Reading for Oct. 29th

At first glance of the chapter on Significance, it doesn’t seem to make sense that exclusion would bring people together on a social media sites, even more so than inclusion. However, it makes complete sense with the example of the Obama campaign. Their technique of releasing information only to those who signed up as members of the online community was genius because that is exactly what draws people in; people will want to feel significant, so they will join the site in order to receive those presidential updates.

 It also makes sense that websites with exclusivity grow faster than those that allow anyone to join. The most popular social media sites, such as Facebook and Pinterest, started out with certain requirements that had to be met before joining. With Facebook, one had to be attending a college or university, so initially Facebook was a site that excluded anyone who was not in either institution. It grew quickly because college students felt significant in having their own form of social media that allowed communication amongst their peers. However, Facebook has grown tremendously to where anyone can join; you no longer have to be in a college or university. Facebook remains so popular all because of how it started out. Even though almost anyone can now join, the site still contains some exclusivity with the different groups and pages that are available to users. People can join and “like” pages, and after doing so, they will receive information and updates about those different organizations that no one else would have access to unless they were part of the group as well.

Pinterest also used a similar technique when it first launched. The site used to be invitation-only, but has recently granted access to anyone who wishes to join. Having to receive an invitation before joining is what made users feel significant to the community because they were specifically chosen to join. This allowed Pinterest to grow quickly because any member could invite anyone to join, so the word got out pretty fast, and users were tempted to join because of the presence of exclusivity.

All of the components of RIBS are crucial in maintaining a successful, long-living, and continuously growing social media site, but significance is one of the most important in my opinion. If users do not feel that they are important to the online community and are granted access to exclusive information, then they will not be persuaded to join the sites; a lack of exclusivity is one of the main reasons why most sites, such as Friendster, do not last.

Reading for Oct. 8

                The chapter, “Simple,” in Made to Stick makes a lot of sense when it explains how important it is to get the core message across when delivering any type of information. For the army, the Commander’s Intent is the most crucial message for soldiers because you can never know what the enemy will actually do. The only thing you can focus on is your mission, and that makes it simpler to carry out a plan. Simplicity is what people want. They want to get straight answers when they’re searching for information. I really like the part of the chapter that explains the upside down pyramid structure when it comes to news articles. When people read the news, they don’t want to read details upon details before they know what the story is really about. Having that initial lead is what really draws the readers in. Once they know the core idea of the story, they are more interested in actually reading the story from most important detail to least important detail.

                The importance of catering to what the audience wants is seen again in the chapter, “Unexpected.” On page 64, it is noted that people say, “You can’t make people pay attention.” However, as it discusses further, you can come up with ways to attract the attention of others, so in a way, you ARE making them pay attention. Once you break convention, you shock the listener and create curiosity (as the flight attendant does), which enables the audience to pay attention.  However, we can’t rely solely on surprise. After the initial shock, you must keep the listener tuned in by creating interest. For the flight attendant, she kept people’s interest by continuing to shock them. They probably didn’t know that she would use a car example for teaching how to put on a seatbelt, and they didn’t know she’d use a song reference for explaining that there are 6 exits on the plane. Her last sentence about the disco lights on the floor was another shock to leave the audience on a humorous note. She kept the audience interested the entire time, which is usually difficult when delivering information about safety precautions.

               This was a simple technique for the flight attendant because her announcement was short. There are other methods for keeping audiences interested when the information is put into a longer text. The example of the text on the rings of Saturn shows how creating a mystery for the audience is a good way to keep them reading. The author continuously asked questions, which got the reader thinking and wanting to know what the answers to those questions were. I think it’s always a great idea to start any text with a question because it immediately gets the reader’s attention if that question involves something they’re interested in.