Awed, confused, surprised.

social media

Social media and it's services are like living organisms. They evolve. Users of these services also evolve and their ways using them change all the time.

My complicated definition: Social media are relatively easily accessible, mostly highly modifiable and scalable Internet based tools, which content is created and/or modified by the users of these tools. My easy definition: Social media are communication.

Why do we share on social media

When you ask how to get folks to share your blog posts, ReTweet your Tweets, pin your pics and so forth, you are asking the wrong question. It's not about how, it's about why.

What you really need to ask is why would someone share, Tweet or pin this. In most cases there's a simple answer to that.

As awful as it sounds it's the truth: The foremost reason for people to share things on social media is selfishness. Give some, get some.

That means sharing is actually very often wanting something. Below is listed a couple of things people want when they share.

Attention

The first reason for everyone to share any content, blog, Tweet, answer questions on Quora or what ever we are doing online is to get noticed. Get attention, show off and get validation.

Sharing is a way to get that attention. You don't get only the attention from those who you share with, but also from the person whose content you shared. And all the attention is good.

Perks

In some cases sharing can lead to stuff. I mean those occasions when the sharer gets things, perks, sales and such for sharing something.

Sharing may be part of a giveaway or a contest. Or it's one of those things where you can "buy" something by Tweeting about it.

Recognition of expertise

Us humans have a strange affection: Wanting to be "someone". Internet provides a great way to show skills and get recognition of some sort.

Sharing content on social media has begun a way to show your expertise on certain subjects. If you are a marketer, you might share marketing related articles. In the case you are a selfmade handcrafted Etsy seller, you are likely to share content about handmade stuff and making sales on Etsy.

Sharing content by others is a way to say: "This is my domain. Look, I read stuff about this subject. Therefore I must know something about it too."

How to utilize this?

When you want your content to be shared, you need to think what the person sharing gets from it. Do they get attention, and if so, who's attention are they getting? Do they get stuff, participate on a competition or have a chance of getting something later? Do they get recognition of their expertise?

Find what makes it profitable for the person sharing your content. As stated above it's often something else than what money can buy.

Photo by Sean McGrath under Creative Commons license.

Suomeksi (In Finnish):

Jos kysyt miten saat jengin jakamaan bloggauksiasi, Twitter viestejäsi, Pinterest kuvia ja niin edelleen, kysymyksesi on ihan väärä. Kyse ei ole siitä miten, vaan miksi. Miksi joku jakaisi juuri tämän jutun? Useinmiten vastaus on yksinkertainen. Todennäköisin syy jakamiseen sosiaalisessa mediassa on kaikessa kurjuudessaan itsekkyys. Usein kyse on siitä, että jakaja haluaa jotakin. Oli se sitten huomion hakemista, tavaraa tai henkilökohtaisen asiantuntijuuden tunnistamista, kyse on siitä, millaista hyötyä sisältösi jakamisesta saa. Mikä tekee sisältösi jakamisesta tuottoisaa sen jakajalle? Kuten saatat huomata listaamistani asioista, useinkaan ei ole kyse konkreettisesta tai rahallisesta tuotosta.

1 reply | December 9, 2012 - 04:05 |

Twitter Tuesday: Writing and writers

Writing (fiction) on Twitter is an idea that has fascinated me almost ever since I joined the service. I hadn't tried it before myself, but a little over a week ago I started to write a Twitter fiction. It's fun.

Although the length of writing is limited and photo and video sharing is growing online, the main content of Tweets is still written text. Writing skills help getting interest for your Tweets. On the other hand because of this Twitter as a writing platform or for supporting your writing efforts or marketing them makes sense.

There's lots of different sort of fiction available on Twitter. There are parody accounts for real people and real or already ended television shows. There are accounts that are set to support the story telling of a television show or some other, non-web-based story telling. And there are one Tweet long fiction or continuing stories (like mine).

Some use Twitter to continuously giving short tips around a subject, which could be seen as non-fictional writing. These sort of Tweets differ usually from other shared content and personal or more general Tweeting.

Different types of writers are also finding Twitter for their marketing efforts. Paulo Coelho is an easy example. He realized very early on the potential of social media for a writer.

Besides the novelists, bloggers are obviously very keen to use Twitter to promote their blog posts. Journalists are getting on with Tweeting as we speak and magazines and newspapers are roaming to Twitter.

I recommend any sort of writers to join Twitter and start writing away. The short format may seem limiting, but it has it's advantages: For instance it's a great way to learn to shorten and "compress" your writing.

Photo by Nic McPhee under Creative Commons license.

