Social Media: Game, Addiction, and Obsession.
Written by Pablo Palatnik on December 10, 2007
GAME: There was a great eBook released today called, “The Web: Hidden Games,†which talks about social media being an actual game. Is it a game? Of course…As online marketers we try to game these sites for our own purposes (monetization, links, etc) but for the actual users, it’s still considered a game, maybe physiologically. The eBook describes the reason for it being a game comes down to two major reasons: Goals and Competition. Each site has a goal, each one gets competitive.
Digg- Get to the front page competing against THOUSANDS (maybe millions) of users and submitted stories per day. Start a network of friends who will vote on your stories to make it to the top. Be the first one to find the most interesting story and submit it faster then anyone else. Not in that order, but hey, that sounds pretty cool and sounds like a game…hence the most active Digg crowd is a young demographic for the most part.
Facebook/Myspace- Reputation builder. Network with old and new friends to catch up on old times; see what’s the plan for the weekend, etc. For many its about getting as many friends as possible (including business profiles) and now with Facebook apps, many compete against each other with quizzes among many other things.
YouTube- How many people will watch my video? That’s the main question anyone uploading a video on YouTube ask themselves when uploading their video…and that’s for the most part…not every single person has that train of thought. Many users try very hard to get their channel of their own videos to be a YouTube top channel, it’s a great reward.
ADDICTION: The addiction is part of beating a game that is never ending. You can never have too many front page Digg stories or you can never have too many friends in a social network. Digg users compete day in, day out, to make their submitted stories reach the first page. It’s almost like SEO in competing for front page of the engine except that one has a much long-lasting reward, and a lot more beneficial I would say, right? The social networking scene has become addicted to this phenomenon. Not a day goes by where Facebook or Myspace users don’t log in to check messages from friends, comment, etc…it’s said to maybe replace email one day, but that’s far ahead for now.
OBSESSION: This obviously links to addiction but as users grow more and more obsessed with social media, so are BUSIESSES. Month after month, more and more businesses are leaning towards starting social media campaigns to build reputation and brand awareness. Of course, if all users are becoming addicted and obsessed with something, you want to be part of that also, especially from a business stand point.
Social Media is where it’s at right now for both online users and businesses. Not on the bandwagon yet? I suggest you jump in right away.
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4 Responses to “Social Media: Game, Addiction, and Obsession.”
This is a fine article and a good look at what “social media” really is… for different entities. It’s timely, too, because I just posted similarly about “The Myth and Fallacy of Social Media” in which I take a little bigger risk in explaining what’s behind it.
Thanks for taking the time to penetrate the husk of daily mindlessness.
Sa,
By Sam Freedoms Internet Marketing Controversy Blog on Dec 10, 2007