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Social Engagement

What’s “wrong” with the Internet and social media?

September 24, 2019September 25, 2019 Phillip Nones Content Creation and Content Management, Human Resources, Marketing Communications, Media, Media Consumption, Social Commentary, Social Media Daniel Kahneman, Gord Hotchkiss, Hobbesian State of Nature, Internet, Social Engagement, Social Media, Thinking Fast and Slow

Maybe more than you think.

Gord Hotchkiss

Canadian interactive media and search engine specialist extraordinaire Gord Hotchkiss is one of my favorite columnists who write regularly on marketing topics. Invariably he does a fine job “connecting the dots” between seemingly disparate points — often drawing thought-provoking conclusions from them.

In short, a Hotchkiss column is one that is always worth reading.  In his latest piece he starts out with a bold pronouncement:

“When the internet ushered in an explosion of information in the mid-to late-1990s there were many — I among them — who believed humans would get smarter.

What we didn’t realize then is that the opposite would eventually prove to be true.”

His point is that information technology has begun to change the time-honored ways humans are hard-wired to think, which is both fast and slow. In essence, two loops are required for mental processing:  the “fast” loop pertains to our instinctive response to situations, whereas the “slow” loop is a more thoughtful processing of discerning reality.

[This line of thinking ties back to theories laid out in a book published in 2011 by psychologist and economist Daniel Kahneman titled Thinking, Fast and Slow.]

In Hotchkiss’ view, people need both loops – especially now, considering the complexity of the world.

A more complex world requires more time to absorb and come to terms with that complexity. But when the focus is only on thinking “fast,” the results aren’t pretty.  As he observes:

“If we could only think fast, we’d all believe in capital punishment, extreme retribution, and eye-for-eye retaliation. We would be disgusted and pissed off almost all the time. We would live in a Hobbesian State of Nature [where] the ‘natural condition of mankind’ is what would exist if there were no government, no civilization, no laws, and no common power to restrain human nature.   

The state of nature is a ‘war of all against all’ in which human beings constantly seek to destroy each other in an incessant pursuit for power. Life in the state of nature is ‘nasty, brutish and short.’”

Do any of us wish to live in a world like that? One would think not.

But here’s where Hotchkiss feels like things have gone off the rails in recent times. The Internet and social media have delivered to us the speed of connection and reaction that is faster than ever before in our lives and in our culture:

“The Internet lures us into thinking with half a brain … and the half we’re using is the least thoughtful, most savage half … We are now living in a pinball culture, where the speed of play determines that we have to react by instinct. There is no time left for thoughtfulness.”

In such an environment, can we be all that surprised at the sorry result? Hotchkiss, for one, isn’t, noting:

“With its dense interconnectedness, the Internet has created a culture of immediate reaction. We react without all the facts. We are disgusted and pissed off all the time. This is the era of ‘cancel and ‘callout’ culture. The court of public opinion is now less like an actual court and more like a school of sharks in a feeding frenzy.”

Not that every interaction is like that, of course. If you think of social media posts, there are many  — perhaps more — that are wonderfully charming, even cloyingly affectionate.

Most people are quick to point out that there’s this good side to social media, too – and in that sense, social media merely reflects the best and worst of human nature.

But regardless of whether it’s negative or positive, pretty much all interactive media lives in the realm of “thinking fast.” All of it is digested too quickly.  Too often it’s empty calories – the nutritional equivalent of salt-and-vinegar potato chips or cotton candy.

Hotchkiss’ point is that interactive communications and media have effectively hijacked what’s necessary for humans to properly pause and reflect in the “slow thinking” lane, and he leaves us with this warning:

“It took humans over five thousand years to become civilized. Ironically, one of our greatest achievements is dissembling that civilization faster than we think.  Literally.”

Hyperbole? Perhaps not.

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Social media engagement … or is it disengagement?

