May 07
25
An interesting post from Mark Goren at Transmission Content + Creative on the spread of the net memes and viral (truth be told, I only found his blog because of a trackback the Bring the Love back post so right back atcha, Mark).
Here’s where it hit home for me: Because I’m connected to you and others and this whole community of smart people who are sharing information in an around-the-clock cycle, I’m in on things before a lot of my other colleagues are. A whole lot earlier, as it turns out. Doesn’t have to be this video, it could be any bit of information, news or creative execution. Blogging, reading feeds, getting into “it” buys me this privilege for free.
Gaining this information, though, is one thing, what you do with the information is another. And here’s the cool part. Sharing that information allows you to make others feel smart, in the loop. Write about it, talk about it, trickle it down – spreading the word makes you generous.
I think this is really interesting stuff and basically gets down to the “why people talk/share” psych question. However, I do think that there are several other layers to this onion than just the altruism that Mark refers to and I wanted to add to this conversation a bit. On the surface, people share this type of content to be helpful, but in examining my own behaviour, I think you can get a little deeper and find there are several other factors at play here:
- Geek Cred - When I share something with another and it is found to be valuable then my “geek cred” goes up and thus I become a bigger influencer to that person, increase trust and, feel better about myself in the process.
- Rewarding the Good – When I see something I like, agree with, or find some type of value in, I like to share it with others as a way to reward the creator. Conversely, I will ignore bad content so as not to continue its spread.
- Verifying Judgment – I may not be sure how I feel about something, so I send it to friends or blog it to find out what others think and confirm whether my initial opinion was correct.
- To say Hi – Sometimes I might use stuff as a way to reconnect with someone if I don’t have anything else worth saying and just use the content as a relevant bridge.
- Pay Back – Some people are good at sending me stuff, so when I come across something relevant to their interests, I might send it along to return the favour
- Badge – I might send something out in the same way that I wear a funky t-shirt, because it says something about me or what I am into.
I believe that some or all of these things (and perhaps several others) come into play with a decision to forward something to a friend.
Update: Alison over at 360 Digital Influence (Ogilvy PR Blog) has really expanded in the social connections area of why people forward stuff. I think we can qualify this as a genuine “meme-in-training” now, The Six Reasons I Forward meme. Hope to see it continue.
Update 2: Mark Goren posts his own six reasons and Greg Krauska of Create Value Innovation chimes in with his.
[tags] Microsoft, bring the love back, transmision content + creative, word of mouth, wom, viral, memes, 360 digital influence, six reasons I forward[/tags]
