I decided for my last official project for my emerging media
class to research the hashtag and synthesize the data into a visually pleasing
infographic. I researched three major areas on the hashtag. First, 3 main types
of marketing strategies of the hashtag, to-do’s and not to-do’s with your
hashtags, and finally 5 factors to keep in mind when coming up with hashtags. I
chose to do further research on the hashtag because it was something that can
be very powerful in its ability to increase the visibility of my social media content.
Over the semester I worked on creating professional tweets that focused on
emerging media. From this assignment I saw how powerful a tool the hashtag is.
I also saw how much more I needed to develop my hashtaging skills. Over the semester
I was able to get much better at finding relevant content and captions to tweet
about, however, I felt I still needed to work on my hashtaging ability. This is
why I came up with the idea to further research how to successfully use
hashtags. Below is the infographic I created with my synthesized research.
In class we have been learning about how things catch on. In
Jonah Berger’s book Contagioushe discusses the six key components to “cause things to
be talked about, shared and imitated.” (22).He calls them the six STEPPS. With this knowledge, I decided to look at each principle and find a YouTube video that is a good example of it. With this process I have come up with the following list:
1. The first principle is Social Currency which entails that
people like to share things that will make them look good.
One prime example of this phenomena is Jimmy Kimmel's 'Celebrities Read Mean Tweets.' These videos are an example of social currency because they are always adding new one's so there is always another one to be on top of. They also feature very trendy celebrities that people want to see.
2. The second principle is Triggers, which implies that
people are more likely to share things when they’re reminded of it in other
place.
A major example of triggers working to make something go viral is the "Diet Coke + Mentos" video. This video spread on the internet and in people's conversations like wild fire. One reason may be because many people drink Diet Coke which may have lead people to remember this video and want to share it over and over again with their friends who are drinking something with the explosive power to create a fountain show.
3. The third principle is Emotion, which involves inspiring
someone or touching someone's feelings to get them to share a video or
message.
The most successful commercial during this years Super Bowl was Budweiser's "Puppy Love"commercial. It was watched over 30 million times and this wasn't because Budweiser has a superior deal to offer customers but purely because of the emotions it evokes.
4. The fourth principle is that it has to be Public, which
entails that it should be high visibility for somebody to want to share it.
An example of how something that is very public can make people want to share it or take part in it is TOMS shoes. TOMS gives one pair of shoes to someone in need for every purchase of their shoes. This is a very public form of philanthropy. By wearing their shoes, you are saying that you support what TOMS shoes is doing and sharing their message to help others who are less fortunate. Since it is so public, this may be why TOMS shoes has been so successful.
5. The fifth principle is Practical Value, which implies
that people want to share things that are useful.
One video that was shared many times was the "Story of Stuff." This video is a short documentary that discusses the effects of America's consumer culture and advocates for more sustainable practices. This video has been shared among friends and even shown in classrooms. The reason it may have become so popular is because of its practical use. Although critically analyzing consumer culture is not something people are forced to do day in and day out, many people thought that they learned something of value that should be shared.
6. The sixth principle is Storytelling, which involves
creating a narrative so that people are more likely to want to share it.
A major example of people sharing things because of the narrative behind them is the story of Dick & Rick Hoyt. This video has been viewed many times and Dick and Rick Hoyt have gained lots of attention for their story, including the Jimmy V Perseverance Award at the ESPYS. One of the main reasons so many people know about them is because of how powerful their story is which inspires people to share it, talk about, and appreciate it.
If one looks at these videos in a list together without an explanation, there seems to be no correlation; however, all of these videos have one thing in common: they all went viral. Although each may have a different reason for catching on with so many different audiences, they all have something that made people want to share them, talk about them, or engage with them. These principles do not guarantee that what one creates will become viral; however, through being cognizant of each of the six key STEPPS when creating content, one can start to create something that people want to share... and perhaps even catch on.
After reading "Social media adoption: The role of media needs and innovation characteristics" by Izzal Asnira Zolkepli and Yusniza Kamarulzaman from the Journal of Computers in Human Behavior published on November 22, 2014 I became interested in exactly why the people closest to me used the social media they choose to be the most important to them. This lead to me to do a little experiment of my own to get some insight on why people use the social media they use the most. For my mini faux-experiment I designed a questionnaire for my 25 closest friends to fill out. The first question was, "What is your favorite social media platform (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat)?" Then I asked "What is the strongest reason you use it for?" I gave them five reasons for why they use the particular platform of social media. The five reasons came from the five social media needs we discussed in class from Zolkepli's and Kamarulzaman's reading. Specifically they are, cognitive needs, affective needs, tension release needs, personal integrative needs, and social integrative needs. However, to take out the jargon I boiled each reason down to a simple definition of each social media need this transferred to: 1.Cognitive needs: To stay informed 2.Affective needs: For pleasure, emotions and affirmations 3.Tension release needs: As an escape 4.Personal integrative needs: To find out more about myself and other people like me 5.Social integrative needs: to connect with family, friends, and the world. Build my social circle
To ensure people would not be swayed from the actual social media needs terms I took out the social media term out an only used the simplified definition. The final survey looked like this. Afterwards I totaled all the results and created an inforgraphic to make the data easier to read. This is what I've come up with:
From the infographic one can easily grasp that out of my friends, Facebook is the most popular social media platform. One can also see that most of my friends are using their favorite social media platform because of their affirmative social media needs and social integrative needs being a close second.
Although reading empirical scientific research articles can be very helpful for a better understanding of wide spread trends I was curious to see what is going on closest to me, particular in my own social circle. I discovered that most of my friends use Facebook because of the social media need for affirmation. This data is particularly interesting to me because it represents a small segment of one of the largest consumers of social media. As one can see from this poll women in college ages 18-24 are the largest consumers of most social media platforms.
Even though I only surveyed a few of my closest friends, which represents a minute portion of the overall population, it is comprised of one of the largest segments of those who use social media. If I were developing a new social media platform I would look at focusing my product to fill the affirmative and social integrative social media needs of the consumer as many of the people who use social media the most find these needs the main reasons they continue to use it.
