fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2496 ]

[ SECRET POST #2496 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2496 ⌋

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Believe it or not, this only has a teeny bit to do with LJ versus tumblr. (For what it's worth, I think LJ started lacking in discussion long before tumblr really became a thing; tumblr just made it more obvious.)

I've been doing social media for work, and trying to get anyone to comment has been like pulling teeth. We get likes here and there, we occasionally get shares, but we hardly ever get comments. With tumblr in mind, makes me wonder if the internet altogether really doesn't like conversation anymore. Anyone?

I think people are getting lazy. It's so much easier to just Like, Share, ReBlog, ReTweet something instead of actually having a conversation or even writing a small comment.

Which is too bad since I really dig conversations. Part of the reason I still hang out here. Not always the best conversations, but it's one of the few places I frequent where people actually comment and converse.

I agree. I just really miss how it used to be. Nowadays it seems like I have a better chance of a celebrity answering me on Twitter than somebody on Tumblr.

Frankly I think part of the issue might have been that you're doing it for work. I don't know where you work so I don't want to comment on what your company is doing specifically, but I think in general for a lot of people, the idea of interacting on social media with curated corporate accounts lacks interest. Obviously this is the big question in terms of marketing on social media - how do you promote your brand while maintaining an authentic presence that people want to interact with - because when something is obviously marketing, people are trained to react to that in a certain way. I think people naturally are just unlikely to enter into a dialogue with something that's coming from a corporation.

Just A Thought, not hating

That's a good point, and I'm working hard to keep it authentic for that reason, but it's not always easy to find the balance between authentic and professional.

Absolutely! It's a really hard thing to do. It's inherently very difficult especially in a time when we're so saturated with advertisements and marketing. I think it's a problem for everyone trying to do it across the whole industry, so don't get too down on yourself about it.

I'm just saying that maybe it's a problem of advertising on social media more than a problem of conversation on the Internet in general.

I'm doing social media professionally too, and in the same boat. I'm curious, what strategies have you tried for encouraging discussion?

I've tried asking them questions relating to both our business and current events, I've asked "fun" questions, I've posted articles in hopes someone will have something to say about them... nothing.

What platform are you using?

Yeah, that's about where I am too. I've had some success on Twitter with virtual conferences--can you maybe look for one of those in your field?

Seconding the suggestion that what you're doing is work-related may be the problem. It's hard to engage people at work because, by and large, people don't like or are indifferent to their jobs. It's not a great basis for conversation.

Oh, and there's also an issue with anonymous vs non-anonymous communication that usually needs to be worked through. Can I ask what exactly you're doing, or at least for a few more specifics?

The thing about social media and engaging an audience is that you truly 110% have to love the product or business you're trying to promote. If that passion shows the fans and community can tell and will be eager to join in, but if it's just a job then it's also easy to tell and fans might not be as eager to engage.

Yeah, it definitely started going downhill waaaaaaay before tumblr hit the scene.

I think, up until the mid-00s or so, the internet (especially communities and forums for specific interests that you had to seek out intentionally) was still kind of a haven for people who were good at communicating via text. Now it kind of feels like it was, I don't know, overly streamlined or something, and now there are fewer places that revolve around one or a few common interests. So the demographics just about everywhere tend to reflect the general population, most of whom seem to prefer communicating verbally and thus find having long typed conversations... I don't know. Tedious or something?

You're absolutely right, I'm afraid. It's sad.

News and news-aggregate sites seem to get lots of comments and while part of that may be just because they have a large audience, I think part of it is that it's easy to get people to voice their opinions when the subject matter is controversial or when, by doing so, people can talk themselves up and feel superior to others. When I used to read articles on The Stir, they always ended with a direct question asking for everyone's thoughts on the subject. That was actually the reason I stopped visiting The Stir: it was really easy to get sucked into the comments section and most of the people commenting there were absolutely awful.

One thing that tends to keep me from commending is that I don't want to have to maintain accounts on every platform or sign up for and give out my email address to every website specially in order to do so. It's just not worth the trouble even if I find myself dying to say something.

They get a lot of comments, but the thing is it rarely starts a discussion - and when it does it usually devolves pretty fast.

I think you need to have extraordinary consumer/customer awareness and an infamously fun social media presence to get people to interact. People ask Taco Bell to marry them on Facebook because it's a big brand company and their social media team is on-point with the funny and the fun. People won't necessarily feel comfortable discussing stuff under a smaller company's Facebook page because it just doesn't feel like it's worth it.

Some people in comments don't even do "conversation" as much as they do "funny oneliners". If you're not inspiring funny oneliners, that's not necessarily your fault - maybe not enough of those "zinger-happy" people aren't following you.

People still like conversations, I think, but the platforms for those tend to be so goddamn rare. I do my best conversing one-on-one on skype or instant messengers of other types.

I work in social media too; I've got a degree in communications, and my coursework has let me see this type of stuff firsthand. I've definitely got the same perspective as you, but I'm going to offer a bit of an explanation that I've come across in my classes.

Humans are cognitively lazy; it's an evolutionary thing. They will pretty much do anything to minimize the amount of effort they expend in getting to the goal of their action. This pretty much applies to everything in life, but social media especially. This is also related in some way to their method of thought processing-- internal or external.

Internal processors tend to reflect on what they already think about an issue, and consider multiple sides. External processors rely on cues offered them by the sources around them (like other people's opinions, or material already provided), and go with the strongest answer provided. Now granted, pretty much everyone switches between these two, but for the most part people tend to favor one style over the other.

Which is why people won't write a comment vs. hitting a button. If the option is available, they're going to choose the easier one, especially if there's no intrinsic reward for them to expend more cognitive effort (i.e. getting money, a good grade for class, or the sense of accomplishment for having offered feedback).

I would agree that a lot of the features of social media help streamline the habit of miserly cognition. I know a lot of this is pretty much common knowledge, but there's science to back this up as well.

Unfortunately, trying to pull people away from their cognitive laziness gets them resentful. This calls back to the idea of internal vs. external processing, and people who favor external processing aren't going to enjoy being pulled in the other direction-- it provides too much cognitive dissonance for them to want to engage in easily.

People who process information internally would have less of a problem offering feedback, because they're likely thought of why the system is good or bad before, but unless they really care about the issue, even they're not going to offer comments.

So my suggestion: instead of offering a comment box to write responses, offer a short poll with ticky boxes or radio buttons. This is less cognitively taxing, but you could still get some information about usership opinion trends. Or you could do a formal survey with short answer questions and offer rewards like gift cards or cash. Just my two cents.

The only real, drwan-out conversations I have these days are in this one football forum of mine. we discuss everything pre-match, post-match, starting eleven selections, we discuss youth programs, etc etc. They're a chatty, over thinking bunch and I love them for it.

I used to do that with other fandoms in LJ, but no more.

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[ SECRET POST #2496 ]

Conversation on the internet - is it a lost art?

Re: Conversation on the internet - is it a lost art?

Re: Conversation on the internet - is it a lost art?

Re: Conversation on the internet - is it a lost art?

Re: Conversation on the internet - is it a lost art?

Re: Conversation on the internet - is it a lost art?

Re: Conversation on the internet - is it a lost art?

Re: Conversation on the internet - is it a lost art?

Re: Conversation on the internet - is it a lost art?

Re: Conversation on the internet - is it a lost art?

Re: Conversation on the internet - is it a lost art?

Re: Conversation on the internet - is it a lost art?

Re: Conversation on the internet - is it a lost art?

Re: Conversation on the internet - is it a lost art?

Re: Conversation on the internet - is it a lost art?

Re: Conversation on the internet - is it a lost art?

Re: Conversation on the internet - is it a lost art?

Re: Conversation on the internet - is it a lost art?

Re: Conversation on the internet - is it a lost art?