Frontline did a program ed tech types should make certain they view and share. The program features Douglas Rushkopf (Program or Be Programmed) and his analysis of the "social currency" of social media. He proposes that teens are competing for "Likes".
My first thought as a bloggers was that this is not limited to teens
because I do pay some attention to the hits my blogs generate.
What
does it take to generate "likes"? Association with popular "pop
culture" is a way to generate "likes"? I see it as the opposite of using
famous people in your ads. Instead of the image of famous people
rubbing off on a product, you have the popularity of a product rubbing
off on unknown people. It works out will for all parties - free
advertising and a way to attract attention.
The
process of generating attention has lessons you can see played out
elsewhere. Check out the process by which "liked" individuals begin to
collaborate in order to magnify their popularity. You see a similar
phenomenon with what I like describe as the "I used to be a teacher,
administrator, librarian" types who now move from ed conference to
conference as paid presenters. Check them on Twitter or whatever social
platform you choose and note the frequency with which they mention each
other. There seems to be no content value in these mentions (kind of
like a "like") in that there is no information to be considered, but
such mentions give followers clues as to who the cool people think are
cool.
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