Don’t dump on me: The 4 behaviors of the social web
No dumping 
Companies who continue to subscribe to blindly dumping on us will soon find themselves working to publicly undo their mistakes.
- Products- You can’t know what we think or want unless you talk to us.
- Advertising- Stop launching. You’re not NASA.
- Solicitation- Who talks like that? Let’s have a real conversation.
- Support- I don’t believe my call is important.
- Public relations- We’re not buying what you’re selling.
- Processes- Which and how many hoops do I need to jump through again?
The social web is alive
The social web isn’t a dumping ground. It’s alive. It’s not an anonymous vessel for you to fill with corporate broadcasts. Before you stick you’re toe in, you should take the temperature and look around. Notice that it’s sprinkling. You don’t see companies pouring themselves, you see individual people and lots of little bite-sized interactions.
The four behaviors of the social web
I’ve witnessed four common roles. While it’s true that some of us gravitate to some roles more than others, most all of us have been one of these at one time or another.
1. Droplets
Droplets occur when someone puts something online. Second-by-second, minute-by-minute, this micro content asks us to engage with it. This results in a a persistent sprinkle of little conversations or even unanswered ideas. The surface of the social web is peppered with new blogs, Tweets, comments, responses and other droplets.
2. Readers
Just like it sounds, people read or consume tons of new content everyday. Much to traditional media company’s dismay, this is where our attention is. There are some people who never participate in anything else other than reading. This behavior represents the biggest population.
3. Distributors
These folks spread what they find through retweeting nuggets they find on Twitter, social bookmarks, links on blogs or in comments and even through word of mouth. This is one of the most important behaviors of the social web: Sharing.
4. Polishers
Some droplets have profound resonance and get riffed on by other people in follow up thoughts. For example, in this post I’m polishing ideas I read from JP Rangaswami (Pearls) who was polishing something he read Hugh McCloud (social objects). Polishers dimensionalize ideas by adding their own perspective to them.
Pearls
Pearls aren’t a behavior, they’re a result. Pearls have gravity and get our attention. They take on a life of their own. Pearls are memes like this year’s election.
My sense is that the next stage is evaporation, where the Pearls get picked up and distributed by the mainstream. But that’s a different post.
Things people have said about this post
Good post, as you suggest, I do all four behaviors, yes.
Similar to Forrester’s Technographics, and what I saw as a pattern earlier:
http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2007/08/07/personas-of-the-early-adopters-the-pebble-swimmer-surfer-boater-or-fleet/
That’s a good description of the current situation – but how can companies leverage this? How can Pearls be intentionally created and used to sell (yes, in the end it’s all about profit again…)?
No question, the social web will change things and the business has to adapt. The strategy dealing with this will make the difference. Followers are doomed to fail.
Exciting times
I can’t remember where I read the following idea, but it was about the inability to prove “boulders” of ROI. Rather, tiny grains of ROI sand are what we experience with social computing. I consume pailfuls of the stuff from several beaches (Twitter, blogs, news outlets, etc.). I think I’m a Distributor by nature…
For some reason, the “droplets” stage made me immediately think of “Office Space,” in which a fraction of a penny from each financial transaction gets deposited into an offshore account. In a matter of days, the guys accumulate hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Isn’t is strange how somehow we can usually tell when someone is being real and coming from the heart? (Women are great at this). Sometimes that can be a little harder to pick up on the web in written word…but conversely when someone is working a press release masquerading as a commentary it often sticks out like a sore thumb.
There’s also an interesting process where a concept becomes second, third..fiftieth hand and all conceptual development has been wrung out of it. I read earnest blog posts like that a lot, the overworked stone…
@Gia I believe the sand analogy was from Chuck Hollis http://chucksblog.typepad.com/a_journey_in_social_media/2008/03/justifying-soci.html when he was talking about justifying Social Software.
Should spammers also get a mention or are these identified as Droplets i.e. those entities out to make a quick buck out of any new technology. They are usually clever in their approach and are often at the cutting edge of what is possible. They often bombard the medium with messages- subtle and not so subtle – which can sometimes be Read, Distributed and Polished, by others.
Hallelujah!
I work in advertising as an art director and always aim to keep it real.
Loved your post.
Per Gia’s comments — those of us who’ve worked in financial markets know how to think in fractions of pennies. The overnight float on money is worth billions, accummulated by fractions of pennies.
It’s the collective value of those tiny parts that was evident at a great afternoon event at FASTforward ‘07 — and the significance of the ’shift’ in market economics (well, at least in the understanding of it — the economics were always there). In the past, Disney was reported to have gone to lengths to protect their intellectual property by even suing a daycare for having unlicensed Disney characters painted on the walls. At the ‘07 event, it was clear Disney understood the value of ‘free’ — letting it go only increases the value.
At FASTforward ‘08 one of the banners in the hall boldly stated, “Intellectual Property has the shelf life of a Banana” (http://www.fastforwardblog.com/2008/02/23/my-favorite-sign-from-fastforward/). As was clearly suggested by JP Rangaswami (http://www.fastforwardblog.com/2008/02/20/jp-rangaswami-british-telcom-discusses-the-new-polarization/) in a panel discussion, the cost of pursuing IP infringement is now generally greater than any resulting gains. Not only that but by the legislation process is typically longer than the complete lifecycle of any IP value.
Disney expressed serious attention to the value of ‘distributors’ and the need for brands to embrace and facilitate this new economy of brokers (as Amazon clearly leverages, pgph 5 http://www.fastforwardblog.com/2008/02/18/advertising-relic-of-inefficiency/) . In a brief presentation the Disney rep talked about their consideration of the different roles of those who participate as: floaters, swimmers and divers.
Right on Sam. This gets to the core of Social Web and Social Media. It’s about a conversation based on an invitation, not a pitch based on an interruption. There is a role for interruptive (aka Traditional) ads, to be sure: in particular they pay for all of the free stuff we enjoy at places like MySpace. At the same, the savvy social participant is moving to personal control–over everything. The question quickly rising to the top of the marketing challenge ladder is “If I couldn’t interrupt you, how would I reach you?”
Love this post Sam. Especially that Pearls are not singularly great posts (of which there always are), but are memes. Where people’s minds are. That’s a great way to think about social media.
Great post. Every time I join a new online social network it quickly degenerates into spam and poor behavior, thus forcing me to depart from something I would otherwise enjoy. I do wish that companies would take some of this wisdom into account before throwing their garbage around the Web.
[...] Don’t dump on me: The 4 behaviors of the social web :: Go Big Always – an interesting breakdown of the different types of people who use or take part in the social web. [...]
Great post, Sam! You bring a difficult and fuzzy subject into focus.
@Guido Oswald I don’t think that the Pearls can be forced or predicted individually, but action can be taken to make them more likely. The more participation you have going on the more opportunity there is for the Pearls to serendipitously form. The more Droplets, Readers and Distributors you have engaged the higher the chances of Pearls being created.
Just like the value measurement being the aggregate of grains of sand rather than big boulders, the value creation is probabilistic rather than deterministic.
[...] Go to any company and they’ll tell you they need to be doing more “thought leadership.” I cringe when I hear this. The message behind the message is that they really want a whitepaper or marketing program or something that sales can dump off on prospects. I’ve never met a prospect that thinks of this as thought leadership. If that’s really what people want, let’s just call it clearer and/or more marketing materials. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never run into any materials a company has created and thought, “wow, now that’s thought leadership.” Instead, I usually think, “Stop dumping on me.” [...]
Kinda brings a new light to economic externalities. Companies need to bear the real-cost of production, i.e. pollution, packaging, advertising – that which they just DUMP on the physical and social environment.