Social Media Optimization

It’s not so surprising, that places that are looking for a piece of the social media pie are usually moderately successful. For all my railing against the mindless masses that are drawn to these sites and communities I have to say that while I myself am not lured by the siren’s song, I can completely understand why some are. As I nodded to in one of last week’s articles, people drawn to places like MySpace are automatically freed from holding up the baseline as far as having a dedicated web presence goes. Sure, they are greeted by slow sites, multiple page load errors and unexplained/unaccountable downtime but still they persist and show up day after day, inconveniences be damned. Part of this draw is the freedom that is waved in front them. To each their own soapbox. A nice platform for which to share their ideas and thoughts and herald it to the masses.

On paper it sounds great. However there’s always the fine print. Who owns the soapbox? Who pays the bills? Are there restrictions to your freedom? What the fuck is a EULA?

Beyond MySpace, let’s look at the more simple approach to having a place to spew: Digg. It is the 2.0 to Slashdot’s 1.5. Regardless, Digg is now and as social media bookmarking sites go, no one can touch them even though many feel there is room for several big players on the verticals of this technology. As countless online publisher’s quickly learn, even with enormous amounts of traffic, it’s difficult to get people honestly involved in new stories and concepts.

These other sites seek to pick up where Digg’s audience leaves off… allowing for those interested in a different segment of society. But each of these segments, as well as Digg’s segment itself, relies on it’s submitting supporters to relay news and stories of and beyond themselves which they feel will do one of two things:

• Enhance the community by supplying the audience with pieces of information that could be beneficial on some level
• Feed their own ego by achieving an alternate goal.

Ignoring the endless potential for discussions behind this list is the actual focal point of this article… and that is to be able to achieve or attempt to achieve either of these goals, one must possess a certain sense of freedom.

Though I can’t speak to living in a different country, from my experiences living in the US, I’d say it’s a pretty fair assumption that most take their freedom for granted expecting that not only what they say will be heard, but that it seemably has some inherent right to be heard. This bridges the gap across most people’s lives here, including their online ones, which appear on the surface to not only have such concessions but offer them up in trade for the most minimal of efforts.

What people mostly take for granted on social media sites is that because they say it, it’s fair game. Their content is protected and their voice is free to be heard from mountains on high. Because their content is either selfless or selfish, they automatically assume a right to have their opinion displayed before the masses for judgment. However what most people blatantly ignore is that their content is subject to a filter over which they have no say… The filter of the editors or the platform on which they stand.

While posting your views on a site in China, Tunisia or Egypt could land you in prison, posting your views or advertising views to which you think should be paid attention cannot lay you in custody here. But heaven forbid some moderator at some social site should attempt this in proxy… HELL NO! They have no right! You should be able to spout off as much as you feel necessary!! The community should support you for your efforts to uphold the freedom of not just yourself but free-thinkers everywhere!!!

The dice are dropped here. They fall wherever the house calls them.

Lets say it like this:
It’s of NO surprise to ANYONE that when you go to Vegas and bet a ton of cash, you’re probably going to lose. Why? Because the house wins the majority of the time. You know this going into it. With this knowledge you either:

A) hope that you can skim off the top or
B) figure you are smart enough to outwit the house long enough to make your spread and get out before you become a laughable parody on CSI

Withholding your logic in the above example, it’s already stated that you know the odds, that they’re stacked, and in favor of someone else. I would say that while the same type of odds apply to social bookmarking sites, the majority of people don’t see it that way. In part I agree.

At SES Chicago ‘O6, Jason “Entrepenuor in Action” Calaidon’thaveenoughnamis spoke from his ego-infested pedestal on the fact that he had helped Netscape break from a free thinking internet browser developer to a whored out version of Digg under the AOL umbrella. In his ever-so-wizened mind this translated into some sort of DRM in which the people that actually provided the company the structure on which to stand would have to receive scrutiny from above. Thanks Jason. If truly a prick ever deserved mockery, you called it down ten-fold in December. And here I thought this year might be boring.

However, even if I am the only one out there to call a punk ass bitch for what they are, I have to say at least on that day.. he was honest. Honest in the fact that he felt that social media needed moderators. Honest that he had taken part in helping contribute to such moderating agendas and moreso, that he worked towards a structure that paid people for licking his ballsac. Brilliant! It’s like indulgences for sellouts everywhere! The pope would be proud.

So here we have a service that is looking to place itself alongside the leading service for that industry. This service has figured out an incentive (on top of freedom, ego, etc) for people to contribute. The downside is that playing off of this illusion architecture leads to false righteousness by the very people who hold this structure together, ie. YOU.

Like Digg, who has it’s own problems with it’s community, Netscape recently exercised it’s right to control the supposed freedom of it’s members. While trying to imitate another Digg feature which allows users to ‘bury’ stories by ‘Sinking’ them, a multitude of voices was unified in protest against what they felt was an encroachment on their freedom to declare what was important. This voice of freedom can be heard HERE.

As is likely with public standoffs, a bunch of people got pissed the fuck off and tempers flared. One member got banned. Threads were removed. And the gestapo walked with a clean slate and a scar he can show off to impress Cobra Commander. Netscape, of course, closed and locked the thread.

Moral of the story:
Don’t bite the hand that feeds you… regardless of what side you’re on.

posted by greg :: Jan.12.2007 :: Social Media Optimization  
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