September 7, 2014 Phillip Nones Advertising, Branding, Business, Content Creation and Content Management, Marketing Communications, Media, Media Consumption, Social Commentary 90-9-1, 90-9-1 Rule, Advertising, Audience Engagement, marketing, Social Behavior, Social Engagement, Social Media, SocialFlow

Social Media DisengagementHere’s an interesting finding about social media:  The overwhelming majority of posts on the major social media sites engender no engagement.

As in “none at all.”

And this goes for posts uploaded by marketers and publishers as well as one from “ordinary” users.

This finding comes from SocialFlow, a social media software and content dissemination firm which analyzed ~1.6 million organic posts on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ that reached a total of ~361 million people.

What the SocialFlow research found was that ~95% of those posts results in no engagement at all.

By contrast, only ~1% of the posts produced really strong engagement — defined as 20,000 interactions or higher per post.  Many of those posts are uploaded by big entertainment and media companies and dealt with — you guessed it — celebrity gossip and so forth.

Other findings from the SocialFlow research show that higher engagement rates tend to happen for “data-driven” posts — ones that are targeted to certain audience segments based on predictive algorithms pertaining to those segments’ behaviors.

Not surprisingly, posts that tend to attract higher engagement are more likely to be on “trending” topics.  But high-engagement posts about breaking news or celebrity reporting deliver little benefit for marketer of brands beyond the ones involved in entertainment and media companies.

Technology, healthcare and not-for-profits, by contrast, aren’t very good fits for such news, even if the posts themselves attract more engagement and interaction.

The SocialFlow research underscores yet again that, despite the continuing evolution of “interactivity” in marketing, the 90-9-1 rule still generally applies.

That’s the notion that for every piece of content seen, 90 people “look and lurk” only … 9 people may choose to engage with the content … and only 1 person is responsible for creating the content to begin with.

They’re all important factors to keep in mind when considering social revolution and its implications.

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A surprise? Men are the more receptive advertising audience on Facebook.

October 15, 2012October 15, 2012 Phillip Nones Uncategorized Advertising, Digital Flash, Facebook Advertising, Kenshoo, Nones Notes, Pew Research, Phillip Nones, Social Engagement, Social Media, Zynga

Gender differences in social media activityStatistics have consistently shown that women make up a clear majority of people on social media – both in terms of membership and daily activity. This infographic from the marketing firm Digital Flash gives the full picture.

And it turns out, the differences between the genders are quite stark:

  • Pinterest: ~82% of users are female
  • Facebook: ~64% of users are female
  • Twitter: ~58% of users are female

Even online gaming, long the preserve of (primarily) younger men, has undergone something of a gender-bending adjustment. According to Digital Flash, more time is spent by females over the age of 55 playing Zynga games than by males between the age of 15 and 34.

Men do still make up the majority of users on several social platforms, including LinkedIn and Google+. And in an interesting finding, it turns out that men are the better advertising target on Facebook.

That revelation comes to us courtesy of a new report published in September 2012 by digital marketing software firm Kenshoo.

Titled Social Media Insights: Men are Cheap, this report finds that, on average, ads targeting men on Facebook cost less than those aimed at women:

  • Cost-per-thousand impressions: 16¢ for men vs. 20¢ for women
  • Cost per click: 51¢ for men vs. 68¢ for women

What’s even more interesting? Men click through on Facebook ads more frequently than do women.

Capitalizing on these trends, it comes as little surprise that advertisers spend ~53% of Facebook advertising budgets reaching men, who deliver better exposure rates and clickthrough rates, thus increasing their value to marketers.

These findings are intriguing, because not only is it women who make up the clear majority of Facebook members, they’re also far more active users of the platform.

The Pew Research Center published findings earlier this year which show that women make an average of eleven updates to their Facebook status during the span of one month, compared to an average of only six updates per month being made by men. Moreover, women are more likely to comment on other people’s status updates than men.

Are these various findings contradictory? Perhaps not:  One group is busy “hunting and gathering” … while the other group is “socializing.”

As the French like to say, Plus ça change … plus c’est la même chose. (The more things change … the more they stay the same.)

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