I was reading this article about Social Proof. How people assume the social behavior of a crowd in ambiguous situations when people are finding their way around. The so-called herd mentality or the rage of mobs. History has time and again shown us examples of this and sometimes in quite ghastly ways. the mob lynching is a prime example. And not really relegated to history and an occurrence even today.
This is the premise on which social media rests. Not the ghastly bit but the mentality. Me too, let me be there too, let me not miss the bandwagon phenomena. The content seems immaterial. All too often, it is the presence. Like a ‘no-show’ would mean social castration or something similar is what prompts folks to hit that register button, frantically upload pics and market their stuff. The corporate bandwagon does not lag far behind.
i’ve said this before – in a b2c scenario, it makes perfect sense to have a presence on Second Life and do all that collaborative marketing stuff, but in a b2b scenario, a more private network with very niche requirements for engagement have to be worked on, and not to mention understanding and mapping onto the technographic profile of the end users…
The wisdom of the crowds is a phenomenon. A phase.
