fans: rise of the machines
May 13th, 2009 • posts i've written
You see those trending topics on Twitter? Those are fans talking about things they love, to their friends, and anyone else that will listen.
Oprah mentions Twitter and registrations surge. That’s not the power of Twitter, that’s the power of Oprah’s fan community. CNN and Ashton go at it for new followers. Again, that wasn’t Twitter, it wasn’t a virus, it was fans acting on a leader’s nudge, and to connect to each other to share information and social currency.
You don’t scan your tweets every day because of Twitter either. You’re looking for people you know, friends, and also people you’re a fan of. Twitter can connect anyone: you to Ashton, Ashton to your third grade english teacher, and so on. Twitter is a bit of technology that better enables what fans want and need to do: connect with each other, express their fandom/define their identity, gather information, and feel more connected to what they love.
Fandom makes or breaks technology. Meetup.com took off because fans of beanie babies needed a place to swap and collect. Friendster cracked down on fakesters and it reduced a way fans could engage. Facebook is the center of a brand’s digital world because users can now ‘fan’ things.
Still think focusing on fans is too narrow? Or do you mean, ‘we just don’t have any fans?’ Those are two separate things: one is bullshit, the other is fixable. One is kidding yourself, the other is killing yourself (or at least resigning yourself to a slow extinction, better hope for no meteor showers). Brands should be out there courting and supporting these vocal fan communities. They’re right there, they aren’t hiding; in fact they’re doing very much the opposite.
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yea man, totally. twitter brings no new functionality or brand new value to the world as it were. what it has donee however is create a new kind of culture… but not intentionally. Rather by clearing a path, and allowing seeds to grow.
and this is why the retention rate is shit. cuz like all cultures you either fit in or are different and for now that means people sign up or check it (twitter) out then bounce. Later on the size of the communities based around this type of culture will attract more… and we will know when this happens as the retention rate increases.
go read this if you havent yet by the way cuz i think it gives clues as to what the primary descriptor of this culture might be:
http://farisyakob.typepad.com/blog/2009/04/the-cultural-impact-of-decreasing-latency.html
nice post mane