Follow @tasselflower

1 reply | December 4, 2012 - 17:18 |

Of Christmas and the Weekly Wrapup

Toni likes Christmas. He likes the songs, the television show specials, the lights and most of it. Each year he wants to play the Christmas music, watch Die Hard and put the lights on the window.

I'm not that into it. I mean, I don't hate most parts, and the lights are quite okay in this terrible darkness. Christmas songs mostly eat my guts, although the jazzy oldies are cool. But I'm not as enthusiastic about it.

Around here the midwinter celebrations are a funny mix of Christmas and the very old, Yule based stuff from the time of paganism. The Christmas here is called actually Joulu, which is an etymological equivalent for Yule.

Midwinter is the darkest time of the year and the old folks had celebrated it to lure the light back. Sometimes it feels we still do that.

Of course every year the Christmas is more and more commercial and seems to start earlier and earlier. People stress for the gifts and the foods and seeing relatives. It's not pretty. Nor it's very peaceful.

Nevertheless, now it's December and Christmas is on the way. The lights are set and lit, the music is on and I'm waiting when Die Hard is going to be watched once again. (Now he's going to say I'm complaining about it. I'm not. It's just funny.)

Speaking of December: Did you get your simple printable and desktop wallpaper caledar already?

Last week on the tasselflower blog (eg. Weekly Wrapup)

Twitter Tuesday: Did you know these things about Twitter? - "There's world outside your Twitter circles, Twitter and your country."
Free printable and desktop calendar for December 2012 - "As promised last month here's the FREE printable December 2012 calendar for You!"
Instagram keeps censoring hashtags - "While Instagram keeps censoring random words, be very careful."
Show a DETAIL on the Instagram challenge #weekwtass - "The challenge is open for all, so don't hesitate to drop your details to the pool."

Suomeksi (In Finnish):

Toni tykkää joulusta. Hän tykkää joululauluista, televisio sarjojen jouluspesiaaleista, valoista ja melkein kaikesta. En ole niin innostunut joulusta. En siis vihaa suurinta osaa siihen liittyvistä jutuista, mutta en vain ole niin kauhean innostunut siitä. Lisävalot ovat ihan jees tässä karmivassa pimeydessä. Joka vuosi joulu on enemmän ja enemmän kaupallinen ja joka vuosi se tuntuu alkavan aikaisemmin. Porukka stressaa lahjoista ja ruuista ja sukulaisten näkemisestä. Se ei ole nättiä. Eikä kovin rauhallistakaan. Joka tapauksessa nyt on joulukuu ja joulu on tulossa. Valot on ripustettu ja laitettu päälle ja odotan koska katsotaan taas Die Hard. Yllä myös viime viikon tapahtumat tässä blogissa.

0 replies | December 3, 2012 - 17:46 |

Instagram keeps censoring hashtags

In late September Instagram did a dirty trick of censoring non-offensive and popular hashtags. The censorship didn't last very long, as the huge mistake was noticed: Hashtags that got censored included such "offensive" words as grass, cassette, glass and even classroom. This was based on the fact that said words included the word ass as part of them.

Since the mistake was fixed things got back to normal. Or not.

The censorship continues

Recently I was struggling to get a photo to show on certain tag pools. I added a bunch of appropriate tags to the photo, but it didn't seem to show up anywhere. Until I realized what was wrong.

One of the tags I used was wet. Apparently the Instagram folks have muddy minds since the only wet they can think about has to do with (I'm guessing here) female genitalia. My photo didn't include any anatomy, it was a photo of a reflection on a wet street. And because I had included this very offensive tag to the list of hashtags, none of them worked.

The hashtag censoring is one of Instagram's answers to their spam and other misuse problems. Like any other Internet based service that allows it's users to create content, it's also being flooded with unsolicited advertisement, porn and other material deemed offensive.

Instagram has reportedly started to disable accounts that have used any urls on their comments. For instance if you mention your own website or Facebook page (which is rather funny considering that IG is now FB owned) on your captions or comments, you may get blocked from using Instagram for good.

It does more harm than helps

Unfortunately none of their silly methods help. Each time an automated of semi-automated way to clean Instagram from offensive and spammy material, the trolls come up with other means to harass everyone else.

They don't add urls to their comments anymore, but mention an account, which then has the link to the sites they are trying to get us check. They don't use the censored hashtags, but all the other, popular ones.

The hashtag censoring is a problematic approach to any trolling problems in general. It becomes a freedom of speech issue.

It only makes things difficult for the regular users. My example proves that at least some of the words Instagram has marked as offensive can be used in a quite non-offensive ways too. On the other hand all the different languages make the whole hashtag censoring even more futile and in some cases more stupid.

