Re-interpreting the Social Media Dream

Illusions of Empowerment Re-interpreting the Social Media Dream

Corinne Weisgerber, Ph.D.Associate Professor of CommunicationSt. Edward’s University, Austin, Texas

corinnew@stedwards.eduTwitter : @corinnew

Can anyone hear me?

The Social Media Hero StoryDave Carroll vs. United

The Social Media Hero StoryVincent Ferrari vs. AOL

Dell Hell StoryJeff Jarvis vs. DELL

184Million Blogs

hours of Videos72

every Minute

Million Tweets400Sent each Day

Voice Paradoxthe more people become empowered and claim their voices through social media participation, the more drowned out individual voices become

Voice Paradoxthe more people become empowered and claim their voices through social media participation, the more drowned out individual voices become

.3%Reach More than 10,000

Views in one month

65%: 50 views

You have better odds playing the lottery than of becoming a viral video sensation

Visibility Work

Uses algorithm to determine results

Google PageRank: interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. Looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important".

Google Search:

Black Hat SEO Organic SEOBlack Hat SEO

• deceptive • link schemes

• JC Penney example

• legitimate• optimize keywords• optimize titles & tags• optimize meta tags• attract links with

good web content

The penalty for getting caught is a pair of virtual concrete shoes: the company sinks in Google’s results ”

“

- New York Times

The penalty for getting caught is a pair of virtual concrete shoes: the company sinks in Google’s results ”

“

- New York Times

1. Narrow your topic2. Identify keywords3. Integrate keywords into:

•titles/headlines•meta tags•blog tags

Optimizing blogs

Engagement Work

Two-way communication

1. Narrow your topic2. Identify keywords3. Integrate keywords into:

• titles/headlines• meta tags• blog tags

visib

ility

wor

ken

gage

men

t w

ork

4. Attract links by:• publishing frequently• publishing valuable info• actively engaging others

• growing competition in an attention-economy

• slim odds of standing out amidst millions of competing voices

• specialized technical knowledge required to achieve visibility

• time demands of visibility and engagement work

HURDLESto social media empowerment

DIGITalIDEDIV

A New

DIGI TalIDEDIV

A NewGrowing gap between social media power users and social media dabblers

Copy of this paper:http://socialmediaprclass.pbworks.com/w/file/

64603833/Empowerment.pdf

Corinne Weisgerber, Ph.D.Associate Prof. of Communication St. Edward’s University@corinnew

Credits: