What is Social Media and Web 2.0?
By Julie Szabo and Darren Barefoot
Over the past half decade, the internet has changed fundamentally. In the twentieth century, the web was largely an informational medium. Web users sought information, and, if they were lucky, the web provided. It was relatively difficult to publish a website, and required serious resources and technical acumen to publish audio and video.
At the same time, investors earned and lost billions of dollars on dot-com companies. E-commerce sites for every product and service imaginable emerged and failed. The bubble grew and grew and, in 2000, burst.
A new web is emerging from the soapy remains of that bubble. Technologists have many names for it: the semantic web, the read/write web, Web 2.0 and so forth.
What’s driving this second generation web? The convergence of a number of phenomenon:
- Home-based broadband internet access increases dramatically.
- Web publishing tools evolve, simplifying the process of creating a website.
- Consumer electronics — PCs, video cameras, MP3 players — drop in price and size and get easier to use.
- Web technology improves, greatly expanding the possibilities of online applications.
- Distrust of and cynicism for the mainstream media increases, particularly among young people.
The explosion of weblogs across the web was one of the first indicators of the changing face of the web.
A Many to Many World
For most of human history, we experienced few-to-few communication. Interactions took the form of telling stories around a campfire or jokes at a public house. One or a few people spoke, and one or a few people listened.
Then along came the printing press, radio and television, and we entered the world of few-to-many. A few people — publishers, radio hosts and TV producers—are able to broadcast their stories to millions of people. This change engendered enormous social changes, and enabled incredible shifts in humanity’s lifestyle and livelihood.
The broadcast power of the media has become immense and omnipresent. This applies not only to news journalism, but all of radio, television and film. For most of the twentieth century, most people with televisions watched the same thing at the same time. If I Love Lucy was on the night before, everyone had seen the episode, and could engage in that water cooler conversation the next morning.
Thanks to the web and media expansion, we now live in a many-to-many world. To paraphrase Bruce Springsteen, there are 57 million channels (and nothing on). The average citizen now has the tools to share their story — whether that be fact or fiction, and whether it be in text, photos, sound and video — with the world. This sea change represents a profound shift in the way humans gather and distribute information, and will shape the way stories are told and history is written in the 21st century.
Text, Sounds and Moving Pictures
Weblogs, of course, are easy-to-use, frequently-updated websites, usually featuring the unedited voice of an individual or company. They’re typically comprised of short entries listed in chronological order, with the newest items at the top of the page. As the writer or 'blogger' posts new entries, old ones get pushed down the page. Hence, the combination of 'web' and 'log'.
Five years ago, nobody cared about weblogs. Today, there are 50 million blogs. In roughly six months, there will probably be about 100 million—that’s how long it takes the blogosphere (the silly, collective name for all weblogs) to double. Bloggers write about 1.6 million new blog posts each day, or about 65,000 per hour.
There are 50 million new voices on the web. Is anybody reading them? Without question. In August, 2005, Nielsen/NetRatings reported that roughly 20% of Internet users regularly read blogs. The most popular blogs receive more than 300,000 unique visitors per day.
In the past eighteen months, the average person has gained access to new mediums: audio and video. Podcasting combines blogging technologies with audio or video programs, enabling the online distribution of ‘rich media’ content—both homemade and commercially-produced. To some degree, podcasts are doing to radio and television what blogs did to the newspaper; they’re adding another layer of voices to the media conversation.
Today’s children and teenagers are multi-mediums. They happily switch from their MySpace blog to instant messenger to their cell phone to their web cam without hesitation. Thanks to low-cost, ubiquitous tools, they are rapidly becoming as literate with audio and video as previous generations have been with text.
That shift in attention is resulting in declining newspaper readership and TV viewership among young people. Jay Rosen calls this new generation of content creators “the people formerly known as the audience.”
They’re listening to each other, and having conversations. A critical aspect of the web in 2006 is two-way communications between creators and consumers. Whether it’s a comment thread on a blog, or a video reply to a popular YouTube posting, the web has moved from the pulpit to the pub. There’s an old internet maxim: if you don’t provide a place for people to talk, they’ll leave and make their own. And they probably won’t come back.
