation where I already know what the other person did so I don't ask them what they did on the weekend. There is also a strange thing happening where each person you know has two personas that of their online self and that of their real self. When I have spoken to someone over Facebook in chat it is not something that they seem to acknowledge in real life.

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    1. Very interesting commentary on how social networking is affecting/changing 'real world' relationships. In my case, I've twice been introduced to people at a social occasion, only to find they already follow me on Facebook! The spooky thing is that they then know a lot about me, while I know very little about them (partly because I'm quite prolific on FB - and many friends and followers aren't).

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    2. I disagree. I don't think that Facebook or any other social media limits the potential conversation topics. Quite the opposite really. It allows people to discuss what has been happening, spark a conversation starting with 'i saw your photos Hawaii looked amazing' or 'did you see Mary's photos, it looks like she's pregnant'.

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    3. Actually, that brings to mind the genealogy wiki, Geni where, thanks to literally thousands of people working collaboratively, I now have a truly spectacular family tree that dates back to Roman and even Biblical times.

      On a more everyday note, I've made contact with several distant relatives (previously unknown) through Geni, and now keep up fairly regular contact with them, either on Geni itself, by e-mail or even by 'phone.

      Also, whenever a few of us Geni adherents get together, we often have long, lively conversations about what's happening on Geni, and manage to draw everyone else at the gathering into the conversation quite easily.

      I guess social networking is now just a part of our lives - in the same way that the telephone and car are a part of our lives - and I guess that influences different people in different ways ...

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  8. Hi Avril,

    Further to your request on FB for answers to a range of questions, here are some responses. I've used both FB and Twitter very successfully to promote community and social justice issues.

    SCENARIO 1 - what you’ve already done
    If a friend of yours posted an article on their Facebook timeline about an issue that really grabbed you—e.g. child abuse, animal cruelty, injustice, disease, drug abuse, poverty—have you
    1 shared it on your own timeline? YES
    2 done some research about the issue? YES
    3 talked to your friends about it? YES
    4 signed a petition? YES
    5 made a donation? YES
    6 joined an online group? YES
    7 written a letter to the press or a politician? YES
    8 attended an event? NO
    9 joined a real organisation to help this cause? YES

    SCENARIO 2 - what you might do in the future
    Do you think you might do any of the following in the future if someone posted a similar article in Facebook that grabbed your interest?
    1 share it on your own timeline? YES
    2 do some research about the issue? YES
    3 talk to your friends about it? YES
    4 sign a petition? YES
    5 make a donation? YES
    6 join an online group? YES
    7 write a letter to the press or a politician? YES
    8 attend an event? MAYBE
    9 join a real organisation to help this cause? YES

    3 Other media If you heard about the same kind of issue on TV, on the radio or in a newspaper, would you be likely to-
    1 do some research about it? YES
    2 talk to your friends about it? YES
    3 sign a petition? YES - IF THE PETITION IS ACCESSIBLE ONLINE.
    4 make a donation? YES
    5 write a letter to the press or a politician? YES
    6 attend an event? MAYBE
    7 join an organisation to help this cause? YES

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  9. Thanks, Lee, and all other contributors to this post. I'm collecting responses to the above poll- only been running for a day, via email and facebook, and I already have 40 responses. Watch this blog for a rundown of the results. Will social justice issues emerge as an incentive for people to visit social media sites? and if so, which demographics are most attracted by this incentive? you might be surprised!

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  10. Any time! But oops, didn't realize I should have given the responses on FB and not here :). Anyway, looking forward to reading the rundown of results.

    And BTW I realized last night that I have - on rare occasions - attended an event as a result of promotional posts on FB. The most recent was our neighbourhood spring fair, which I honestly wouldn't have attended without seeing several posts about it on FB.

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  11. Great post Avril. The one thing that resonate with the Seth Godin article is this paragraph: Your future is about working the system instead of reaching people who want to ignore you. Make a purple cow. Get people's permission to find out what they really want. Get a subscription so you can solve their problem for years to come. This isn't about word of mouth. This is an ideavirus. You need to find a slot that's not filled. The two-wheeled metal scooter was not filled until Razor filled it. Who came second? No idea. Design rules now. Kmart's in bankruptcy. Target is not. As much as the article agree that to capture an audience's interest is by providing content that is relevant to them it's also about getting cut through. About challenging the status quo and breaking through the sheer volume of content that's out there. http://ozmediaphiledotcom.wordpress.com/

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