The Winding Memoirs of a trying Internet Marketer, Sports Edifîce, Starving Philosopher… :cool:
www.michaelbhrad.com | www.ensightmarketing.com
www.michaelbhrad.com | www.ensightmarketing.com
The "Real" Skinny on Social Media
Posted 25th February 2011 at 01:29 PM by mbhrad
View Original: Michael Bhrad Social Media
What makes Social Media / Web 2.0 so Attractive, so Successful?
It's natural, it's instinctive, it's the very spirit the internet was founded on... Bam! File sharing, networking, user-generated content encompassing user reviews, videos, blogs, personal identity profiles (Facebook and such), and others!
But dare I ask, are we living through a time where that very founding spirit might be functioning in a disingenuous manner? Does a company's bottom line influence how we function and think about things?
We live in an age of affiliate commissions, an age that features the goal of making people laugh and "wow" with an end sale in mind. So how does this affect the content that's being delivered? How does it affect our perception of the product or service being featured? Should it? As my closest friends would say, Mikey, your over-thinking it!
Perhaps so, yet I still feel there is a perspective worth noting here:
Web 2.0 [blogs, reviews, video experiences, etc...] are all about sharing "real" user experience, the thought of a user sharing phony experience may not be as obvious initially, simply because the motive for doing so is not so obvious or so prevalent at first glance, especially in an early internet world. What about that motive today in our high paced, inter-connected, corporate-faceted internet world? How about the way it is in our new Affiliate Sales Web 2.0 world!
I come on and recommend a product or service, perhaps I really believe the things I write about that product, but am I writing for my belief in the quality and functionality of the product or service, or am allowing the the desired commission from a potential reader-influenced-sale drive that endorsement? I know many people that might say, your missing the point, it doesn't matter!
Well, not so quick my friend, to the lonely idealist/purists of the world, it DOES MATTER!
It works the other way around as well, what if I have a personal vendetta against a product or service and desire to smear the brand publicly? What if I create an internet environment that allows for lucrative returns on the "removal" of bad information on a brand or service (not pointing any fingers Yelp)? Is there any real way of knowing, do we have a responsibility to care as researching consumers, and are there meaningful solutions to these problems?
So far all we've done is ask question after question, well like a true philosopher would, I challenge you to continue to ask more. Perhaps there are no direct answers to these questions. Perhaps there are direct answers to the questions but no viable solutions... perhaps, perhaps, perhaps!
So here's my conclusion, Web 2.0 really is the second coming of a socially integrated body, web 2.0 is real even in it's greatest state of "phony-ism", you know why, because it is a direct reflection of the "real world"!
All of the surface issues we touched on above, have existed in social environments from the brink of time. These are real problems of a complex world. Seth Godin, who I believe to be an absolute God on such matters, discusses it best in his work on what I refer to as "social business" and what he calls "Tribe Management".
People want to be together, we want to do as others do, this is a law of social being whether we are aware of or want to accept it or not. I often tell my fiance, why does it matter how well you look in this dress, who cares what people think (mind you I myself can never fully escape this problem myself, I just like to think that I have it under control), and she responds with: "I dont where it for them I wear it for myself!" - is it possible to not wear it for them?
Read Full Article with the "View Original" Link Above
What makes Social Media / Web 2.0 so Attractive, so Successful?
It's natural, it's instinctive, it's the very spirit the internet was founded on... Bam! File sharing, networking, user-generated content encompassing user reviews, videos, blogs, personal identity profiles (Facebook and such), and others!
But dare I ask, are we living through a time where that very founding spirit might be functioning in a disingenuous manner? Does a company's bottom line influence how we function and think about things?
We live in an age of affiliate commissions, an age that features the goal of making people laugh and "wow" with an end sale in mind. So how does this affect the content that's being delivered? How does it affect our perception of the product or service being featured? Should it? As my closest friends would say, Mikey, your over-thinking it!
Perhaps so, yet I still feel there is a perspective worth noting here:
Web 2.0 [blogs, reviews, video experiences, etc...] are all about sharing "real" user experience, the thought of a user sharing phony experience may not be as obvious initially, simply because the motive for doing so is not so obvious or so prevalent at first glance, especially in an early internet world. What about that motive today in our high paced, inter-connected, corporate-faceted internet world? How about the way it is in our new Affiliate Sales Web 2.0 world!
I come on and recommend a product or service, perhaps I really believe the things I write about that product, but am I writing for my belief in the quality and functionality of the product or service, or am allowing the the desired commission from a potential reader-influenced-sale drive that endorsement? I know many people that might say, your missing the point, it doesn't matter!
Well, not so quick my friend, to the lonely idealist/purists of the world, it DOES MATTER!
It works the other way around as well, what if I have a personal vendetta against a product or service and desire to smear the brand publicly? What if I create an internet environment that allows for lucrative returns on the "removal" of bad information on a brand or service (not pointing any fingers Yelp)? Is there any real way of knowing, do we have a responsibility to care as researching consumers, and are there meaningful solutions to these problems?
So far all we've done is ask question after question, well like a true philosopher would, I challenge you to continue to ask more. Perhaps there are no direct answers to these questions. Perhaps there are direct answers to the questions but no viable solutions... perhaps, perhaps, perhaps!
So here's my conclusion, Web 2.0 really is the second coming of a socially integrated body, web 2.0 is real even in it's greatest state of "phony-ism", you know why, because it is a direct reflection of the "real world"!
All of the surface issues we touched on above, have existed in social environments from the brink of time. These are real problems of a complex world. Seth Godin, who I believe to be an absolute God on such matters, discusses it best in his work on what I refer to as "social business" and what he calls "Tribe Management".
People want to be together, we want to do as others do, this is a law of social being whether we are aware of or want to accept it or not. I often tell my fiance, why does it matter how well you look in this dress, who cares what people think (mind you I myself can never fully escape this problem myself, I just like to think that I have it under control), and she responds with: "I dont where it for them I wear it for myself!" - is it possible to not wear it for them?
Read Full Article with the "View Original" Link Above
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