This diagram shows the media and information that a Web 2.0-savvy netizen might publish, and the locations to which they might publish. The blue might also represent their blogs, as they publish information and integrate it back into their digital home.
Social Media in Action
So, now you’ve got a good grip on what podcasting, blogs and other social media tools are, but how can you put them to work for you and your cause? Here are three examples of social media in action for not-for-profit projects:
Want to Change Everything?
The website www.changeeverything.ca is sponsored by community-conscious VanCity Credit Union. Inspired by www.43things.com, VanCity launched a blog network in August for folks working towards positive change for themselves and their communities. Users sign-up for a free blog on www.changeeverything.ca and create a list of personal changes they want to make. Participants use their blogs to track progress, ask community members for help and share personal experiences.
In the last month, ChangeEverything bloggers have vowed to become more physically active, to talk to their neighbours, to raise money for charities and to help save 200 kilometres of coastline in Guimaras that’s being threatened by an oil spill. The site is an example of how the internet connects people with similar interests and goals who otherwise may never have met. For example, a ChangeEverything blogger wanting to swap his car for more environmentally-sound transport received a comment and invitation from a reader who runs a free, one-day program for the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition on what people need to know about using bikes for daily transportation. Using a blog network to reach people in your community with the same goals and interests can be an effective way to mobilize action for your cause.
The Play’s the Thing
When we ran a not-for-profit theatre company some years ago it was difficult to scrape together enough of a budget to effectively promote our shows. Advertising was often too costly so we relied entirely on local media attention to get patrons in seats. That was before the blogger revolution. This month we produced “Bolloxed”, a play that Darren wrote for the Victoria and Vancouver Fringe Festivals. We added ‘blogger relations’ to our marketing arsenal.
In an effort to generate online attention for the Fringe play, Darren created the blog www.thisplayisbolloxed.com. We gave local, high-profile bloggers media passes on opening night. More than a dozen reviews appeared online within 24 hours, generating effective online buzz for the production.
Blogger relations is akin to media relations. Any good publicist will tell you the key to getting media coverage is to learn about the journalists in your industry and offer them story ideas that will spark their interest. Ditto for bloggers.
Pitching bloggers is riskier than pitching journalists because bloggers don’t answer to editors and aren’t obliged to treat your story with journalistic integrity. That said, there are a number of benefits to getting your story published on a blog:
- Increasingly, stories 'bubble up' from the blogosphere into the mainstream media
- Unlike a newspaper that’s here today and gone tomorrow, blog entries are archived online and can be found by readers for months, even years
- The more links that point to your website, the higher your site will appear in search engines. In other words, when bloggers link to your website, it helps increase your online visibility
Clearing the Climate Change Air
Many non-profit organizations are committed to delivering information about their causes to the public. The David Suzuki Foundation raises environmental awareness. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) raises animal rights awareness. Creative City acts as a hub for information about urban culture. The DeSmogBlog, run by James Hoggan & Associates, is an example of how a blog can be used to successfully deliver information over the Internet. www.desmogblog.com is devoted to posting accurate and compelling information about climate change, aka global warming.
Unlike quarterly newsletters or costly mailouts, a weblog can be updated daily with newsworthy and relevant stories that make for immediate, compelling content. Blogs also offer a platform for debate. Lively debate within posts and comments draw in more readers and can go a long way in proving your point. DeSmogBlog does a good job of using up-to-the-minute content and online debate to convince readers about the scientific reality of climate change.
Want to Learn More?
This is just a taste of how social media is changing the way people interrelate online and off. If you want to learn more about the technologies and philosophies of Web 2.0, try the following resources:
- The Wikipedia entry on Web 2.0: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0
- Paul Graham’s essay on Web 2.0: www.paulgraham.com/web20.html
- Steve Rubel’s social media weblog: www.micropersuasion.com/
- Capulet’s online marketing weblog: www.capulet.com/weblog
Darren and Julie are partners at Capulet Communications, a PR and marketing company that specializes in online marketing for technology companies. They help to organize the Northern Voice conference each year, and have sat on the boards of the Vancouver Fringe Festival and Theatre Tart.
