Chapter 7 was all about how to create a "significant" online community. There was a lot of info in this chapter, so I am choosing to focus on a few main points. One of the things Howard talks about is that a lot of online communities try to sky rocket to the top as soon as they get started, but bigger isn't necessarily better. What draws curiosity and significance to a site can weigh heavily on its exclusivity. For example, think about Pinterest.com. This site is extremely popular, but what makes it so different from all other bookmarking sites? Its exclusivity. You have to receive an "invitation" to be come an active member. When something isn't open to just anyone in the public, the platform becomes much more intriguing. Starting very small and strict helped them build a strong foundation and gain significance. Currently, I believe Pinterest is open to the general public. It probably would have been lost in the mix of all the other similar sites if it had started out this way.
The next point I want to talk about is the nodes. Since I am a Psychology major, I know a lot about Stanley Milgram. So this portion of the reading was of great interest to me. The 6 degrees of separation is a very cool finding that can be put to use on social networks. If you want to get in touch with a celebrity, there are only a few people separating you if you contact the right people. This leads to Howard's discussion on the types of influentials: connectors, mavens and salesmen. In today's society, I believe that the connectors are the most important of the influentials. We are obsessed with celebrities and what they are doing (thanks to Twitter). So if you want to bring popularity and significance to your social media site, finding a connector to shine that spotlight is key.
The checklist of techniques to gain significance that Howard provides at the end of Chapter 7 was very helpful for me to keep in mind for our OHS project. One of my favorites on list is #3: "Participate in influential communities to create trails back to yours". This is so important for OHS. They need to follow bigger animal advocate groups on different social networks so that it will create a path back to their smaller cause.
Monday, October 29, 2012
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Week of October 8th
I was really intrigued by this reading in "Made to Stick". It was all about making things and ideas stick by making them simple. And by simple, Heath & Heath did not mean "dumbing things down". Simple means stripping ideas to their bare core, where it won't survive if anything else is taken away from it, but it can survive without anything extra tacked on to it.
The chapter starts by referring to the military chain of command. Piecing together a step-by-step, move-by-move, tactical plan never works. You can plan and prepare down to the smallest detail, but you can't predict the future; when things don't go "as planned", military personnel do not know what to do because the event is not fitting into the pre-constructed strategy. Instead, one must simplify from plan, and strip it down to the simplest idea that needs to be accomplished, H & H call it "intent". This way, if and when things don't pan out as planned, the military soldiers know the general goal, or intent, and can react accordingly.
The next example used in the book is about Southwest Airlines. What is so different about the way their company works that makes it more successful than other airlines? Simplification. They have one intent: to be the lowest airline out there. This is a basic goal that guides all other actions. Any decision that may come up that will alter their intent is disregarded easily and immediately because all of the workers have one goal in mind-- instead of having to balance a detailed plan of business.
It is not about dumbing down, it is about finding the core idea. I tried to do this with my video project of the social media site Habbo.com. Yes, there are a ton of intricate things you can do on the site like play games, build rooms, complete quests, the list goes on and on. I did not include any of those things in my video. Why? Because I wanted to get straight to the point: the site's main purpose and how a company can manipulate it to benefit them. There was no need to go into all the little, minute "nuts and bolts" of the site, because that just bogs it down. Keeping things simple gets points of cross; complicate things, and you will lose everyone's attention, maybe even including yours.
The chapter starts by referring to the military chain of command. Piecing together a step-by-step, move-by-move, tactical plan never works. You can plan and prepare down to the smallest detail, but you can't predict the future; when things don't go "as planned", military personnel do not know what to do because the event is not fitting into the pre-constructed strategy. Instead, one must simplify from plan, and strip it down to the simplest idea that needs to be accomplished, H & H call it "intent". This way, if and when things don't pan out as planned, the military soldiers know the general goal, or intent, and can react accordingly.
The next example used in the book is about Southwest Airlines. What is so different about the way their company works that makes it more successful than other airlines? Simplification. They have one intent: to be the lowest airline out there. This is a basic goal that guides all other actions. Any decision that may come up that will alter their intent is disregarded easily and immediately because all of the workers have one goal in mind-- instead of having to balance a detailed plan of business.
It is not about dumbing down, it is about finding the core idea. I tried to do this with my video project of the social media site Habbo.com. Yes, there are a ton of intricate things you can do on the site like play games, build rooms, complete quests, the list goes on and on. I did not include any of those things in my video. Why? Because I wanted to get straight to the point: the site's main purpose and how a company can manipulate it to benefit them. There was no need to go into all the little, minute "nuts and bolts" of the site, because that just bogs it down. Keeping things simple gets points of cross; complicate things, and you will lose everyone's attention, maybe even including yours.
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