No message is the single-most-important message.
It’s sort of like when you’re sitting with someone and you look over and they smile at you. You’re sitting here reading the paper, and you’re doing your side-by-side thing, and you just sort of let people know you’re aware of them.
This sentiment from Yahoo chief scientist Marc Davis to New York Times contributing writer Clive Thompson is as relevant today as in 2008 when Facebook updates were the rage.
Inane updates remain the rage, as the above screen shot of some of my friends depicts. Just because I am not inspired to add a comment and converse doesn’t mean someone else won’t comment.
Clive elaborates:
Merely looking at a stranger’s Twitter or Facebook feed isn’t interesting, because it seems like blather. Follow it for a day, though, and it begins to feel like a short story; follow it for a month, and it’s a novel….
E-mail is something you have to stop to open and assess. It’s personal; someone is asking for 100 percent of your attention. In contrast, ambient updates are all visible on one single page in a big row, and they’re not really directed at you. This makes them skimmable, like newspaper headlines; maybe you’ll read them all, maybe you’ll skip some.
Ever wonder why some people choose to comment when others don’t, why some people opt to share website content with their social networks when others don’t, and why some people don’t care when others do?
Pertaining to social sharing buttons that many bloggers employ somewhere adjacent to every article they write, Mitch Mitchell muses why few people click to share this article with Facebook or that article with Digg. He suggests the placement of the buttons is partially to blame for why few click.
You do it because most of us are blind to these things… we tend to become blind to the buttons that allow us to highlight posts we might like. Some of the buttons people have near their posts are small and easy to overlook after awhile.
That’s why you would do it… This means that if you’re going to do it, at least from my perspective, you should do it on posts you absolutely know are premium posts. How will you know? If you don’t know when you’ve written a premium post then no one else will either.
But placement isn’t everything.
Some bloggers don’t care if you socially share their articles on your Facebook wall, your Twitter feed, or your Google circles. They don’t care if you email it to your colleagues or print it for your refrigerator.
They write what they write because they want to write, not because of some external action that may or may not occur.
Marcus Sheridan elaborates why 6 bloggers don’t care if you like them.
Danny Brown no longer cares if you like him. His goal is not to add friends and followers. Nor is it about adding subscribers by making everyone happy. No, Danny Brown now writes to promote action, push the envelope, and initiate real, positive change in a world that sure as heck needs it.
The reason you choose to socially share is your reason alone, no different than why you might comment on a blog article or a Facebook update when your best friend will not. We are individuals at the end of the day and, cliche or not, we do what we do because we choose to do it.
This may not be the conclusion you were hoping to read, which is why you are encouraged to share your thoughts below.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Saw floating share buttons on StoneArt’s blog. Added them to mine. Have had a small response.
I prefer to link to other blogs, as you have here. I will and did click thru to some of your links, but I don’t tweet, and seldom follow up FB likes.
July 18, 2011 at 7:27 PM
I wonder if placement as described can correct the lack of sharing. Even if you change the buttons on your site so they only appear on epic posts, I suspect readers ignore these buttons because they see them so often on other sites as well.
I suppose you could try placing bigger buttons along with a comment “this is a really great post, please share.” I think the implication becomes that you recognize that the rest of your posts aren’t up to that quality. Even if that is true, do you really want to acknowledge it publicly?
Besides, I am always wrong about which posts will get shared on Stumble Upon, and to be honest, I don’t know whether they were shared because of my post button or if the readers simply clicked on the Stumble Upon buttons in their browser bars.
“Inane updates…” My family and friends remind me constantly that one person’s inanity is another person’s IM obsession.
Really thought provoking article. it’s really a food for though for me that why I most of the times comment on blogs and why am I commenting on this blog post. I want you to read some more interesting content on such a behavior.
I don’t think placement or implementing like button to only important post would make any difference. Readers would be still reluctant to share because they see such sharing button on every blog or site they visit. Rather exit popup reminder asking visitors to like or share your post might be a better idea.
July 19, 2011 at 11:59 PM
I really like the idea of sharing ie: “Paying it forward”. But somehow I feel some of he buttons / media are overkill. Twitter for example, there are so many tweets that many messages get lost.
That is why I like stumbleupon and Google +1. both are my way of voting for and helping a site I like without cluttering up My own or someone else’ wall, tweet page etc.
July 20, 2011 at 2:00 AM
It is not necessary that you will comment only when your friends are here but the concept is quite good. I mean if there is a comment that reflects your thoughts or even if there is a comment with which you totally disagree, pushes you to comment there and tell what you think. Also I agree with Alicia Joan that there should be a pop up to share the page or article when someone try to close the window.
Besides the placement of buttons you really need to save your network from intruders or pirates. When they enter in your network they share everything of their own which they can but they will never share anything of you. Why? because they don’t give a s**t to what you are up to. If you let these pirates to enter they you will have a very little chance to get shared.
In social media giving is taking and taking is giving. If you go to other blogs write for them share their thought, add value and appreciated their efforts they will be very keen to know what you are up to and then even if you don’t have a social widget on your blog they will ask you to put it on because they want to share your thoughts
July 20, 2011 at 3:51 PM
I’m constantly amazed by the ubiquity of the superficial, trivial information that people choose to post on social media sites, which is probably one of the main reasons I rarely update my status message or leave comments on Facebook. The only time I post or comment is when I feel as though I have something important to say, or something relevant to add to the conversation. Other than that, I usually won’t. I do find a certain kind of pleasure, though, in reading others’ inane updates and comments….maybe that doesn’t make me out to be the nicest person in the world, but it’s the truth.
Why I add comment? why do i like. Well the basic answer for that is the interest. If you are interested with something or it caught your attention. Them basically you would engage conversation or simply say your opinion about the subject matter. And to apply it here, i commented because this is pretty engaging article
great job! this is what social media is about.
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I think when a post derives an emotional response, it is more likely to get commented on. Or something humorous or a question that is either easy to answer or is controversial. The boring and irrelevant posts just don’t elicit a response. I mean what can you say to: ‘I think I will have pork chops for dinner tonight.’?