Social media is changing more than the way we communicate. Since the first caveman grunted at his wife once to say he was hungry, and twice to say he was lonely, communication has influenced real world actions. When a society shifts how it is communicating then the flow of real world actions also changes. Influence, a topic I am always talking about, can be about changing minds, but it becomes particularly powerful when it turns into action. People are habitual and if left alone and observed, they can become fairly predictable. Changing habits then becomes very powerful.
What makes social media so powerful? Let’s look at a few powerful reasons why social media is changing our world and how it can make you more influential.
1 – Contact Time. In general, the more contact time someone or something has with another object on this earth, the more it will influence it. The old saying that you become who you hang around rings true. Even back int he garden of Eden Eve ran into trouble for both hanging out with a talking serpent and touching something that she wasn’t supposed to. Social media has changed the way we communicate. It is almost like a cross between TV (Our old way of getting new information on a daily basis), Social Interaction (other sources of influence and information), and the Telephone (Which allowed us to share and receive information). This digital lovechild of social communication continues to creep into our lives and the more time we spend on it the greater the influence it has on us.
The formula is fairly quantifiable. You take the number of users on a platform available for social interaction and communication and you also look at the average user time on platform (UTOP) and you can get an idea of the influence of that platform. This can be taken to a personal level by looking at the number of friends or connections a user has on each platform they use, and then the time they spend on each platform. These two numbers will tell you which platform is likely to influence them the most. This highlights the problem in marketing of shorter attention spans and the desire to have more contact time with people you are trying to influence.
2 – Real to Digital to Real Cycle (RDR Cycle). This is about the crossover between the real world to the digital world and then the journey back to the real world. Gaming in general takes people from the real world into a fantasy world, but that fantasy world doesn’t generally flow back into the real world. With social media, real people enter the digital world communicate, and then those digital actions crossover into the real world through actions and changed relationships. As the infographic below from my friends at Dashburst show, the number on a platform, the time people spend, and the translation back over the digital divide into real world changes are what is making social media one of the most powerful tools in the world.
Hey if you want another one of the most powerful tools in the world to work for you (hey did I just call myself a tool?), call me… 509-362-1966 Lets talk about what I might be able to help you with.
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