On Artificial Indicators and Social Relevance
My sister and her family live in Tokyo. Last week was scary – and to be honest it still is with all of the after effects of this disaster. Thankfully, she is safe. She is still coming to terms with the impact – the enormity of the situation. She is not the only one. Many people around the globe are looking for ways to ‘get it’ – to try and comprehend the magnitude of this disaster. Not long after this grave event, the New York Times posted a page that let people see the before and after of satellite views depicting different areas affected by the quake or the subsequent tsunami: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/03/13/world/asia/satellite-photos-japan-before-and-after-tsunami.html – I used this tool and started to comprehend a few things about the dire situation this part of the country is now in.
These tools for ‘visualisation’ are becoming the norm – ways of seeing the world of data around us that we cannot otherwise comprehend. It might sound strange, but it seems that in a way we have become obsolete. Our minds are fed the complexity and enormity of world events, technology, huge numbers of people’s points of view – yet we are not capable of processing it. Information overload is the catch cry of the new millennium – and it’s true. We have created an ecosystem of media and information platforms we are not naturally capable of comprehending.
The problem with this is that we lose track. We rely heavily on artificial indicators to help us find our way around this unrelenting tide of information that is simply beyond our comprehension.
Take the example of Angry Birds in the App Store… It became a self fulfilling prophecy – it was very popular, because it was a great game – however – because it came early to the app store and the App Store’s minimal number of artificial indicators (Most Popular) created a ‘feedback cycle’ that propelled it to stratospheric heights. Bob Warfield has nailed it several times with his article here:
http://smoothspan.wordpress.com/2011/03/09/efficient-marketing-means-doing-something-different/
Now – if you took a moment to digress and read Bob’s article, you will start to understand where I am going with this:
If you don’t fall in to a category on the platform you have chosen to market on – You Are Lost.
As an advertiser then, there must be a few ways to deal with this issue of being Lost:
1. Game the system – timing to market and optimisation on the system itself – be it Twitter followers, Google page rank, Facebook Likes.
2. Increased relevance – stand out as a beacon in the tide of noise with clarity and depth. Relevant, meaningful content can never be ignored as a robust tool.
3. On-platform optimised and targeted media – this is a form of ‘artificial indicator’ that the platform provides to target your message directly.
When all three are used in synergy – something special happens! You start to get found – and the more you get found, the more you get found – simply due to the nature of the feedback loop style of artificial indicators. Look at Page Rank, Edge Rank, Popularity, Followers, Likes – all of these are artificial indicators we rely on to guide our decisions en-masse when using our digital platforms of choice.
Anyway, I hope you subscribe to Bob’s blog – absolutely worth reading regularly.
In other news since our last update… well – feels like the whole universe has changed since the introduction of iFrames on tabs.
An interesting article from the Facebook Developer Blog on using OpenGraph to find what movies your friends like
http://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/481
A great eBook for non-profits is available here called “The Goodness Engine” for some ideas around digital strategy with NFPs
http://www.deepfocus.net/hackathon/#ebook
“In an experiment, 41% of Facebook users were willing to divulge highly personal information to a complete stranger. This according to IT security firm Sophos, which invited 200 randomly selected Facebookers to befriend a bogus Facebook user named ‘Freddi Staur’ (an anagram of ‘ID Fraudster’). Of those queried, 87 responded to the invitation, among them 82 people whose profiles included personal information such as their email address, date of birth, address or phone number.”
http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20070814/facebook-privacy/
Finally, a GREAT piece on the emerging landscape of social commerce
http://www.simplyzesty.com/brands/emerging-trends-in-social-commerce
Filed under: Facebook, Industry Opinion, pixolut