It may be true that most people don't think your cat was caught by the rain, when you talk about your wet pussy. Or an hairy ass may not draw a picture of a donkey that needs shaving. However I never thought the word wet in any way offensive until I realized what the dirty minds behind the censorship are thinking. (Shame on you, Instagram boys and girls!)

Erections on Instagram are okay, though

To make the situation even more strange the censorship of Instagram seems pretty random. Wet and some of the words I mentioned above are apparently offensive. There are other tags that fall into the same category as previous, such as tight and deep, which aren't offensive.

If your name is Dick, don't use it as a hashtag, since it's censored too. Dong, on the other hand, is not blocked.

The funniest thing of them all is that erection or any of it's variants are NOT censored. You cannot be wet but you can have an erection? Big brother is being a sexist.

While Instagram keeps censoring random words, be very careful. If you happen to include one of those blocked hashtags, none of the non-blocked hashtags will work for your photo either.

13 replies | December 1, 2012 - 19:32 |

Twitter Tuesday: Did you know these things about Twitter?

New accounts and searches - New or very inactive accounts won't appear in any searches. This includes hashtag searches. If you are creating an account for an event, do it considerable time before the event and make sure to Tweet some too.
Complete your profile - Also if you haven't filled your name and bio on your profile it will be dropped down or miss from people search. So if you want to be searched and found, do fill the name and bio.
Search results are limited - The searches show only very limited amount of latest Tweets. Usually for last week or so. So basically Twitter search gives out only the new stuff.
Private profiles can't @reply everyone - Never mind @mentioning or @replying those who you haven't approved as your followers if your profile is private. They will never see your @replies and @mentions. So forget about Tweeting to your favorite actor, complaining to a brand about their shitty services or dissing some random person if your account isn't public.
Private Tweets cannot be ReTweeted - To protect your privacy, the Tweets on your private account cannot be ReTweeted (at least not very easily). Of course one can always copy or rewrite your Tweet and then share it. But otherwise ReTweeting is set off in case you are being all private.
.@reply breaks the conversation - Lots of people want to make everyone see their @replies to certain conversations by adding for instance a dot (or any other character) before the handle of the person they are replying. This breaks things, since the @reply made like this will become an @mention, which doesn't show in the expanded conversation tree on Twitter. Therefore it can be at least close to impossible to find out what this broken @reply was for.
You don't have to use hashtags - Hashtags are okay to use in certain situations, but too much is too much. Not every single Tweet has to contain a hashtag. Actually if you keep using too many hashtags, your Tweets are likely to start to be ignored by your followers.

EXTRA: You didn't invent that meme - I see people often claiming they have invented a meme. Someone says they invented text based memes (what the heck?) and this person who had joined Twitter last year invented Twitter fiction. Right. There's a good chance you didn't invent that meme, especially if you are new with all of this. There's world outside your Twitter circles, Twitter and your country.

Photo by me.

Follow @tasselflower

Suomeksi (In Finnish):

Tiesitkö, että uudet ja epäaktiiviset tilit eivät näy Twitterin hauissa. Tämä koskee myös hashtageja. Myös puutteelliset tilit, joista puuttuu käyttäjän nimi ja kuvausteksti, tipahtavat hakujen pohjille tai jopa katoavat niistä kokonaan. Hakutulokset ovat muutenkin rajattuja. Ne näyttävät vain viimeisimmät viestit, yleensä noin viikon ajalta. Julkisuudelta suljetut privaattiprofiilit pystyvät vastaamaan (@reply) tai mainitsemaan (@mention) vain ne, jotka he ovat hyväksyneet seuraajikseen. Älä siis vastaa minulle, jos tilisi on privaatti ja en ole hyväksyttyjen seuraajiesi listalla. Privaattitilien viestejä ei voi myöskään kovin helposti uudelleenjakaa. Jos vastaat jonkun henkilön viestiin, mutta pistätkin vastauksen alkuun esim. pisteen tai muun merkin, vastauksestasi tulee maininta ja se ei näy laajennetussa keskustelussa. On siis hankala tietää mihin vastasit. Hashtageja ei ole pakko käyttää. Itse asiassa liika hashtagien käyttö voi johtaa siihen, että seuraajasi lakkaavat kiinnittämästä huomiota viesteihisi. EXTRA: On todennäköistä, ettei just toi meemi ole sinun keksimäsi. Varsinkin jos olet ihan uusi näillä mestoilla. Twitter-piiriesi ulkopuolellakin on elämää.

3 replies | November 27, 2012 - 18:00 |

The social media attention span (and Wrapup)

On Facebook and Google+ I've noticed a trend of sharing and resharing as much as humanly can. Every funny pic, every deep quote, every single thing you stumble upon with must be shared. My timelines are flooded with random.

