October 29th Post

Pages 167-196 in Design to Thrive, by Tharon Howard, discuss the role of significance in the building of a social network or online community. Howard describes the idea that people are more motivated to join, participate in, and remain members of communities that they believe are significant. Significance can be established by making an online community exclusive. In other words, individuals inherently believe that a community carries a high level of importance if only certain people can join the community and gain access to particular information. In 2008, the Obama presidential campaign played off this concept by only releasing certain information to those registered on my.barackobama.com. For example, the my.barackobama.com community refused to release information about Obama’s choice for vice president to anyone not registered on the site. This undoubtedly led to millions of people joining the site in order to receive the “exclusive” information. This was beneficial to Obama campaign, which collected the contact information for millions of people. The campaign could then use that information to keep in contact with potential voters.

As I continued to read the chapter, I began to feel that it is not only important for the online community to be significant, but that individual members can build significance for themselves within the community. For example, Twitter can be considered significant because of its large number of users and the vast amount of information that originates on the site. While the site is significant in itself, some members are “more significant” than others. Celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres flaunt millions of followers and can get those followers to take a particular action through a single tweet. This helps celebrities to further build their brands through Twitter. “Normal” people attempt to achieve their own significance on the site by networking and promoting their page to get more followers.  After reading this chapter, I believe that Howard did a great job discussing the essential role of significance in the building of an online community.

“Who Are the Real Online Influencers?” is an online article written by Josh Catone. The article discusses how people are most likely to be influenced in the new world of interactive media. Using various statistics and study results, Catone demonstrates that consumers trust recommendations from peers over all forms of advertising. This means that companies need to ensure the satisfaction of individual consumers, who are likely to tell their friends and family about new products, often through social media.

Week 8 Post

Pages 25-62 of Made to Stick, by Heath and Heath, discuss the importance of simplicity when a person is presenting an idea. The authors make the point that simple does not mean “dumbing down.” To be simple means to find the core of an idea. For example, leads of news stories are meant to be simple. In the first sentence, readers should be informed of the following five things: “Who? What? Where? When? Why?” If readers are not informed of these things, they may put the story down without knowing what it was really about.

As the chapter continues, Heath and Heath talk about why various proverbs have been so successful over the course of many years. The reason is that proverbs are simple, but very profound. For example, the following proverb is extremely popular: “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” While this sentence is very simple, it encompasses a lot of meaning. With this simple quotation, people can be reminded that it is important not to give up a sure thing for something that is speculative.

I found this chapter on simplicity very profound. As a budding entrepreneur, I find myself in many meetings in which I have to get my ideas across to various groups of people. This chapter reminded me how important it is to find the core concept of any idea. In future meetings, I need to make sure that I am fully aware of the “main idea.” Then I can add the appropriate details.

Pages 63-97 of Made to Stick discuss the significance of an idea including an element of surprise. In other words, something has to be unexpected by the audience. According to Heath and Heath, one of the most basic ways to get someone’s attention is to break a pattern. Beyond getting the audience’s attention, however, an individual has to be able to keep the audience’s attention. An audience’s attention can be kept with a mystery. By not revealing everything at once, an individual can keep an audience “coming back for more.”

After reading this chapter, I thought about Facebook. The major social networking site is able to keep people’s attention because it contains an element of surprise. While users begin by “completing” their profiles with the appropriate information (school, interests, pictures, etc.), there is always more to be added. Users come back constantly to see if others have uploaded new pictures, updated their statuses, or liked new groups. Because there is always more to see, users keep coming back.