The Psychology of Liking

I couldn't help but bring forward the powerful notion of belonging which anthropologists have written about at length.

So here is view of the sense through the facebook "like" experience.

The Psychology of Liking

We all know that person on Facebook. The one who Likes everything—let's call him Mike. Whether your cat got sick or you got a raise or went for a walk or had sushi for dinner, are feeling blue or just biked five miles, it's all Likable to Mike. How can we understand Mike's affability? As we use social media tools more frequently to connect with and communicate with others, the act of Liking is a means of creating alliances. But can Mike over-use this tool?

The Facebook Like button began as a quick and easy way to interact with others. If someone posts anything mildly positive, all Mike has to do to acknowledge the moment is click the Like button and his commentary and recognition are duly noted with a thumb's up sign. The Like button lets Mike reaffirm his connection online. It tells the person that he is an active node in the social network, and that he wants to be connected with the poster. Liking presents a means of belonging or securing attention online. To Like something announces Mike's presence loudly and connects not only to the poster, but also to the poster's connections. The entire network is made aware of Mike's relationship to the poster.

However, it's important to Like appropriately, which unfortunately many in the social sphere don't seem to understand. If Mike Likes simply for the sake of Liking, he can quickly be labeled an interloper. In the absence of a close relationship, Liking every single thing that someone posts sends a message of being inauthentic, particularly if Mike Likes statements that warrant some sympathy. If the relationship is not a close one, then Liking major events (e.g., an engagement, new job, new home, obvious excitement) adds to the connection. Liking the random, everyday events shared by a poster is reserved for more familiar connections. It is noticeable and a bit strange when someone within the network with weak ties to the poster, Likes or comments on a post.

As the Like feature filtered through the web, Liked items have become an extension of one's digital persona. The items affiliated with your Like "signature" construct your reputation online. Liking items that others within your network already Like, reaffirms your connection with the group by identifying points you hold in common. So there may be pressure to Like. Some of this pressure may account for large responses to major events; there may be certain points that even peripheral members of the network need to acknowledge. This could then lead to a shaping of Liking so that you choose to Like only items that create a specific image of you. If you over-Like—both personal items and items from the web—then there can be questions about the nature of your digital profile.

Take a moment to consider what you may have Liked lately, and the message that your Likes may be sending about your personality.  Do you pay attention to who Likes your statuses? What's your reaction when it's a peripheral member of your network?

Digital Media Culture

Dr. Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology and Digital Ethnography for Kansas State University explains a very interesting subject. 
A look into Digital Media Culture.

Social Media and the Brain: A Business Anthropologist’s View

August 1st, 2009

A number of innovations have changed the face of commerce in my lifetime.  Credit cards greatly enabled commercial exchanges.  Email and FedEx both sped up communication and reduced cost.  The internet both transformed information transfer, and introduced people around the world who would not have otherwise found each other.  In each case, exchanges – the fundamental unit of commerce – became easier.  Barriers were lowered and trade flourished.  

Are social media another facilitator of trade?

One of the aspects of social media that I find most fascinating is the proliferation of free – non-monetized, and non-negotiated – exchanges.   There’s an ethos around that practice, to which participants are finely-tuned.  It’s OK to make commercial offers, and to be compensated for touting others’ products,  as long as a) you’re up-front about it,  b) it’s deemed appropriate to the specific site and subject , and c) that’s not the only kind of stuff you talk about.  In the recent surge of activity around the Iran election on Twitter, for example, those few who sought to reach participants with anything commercial were immediately and soundly slapped.

There is plenty of commercial activity on social media. Even so, many corporate marketers are not so happy with its power  – the loss of control is counter-cultural for them - while small businesses are faster to use it to advantage .  The explosive growth of Twitter confounded the pundits and sparked controversy for months.  Much of that chatter quieted when the State Department asked Twitter to postpone scheduled maintenance soon after the Iranian election.  