It's no wonder then that in time to time a friend or a family member asks me something I have blogged, Tweeted and updated on Facebook about. Something I assume they must already know, such many times I've mentioned it. Alas no.

More and more people get in with blogging, Tweeting, tumbling, pinning, sharing and flooding. It's a mess. It's wrecking everyone's attention span. It's too much noise with too little value.

Just a little time ago social media in marketing was the new thing. It was signal, not noise. It was communication, not shouting.

Then everyone got in there with their own agendas. Promoting themselves, their own ideas, their own products. And the same thing happened as in a crowded bar: Everyone started to raise their voice. Now it's shouting again. Noise, rather than signal. The loudest one gets the price.

The photo above is available on Instacanv.as as canvases, cards, iPhone cases and other print products. Check my other photos as well.

Last week on the tasselflower blog (eg. Weekly Wrapup)

Twitter Tuesday: Find out who followed and unfollowed you - "Whatever your reasons are, there are lots of different third party (not built by the Twitter folks) services that can tell you who you have followed and who doesn't follow you."
The web is never ready - "Try and keep up and make you site flexible rather than trying to make it perfect at once."
A new Twitter novel - It all begins with a sunset - "Tonight I finally started a new fictional story on Twitter."
MINIMAL Instagram challenge - "Join us and add your minimalism to the pool!"

Suomeksi (In Finnish):

Olen huomannut uuden tavan jakaa mahdollisimman paljon mitä tahansa nostavan päätään Facebookissa ja Google+:ssa. Joka hassu kuva, joka syvällinen sitaatti ja mikä tahansa mitä vastaan tulee on jaettava. Aikajanani tulvivat satunnaista. Ei ihme, että monesti kaverit tai perheenjäsenet kysyvät jostakin asiasta, josta olen blogannut ja viestinyt vähän joka puolella muutenkin. Jostain, mistä oletin heidän jo tietävän, sillä olenhan maininnut asian jo niin monesti. Mutta ei. Inhimillinen keskittymiskyky on äärirajoilla. Vain vähän aikaa sitten sosiaalinen media markkinoinnissa oli se uusi juttu. Se oli signaali, ei meteliä. Se oli viestintää, ei huutamista. Nyt kaikki ovat messissä omine agendoineen. Nostattamassa omaa rintaa, omia ajatuksia, omia tuotteita. Kävi kuten täydessä baarissa: Kaikki alkoivat nostaa ääntään. Nyt se on taas huutamista. Meteliä, ennemmin kuin signaalia. Äänekkäin voittaa.

2 replies | November 27, 2012 - 04:24 |

A new Twitter novel - It all begins with a sunset

Since 2009 when I was writing my bachelor's thesis about social media in marketing I've been fascinated by the idea of writing fiction on Twitter. It was back then when I was first introduced with this sort of use for said service. Already back then there were people who wrote short stories or longer novels 140 characters at time.

Tonight I finally started a new fictional story on Twitter. It was supposed to be just one Tweet long fiction (which are internationally very popular right now), but the one I wrote inspired to write more. I already have six more in store.

The first "chapter" of the story is now public, you can read it on Twitter. I'm also planning to back up each part, so that they won't disappear to the big void of past Tweets. However for now the story will be available only through my timeline.

A mystery will unwrap. It all begins with a sunset.

Photo by Cathrine Lindblom under Creative Commons license.

Follow @tasselflower

Suomeksi (In Finnish):

Siitä asti kun kirjoitin opinnäytetyöni vuonna 2009 sosiaalisesta mediasta markkinoinnissa olen ollut kiinnostunut Twitterin käyttämisestä fiktiivisen kirjoittamisen alustana. Silloin nimittäin kuulin ideasta, että kyseistä palvelua voisi käyttää moiseen. Tänä iltana aloitin vihdoin fiktiivisen tarinan Twitterissä. Oikeastaan sen oli tarkoitus olla sellainen 140 merkin mittainen Twitter-novelli, mutta se inspiroi kirjoittamaan pari lisääkin. Ekan lisäksi on siis jo kuusi lisää takataskussa valmiina. Ensimmäinen "kappale" on siis nyt julkaistu ja on luettavissa (englanniksi) Twitterissä. Tarkoitus on toki ottaa nämä kirjoitukset muutenkin talteen, mutta toistaiseksi ne ovat saatavilla vain aikajanani kautta. Mysteeri odottaa. Se kaikki alkaa auringonlaskulla.

3 replies | November 24, 2012 - 01:23 |

Hello, my name is Mervi!

I’m a Digital Craftswoman, geek, cat person, dreamer, awesome, always right and quite boring. This is the tasselflower blog about web design, social media, life, marketing and business. Have some tea!

Mervi Emilia