Rules Beget Rules = Social Media Principle #5
This post is the fifth in a series of my interpretation of Social Media Principles. More to come in the near distant future.
Previously, I discussed karma in social media, and touched on a case study of the use of blogging to drive sales. Because social media interactions are repeatable, they can give rise to patterns of behavior and over time which lead to shared, common understanding, such that:
Rules beget rules:
At some point, organization happens so that common understanding of interactions are possible.
In concrete terms, much has been written about social media etiquette. Tamar Weinberg wrote The Ultimate Social Media Handbook, covering Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Social News sites, FriendFeed, YouTube, StumbleUpon and blogs. Chris Brogan also covered social media etiquette with respect to email, blogs, Facebook and Twitter.
How did these guidelines come about?
Twitter: From Broadcasting to Sharing
Twitter asks: “What are you doing?” Users respond to that question in 140 characters or less. Over time, they realized “Eating lunch” is not as interesting as “Talking about crisis mapping over lunch with @patrickmeier“
Smoked Trout Salad from Crow anbui.tumblr.com
Which has turned into “Talking about crisis mapping over lunch with @patrickmeier http://zi.ma/b9d8de”
Twitter has rapdly evolved from broadcast mechnism to an informtion sharing application which can provide someone with many quick slices of information about someone’s life. As a dynamic, digital interaction paradigm Twitter provides rapid iterations of concise idea sharing that can inspire those involved in, or watching, the interactions.
You end up with patterns for interaction because you learn what resonates with individuals and the broader community.
However, social media tools may establish different interaction patterns because they serve different purposes and the features determine what types of interactions are possible.
Whrrl: From Information Source to Social Discovery
Whrrl enables you to:
- See where your friends are/have been;
- Share where you are/have been;
- Provide a persistent opinion of experiences, tied to public places.
When I first started using Whrrl, I used it for local search and real world location bookmarking of restaurants, stores and museums I liked. With time, I added people to my Whrrl network and its utility as a social discovery tool increased so I could find out which restaurants, stores and museums my friends enjoyed.
Whrrl’s real world location broadcasting feature can cause privacy concerns, which the developers and product managers have tried to address via privacy and security settings.
Which means…
The social rules and norms that develop in online communities are influenced by the features and functionality of the social media tools used. Understanding the tools and their users help you understand how your actions may be perceived in the digital realm.
Businesses that understand the importance of online communities can participate thoughtfully, using the appropriate online etiquette, and incorporate social media data when making business decisions.
Update: Read Jim Benson’s perspective on Social Media Principle #5: Rules Beget Rules
December 28th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
I’m currently reading Lawrence Lessig’s Code 2.0 (I read Code a few years ago), and I think some of his comments on regulation (mostly from his legal perspective) on the Web are relevant to your discussion of tools. In particular, for social media the big factors at this point are code (”what does the tool allow you to do?”) and norms (”what do other users expect of your behavior?”). If you haven’t read it, I’d definitely recommend it (although a few of his examples are still a bit dated, even with the 2007 update of the book).
December 29th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
[...] 5 [...]