The Most Negative Channel

Simply put, we love to gripe. It’s just part of our human condition it would seem. Complaining, venting, whinging, whining…whatever you want to call it. When it comes to social media channels, well, in our research, we see a lot of this negative content. But where do we gripe the most? Online newspaper sites.

Last year we did some research into comments left on newspaper sites. We had delved into over 150,000 comments across 38,000 or so articles. So recently, we decided to look into finding out the most “negative” of social media channels. We took our comment research then looked at 2,500 Facebook fan pages, 1,500 Twitter hashtag topics (ranging from products to services) and the same in Identi.ca and then 1,800 newsgroups and forums.

While plenty of griping can take place in any channel, online newspapers showed 87% overall to have the most negative comments on issues and stories. Channels like microblogs don’t allow for much “discussion” with 140 characters, but often reference articles with extensive commentary.

Why newspapers as “Gripe Central” then? Perhaps because you can say more, perhaps it is more topically focused. In blog posts and newsgroups we noted in prior research that people tend to go “off topic” fairly quickly (less so with blogs where 92.4% of the time they stay focused, but newsgroups digress faster) but comments on newspaper articles stay more topically focused (98.5% of the time). What do you think?

Reading comments on newspaper articles can help “frame” value sets and citizen perceptions (once one excludes those just ranting without adding value or propagating a position or astroturfing) and get a sense of the broader issues. But sadly, it would seem we prefer to gripe. This research reflects US, Canadian and British citizens.

(Author: G. Crouch)

Will Smart Phones Propel Social Media?

Smart Phones, lead by the latest iPhone 3G launch, have moved beyond the bane of just business and government users now. The iPhone and BlackBerry Curve have made massive strides into the consumer markets. Looking through the available apps for the iPhone, this becomes crystal clear. Most notable are all the Social Media apps for the iPhone.

Key to market adoption and use of any technology are the underlying applications. The applications must provide a clear value proposition and deliver a benefit that is either qualitative or quantitative. BlackBerry has proven this with it’s email capability (still far better than the iPhone.) Now it’s iPhone’s turn with Social Media and Web browsing far superior to BlackBerry or even a Windows Mobile Device.

From your iPhone or Touch you can access all the major Social Networks, post entries to your blog and micro-blog and share photos or websites. People are using them, and this is just the beginning. If those in the Social Media business were evangelizing the need for business and government to join in the conversation taking place, then this may be the most compelling reason so far. As a peer of mine, Carmen Pirie has said “the conversation is going on with or without you…so you might as well help shape it.” Astute words.

The Key Point of Difference – Access & Availability
Prior to Smart Phones, a person had to fire up their laptop in a connected location or sit at their PC at home or work. This creates a barrier to usage patterns since the individual must take a pre-planned path before being able to share their thoughts or opinions; access and availability were a primary issue. Not anymore.

Our estimation is that this will lead to;

- More but shorter conversations on isses or “micro-conversations”
- Rapid changes in a story or conversation thread, making it harder to “shape”
- Increased speed of public opinion in Social Media on major issues
- Significant challenges for PR agencies and firms in crisis situations
- Increased viral spread of both positive and negative issues
- A change in societal behaviour and communication patterns
- Potentially new opportunities for Traditional Media (if they move fast)

Likely, these are just the surface of the changes that will occur. The adoption of the devices is clear, Social Media continues to grow in consumer use. What other changes do you think might occur? Could this impact government as well as business? How about localization of Social Media?

The Web Changed Your Newspaper. Did You Notice?

Understatement of the month is that Traditional Media is changing. What’s interesting is how those changes are coming about; some subtle, some less so. Newspaper readership is declining constantly, and the ad dollars needed to keep it going as well. Yet there are more magazines and books than ever before being published. This is a bit of a dichotomy. Perhaps it’s good to look at “how” the Web has impacted changes in newspapers and magazines.

The newspaper as we’ve known it will never be the same. Nor will magazines. But they will likely survive for many years to come. What’s changing is the formatting of these traditional publications and how they are becoming more integrated with Social and New Media. Take for instance the NY Times. Last year they implemented summaries of the stories in the paper in the first couple of pages – so you don’t have to read the whole paper. Magazines have increased the number of sections with “shorts” – quick information perhaps with an associated picture – and less long articles. Some publications like Atlantic, Harpers or the Economist continue to have in-depth articles, but this is also relevant to the audience – and the story is always carried over onto the Web.

We do very little long reading while on the Web. In considering this blog post (an abstract of our soon to be released eBook, The Conversant Corporation) I’ve had to write in summary form. Web reading is a skimming behaviour, the shorter the content the better. Reading on the Web is typically a skimming style because we plant links in stories and a reader may quickly go off on a tangent, skimming yet other stories?

Author Nick Carr (The Big Switch) has pointed out in his article Is Google Making Us Stoopid that our reading style on the Web is changing how we read books as well. Our attention span is shortening and we want things in clips – the deeper material and answers are always available on Google or Yahoo! at the tip of our fingers. This is a hallmark of the 90-Second-Economy.

Many newspapers have websites, and with them is the ability for the public to blog and comment on articles. The stories are extended on the Web. Even traditional television news extends the stories on the Website. Watch a TV documentary and a website address will be displayed for more information on the story.

This anecdotal evidence shows us that the Web is having an enormous impact on Traditional Media. They are re-formatting their content to reflect the reading style of the Web. This concious shift is subtle, yet remarkable…what does this mean for how magazines and newspapers will be read in the future?