In class we were tasked with the challenge of determining 5 things that makes media spreadable. When looking to find solutions I began to think about the content of things that are commonly shared on my social media accounts and why. In order to figure this out i immediately grabbed my phone, logged on to Facebook, and then scrolled through my wall post to find the latest post that i shared. Seeing the type of content shared on my page throughout the week made my mind race at how little thought it takes to share a post. What was also startling is how short of a memory i have as to what type of content i posted. The reason being is sharing various post or videos means that you have some sort of connection with what is being talked about in it. This made my mind race even more as i attempted to figure out why this last post was important enough for me to share to my timeline. Here's a look.
So why? Why did i share this post to my timeline. What made this post spreadable? As i looked at stared studying the post in it's entirety the answers began to start flooding in. The reason that this post was spreadable is due to the 5 key things that, in my opinion, make social media spreadable.
1. Accessibility
The post is located in a place that is visible and easy to access. There is no need to click on a link and load another page to view the video because it is open and already playing for you. The social media outlet that this video was created by know how to use their resources, seeing that they shared their content to facebook. Videos shared to a persons timeline on facebook is easily viewed because it is open and already playing once visible on the screen of any user. This immediately catches the eye of the user and they are then trapped in the video. If i become stuck watching your video chances are it will interest me enough for me want to share it with my followers and friends. With the this video being open, laying, and containing a link to the original page of the social media outlet i was able to share it, then gain access to their other content as well. As i scrolled through my timeline the i was then drawn to reading the brief explanation located just at the bottom of the page which brings me to my next idea of what makes social media spreadable.
2. Be short and sweet, but make them beg for more.
While it is easy to notice a random video playing on your timeline, it is just as easy to scroll past it looking for other content that you fine more entertaining or valuable. This is why the content must give a teaser of what the initial post, video, blog, etc, is about. It wasn't the video itself what made me want to click on the volume and start the video over. It was what the brief stated which was, "The U.S.-Mexico border opened for 3 minutes – and what happened after will move you to tears." It took only one sentence to make me invested in what this video had to offer as I'm sure it did for the other 33 million viewers. Was this video truly going to bring anyone to tears? Maybe not but with human beings being empathetic for one another it more than likely appealed to our emotions. The brief sentence left just enough mystery to make the user want to view the video. You have to look at this sentence as if it's a movie trailer and not like the bad ones that basically summarize the movie. In a blog post written by "Guy Kawasaki" he stated, "I’ve never seen a post that was too short. Most posts are too long. Obviously Twitter has a 140-character limit, but posts for other platforms should be three to five sentences long. If you want to go longer, write a blog post and use social media to drive people to it. You have a few seconds to capture people’s attention—think Tinder, not eHarmony. I definitely agree seeing that every facebook post on my timeline that exceeds more than 3 sentences usually gets overlooked due to my dislike of reading. No one wants to read a novel about a video and no one wants to pay $8 for a movie that they already saw in the trailers. This social media outlet does an amazing job of making the users beg for more which is why their views are so high.
3. Daring and Bold
The title speaks for itself. In today's society our freedom of speech tends to be restricted due to cultural literacy. We are taught what can and cannot be said in specific places because of the context in which our words might be taken. For whatever reason many people tend to look at social media as a healthy alternative to express their racial thoughts that they must bottle in everyday society. Just kidding but not really. Creating blogs, facebook post, twitter accounts, and yikyak's allows the opportunity to speak your mind. For a more positive outlook it also allows the opportunity to be creative, be heard, speak on many issues that others are too afraid to. This video in particular spoke about a program that allowed families that are divided but the U.S and Mexico boarder to unite for 3 minutes in the Rio Grande river. I consider this video to be daring and bold simply because there are many people within the united states who are for more strict immigration laws and techniques. A program like this one called, "Hugs Not Walls" won't be favored by individuals who criminalize illegal immigrates while others who support immigration reform in favor of illegal immigrates will support a cause like such. Personally i can empathize with people who participated in this program because being separated from your family by a wall must be awful. This post sends the type of controversial message that creates a chain reaction of re-posting and debates. Daring and Bold content creates shareable media.
4. Tractability
You have to look at pushing your content kind of like aspiring music artist look and getting their music noticed. By creating alot of content and pushing it through numerous outlets you will be able to create a name for yourself. What makes content spreadable is if someone is able to see your work, recognize it belongs to you, and can trace it back to a place that contains the rest of your work. In this video you are able to tell who the creator of the content is due to the logo of the social media outlet being present and the top right hand corner throughout the duration of the video. You are also given the link to the actual "Now This" website which gives you and opportunity to save and share the link or look for more content. To tie this back into being the spreadability of the video most people are familiar with videos created by "Now This" because their logo is stamped on all of there videos. By doing this they are making sure the user can recognize their content and track it back to their very own site.
5. Relevance
As stated in chapter 5 of "Spreadable Media", "Content that appeals to more than one target audience , both intended and surplus audiences, has a greater meaning as spreadable media." I can agree with this because if the content being pushed have some sort of relevance to a current event of something going on in society it will more than likely get shared by users. With immigration reform being a topic of discussion in the debates I felt the need to share this video to shed a bit of light on the subject. The video being relevant to the election made it spreadable.
Of all the things that one could argue i find these to be top 5 things that make media spreadable. This is not to say that my thoughts our correct, but this is just an opinion. Let me know how you feel in the comments section.
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