I’m struck by the way social media simulate community.  The earmarks of community are 1) Shared concerns and 2) Free exchanges addressing those concerns, in addition to monetized or quantified trading. In the 17 years I had my office in Napa, CA, the river flooded half a dozen times.   People of all ages jumped in to assist – with whatever equipment and know-how at their command – with no thought of quantifying the exchanges.  And they loved it; stories abounded for years.  The mood of the entire country shifted when a now-famous commercial airline pilot landed in the Hudson in January of this year, and locals leaped into every available craft to get people out of the water.   This month, untold numbers of people from all over the world changed their Twitter profiles to confuse Iranian secret police, and offered proxy sites as internet communication inside the country was disabled.  

I suspect that our forebears lived by means of free exchanging – in ordinary life as well as in crises – starting with the earliest communities – perhaps as long as 350,000 generations ago.  Human groups are characterized by coordination and cooperation.  When did those exchanges become widely monetized?  After the Industrial  Revolution, perhaps 12 generations ago.  So for 349,988 generations human communities thrived by virtue of exchanging [mostly] without quantification.              

I’m not speaking here of Free as a ‘new radical price’, like the book of that title, though I agree that trend is important.  I’m speaking of exchanging freely, with abandon, the way children learn in play.  Sparking curiosity and enabling Neuroplasticity: the power of our brains to move with the new, in the moment – perhaps the most important skill of this century.  

From Fast Company, “Enterprise MicroLearning”,   

Cluetrain Manifesto

if you only have time for one clue this year, this is the one to get... 

Online Markets...
Networked markets are beginning to self-organize faster than the companies that have traditionally served them. Thanks to the web, markets are becoming better informed, smarter, and more demanding of qualities missing from most business organizations.

...People of Earth

The sky is open to the stars. Clouds roll over us night and day. Oceans rise and fall. Whatever you may have heard, this is our world, our place to be. Whatever you've been told, our flags fly free. Our heart goes on forever. People of Earth, remember.


95 Theses

How to know and share the message

We should know our purpose but many organisations struggle to define it. They know that they need to market themselves and are aware they should do this authentically - so isn’t ok to market authenticity?

When it comes to branding it is important to be who you are. But what does that mean exactly? Quite simply it is about being authentic, true to your values. This is the reality of the day to day acts and conversations by you and your company.  These social talks could be customer conversations or internal meetings, lunches and interactions people have.

The key is that how they talk about the company is in tune with what the company is about; its purpose. If all is well, these conversations and acts reinforce and strengthen a company, they become part of the cultural glue that socially knits people together.

A company’s identity should be easy to articulate and define; the niche role of the company, the reason for its existence (not just making profit for shareholders). Congruent fluency – http://bit.ly/cognitive-fluency is a great way of defining the benefits of easy to understand brands and how people perceive them – quite simply it is about simple messaging, to the point and in a way that fits to the values of the brand (easily understood).  In todays world brands need to connect to people and perhaps a model of the 4C’s http://bit.ly/9odvtD is a way to understand that connections are not just literal but emotional as well; they need to resonate with people’s values. But it is the need for purpose, a cause that connects with people at a deeper emotional level – if we can harness this then great things can happen.

Yes all roads http://bit.ly/allroads do lead to the need to make profit so companies exist, but the purpose and identity are why people buy in the first place; get the purpose right + some good business planning the rest becomes a lot easier.

I recently came across the Silk Road project http://bit.ly/thesilkroad and loved the way the design, meaning and purpose had been integrated into the doing. Learning and branding can and do go together http://bit.ly/bTVIR7 and we will increasingly see brands positively contribute to communities, share information rather than horde it.

When people are passionate about what they do they become brand champions and perhaps that is why successful companies have these as customers as well as employees. But marketing a brand as being authentic doesn’t work unless you are really true to your purpose and values.

Word and mouth through social networks is a powerful and pervasive force and will become more important over the coming years. We are witnesses to an amazing and transformative time in branding, corporate culture and social change. Learning is part of that process for all of us.

Making an Impact

Making an impact

“The heaviest users of Web 2.0 applications are also enjoying benefits such as increased knowledge sharing and more effective marketing. These benefits often have a measurable effect on the business.” - McKinsey Quarterly Report Sept’ 2009.