How the internet is killing off silent letters

 I'm Melting, I'm Melting

Words seem to just be shriveling away on the internet - about to disappear with nary a trace. #MAYBEANOVERSTATEMENT - the internet if anything is now the largest evolving machine for words in human history.  As you may have heard, the world wide web serves to speed up both comm and miscomm -unication. The compounded action of layers of (mis)communication has forced our language to evolve at much faster rate.

inguist David Crystal has made a study of the word Rhubarb - by googling both the word "Rhubarb" and "Rubarb". At first the amount of results returned for the correct spelling, with that sneaky little silent H, far outnumbered the incorrect spelling - this however is no longer the case. Now google search results point to the fact that rubarb s catching up and will most likely overtake the correct spelling in around 50 years. With English grammar and spelling not living under the dictatorial command of a Académie française organization, who is here to stop such a change? 

While that seldom used veggie (that honestly no one knows how to prepare besides in certain famous pie recipes) may seem of no importance - other words might strike your attention, even your indignation.  

Receipt - Receit

Necessary - Necesary 

Scene - Sene

Mnemonics - Nemonics

Knife - Nife

Not so insignificant anymore, hunh?

“should OF, would OF, and could OF.....it’s should HAVE, would HAVE, and could HAVE”

— Said No One on the Internet Ever

Social Engagement Practices & Impression Measurements

In this article Mathew talks about the connection between social engagement practices and measuring impressions - a now "old school" measuring tool, which is hard to apply to social media. 

His basic social arithmetic argument goes thusly:​

• 50,000 low quality fans ​x a social distance of 1 (they are low quality, not loyal and don't share content) = ​50,000
• 1,000 high quality fans x a social distance of 150 (​they are high quality, so they enjoy the brand story and report to their social network) = 150,000

His argument holds water - it is always better to have committed fans - this is true I think across any medium ​- ardent fans are ardent fans anywhere (who doesn't like them?). 

I just talked about this subject today

Mean Girls & Sociometry (The Study of Popularity in Social Media)

Sociometry

This field is very interesting, you could call it - the study of social relationships, the study of social connections or even the study of popularity.

In my work, I've used these theories and practices to solve the question: How do you measure popularity (which is much more tricky than it seems) . In Sociology, there has been many attempts to quantify social popularity - but first, how do you define it?

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Perceived Popularity

This type of popularity is made most famous by the movie Mean Girls. Famously in the movie, a click of mean popular girls control a high school as social dictators. Studies show, however, that this type of popularity is only perceived and does not always correlate to like-ability or with the ability to positively influence others. In the movie, the downfall of the "mean girls"  demonstrates the true irony of their 'conventional high school popularity'.

Sociometric Popularity

On the other hand, sociometric popularity refers to individuals who are socially agreeable and well liked. Individuals who are sociometrically popular are usually outgoing and good at building trust amongst individuals. Importantly, these individuals may not always be identified as "popular" - in the sense of being "famous" (or in the Mean Girls sense of "infamous").

Which popular do social marketers want?

I would argue that social strategists should focus on the second type - sociometric popularity - true like ability. In digital marketing we have to be ok with shedding the mantel of  "fame" or perceived popularity, for true popularity - which is not always initially as visible.

This means a Facebook page with 1,000 likes (sociometric popularity) should not always be jealous of Facebook pages with 10+ million likes (perceived popularity) - numbers don't always point to true popularity - as we have seen in the movie Mean Girls . 

Instead, focus on building that small ardent fan base. If you have built trust and rapport with your social followers - your ability to truly engage, persuade and reach has exponentially grown. 

Want to learn more about this subject - the book Networks, Crowds and Markets is a very thorough (although very technical and highly text-booky) overview of this entire subject. You should give it a look-see if you're interested.

Networks, Crowds, and Markets: Reasoning About a Highly Connected World

By David Easley, Jon Kleinberg

The Psychology of Persuasion: Social Media Story Telling

YES! This article talks about the use of storytelling and narrative to persuade and convince people. This is exactly what I am talking about - and I  therefore completely agree. The egyptians mastered this technique - capturing our imaginations with myths and stories of the devine. 

​The story of Osiris -  A 3,000BC social media tactic?

What's even MORE surprising  - the structure they lay out in the slideshare article has remained relatively unchanged. 

• A Hero to drive the action
• An Antagonist to challenge
• A movement of awareness or enlightenment 
• and finally transformation. 

You don't have to follow this structure (but it would be fun to try to fit this character arch into - say - GE's brand story - very entertaining indeed), however the classics have always worked and will always work for a good reason!