Sep 3

Written by:
9/3/2009 8:27 AM 

What is Social Media?

One of the simplest, most concise definitions I’ve read is by Dave Gray (founder and chairman of XPLANE and author of the “Communication Nation” blog), who offers that social media is “a group of media producers that is primarily its own audience.” Never in human history have the barriers to creating, delivering, and sharing content been lower. The tools for doing so are collectively known as “social media.” Examples include web sites like Flickr, Facebook, Blogger, Twitter and LinkedIn.

How Does Social Media Work?

Different social media tools are obviously designed for different purposes and different audiences. However, the successful ones all have one thing in common; they excel at creating groups and facilitating conversations. The fact that many of these social media tools are Internet sites makes it easy to focus too much on technology. In the recent Iran election, over cell phones, which had a dramatic effect on the government who found itself playing a “Whack a Mole” game to which it was entirely unaccustomed. This was not because of the technology, which was comprised of the ubiquitous cell phone and one of the simplest messaging services there is (Twitter). What forced the Iranian government’s hand were the social networks. As Clay Shirky (consultant, teacher, and writer on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies) brilliantly observed, “These tools don’t get socially interesting until they get technologically boring.”

Why Does Social Media Work?

There are several factors that combine to make social media profoundly effective. The first factor is the extremely low barrier to entry. By “barrier” I’m talking about both cost and effort, as social media tools require less and less of both all the time. The second factor is the “network effect.” Attempting to reach an audience by traditional advertising methods is largely a linear process; pay per click, per reader, per viewer, etc… By comparison, social media is exponential since a single message can ricochet around a network from one member to many with, for example, a single mouse click. Finally, these “Small World” networks are frequently connected to one another and the messages can (and frequently do) jump across these small chasms. For example, a civil engineer may be part of a social network of other engineers and hear about an interesting effort to preserve nesting bald eagles. This engineer also happens to be an active member of the Audubon society and would likely pass that message on to this entirely separate (and seemingly unrelated) group.

Case Study: PSNH

In December, 2008 an ice storm dumped two inches of freezing rain on NH, causing over 400,000 customers (or about 55% of the state) to lose power. 105 miles of cable and 13 days later, 99.9% of the local electrical utility (PSNH) customers had their power restored. I, personally, was without power for just over four days in sub-freezing winter temperatures.  The picture at the left is from my front yard the morning after the storm; a point at which I had no idea what I was in store for.  As my family and everyone we knew were without power, one of the only communication devices to which I had access was my Blackberry Storm.  I started communicating with other NH residents on Twitter and discovered that PSNH was "Tweeting" updates. 

The following graph (courtesy of Hubspot's Twitter Grader) illustrates the sharp, if not predictable, increase in Twitter "followers" during the storm.  However, that step function is not the most interesting attribute of this graph; it's the gradual climb that continued afterward. In other words, people continue to find the PSNH content valuable and/or interesting and their social media reach and consequent influence has continued to increase.

PSNH is leveraging social media successfully on other fronts besides customer support and advocacy.  In late June of 2009, they held a public relations event for the delivery of a new transformer via the Conway Scenic Rail.  Two journalists showed up, one of which was a student from the local college.  Nonetheless, they posted pictures from the event to a set on the photo sharing site Flickr and sent two Twitter updates with a link to the photos.  The next day, there were stories written in two major local newspapers.

 

Conclusions

The world is undergoing a radical democratization of publishing capability that is steadily eroding the effectiveness of traditional communication methods of organizations and even the very structure of institutions themselves.  Social media represent the tools that are making this happen, but social networking is the underlying force at work.  If you are responsible for or your organization engages in public relations, recruitment, advocacy, collaboration, or customer service, then social media is playing an increasingly influential role in how successful those efforts will be.  Ignore at your own peril.

Notes

This post is excerpted from a presentation first given at the ISA Water/Wastewater Automatic Controls Symposium by Jon DiPietro in August, 2009.