In my first webinar to ICG members I explained the absolute basics of setting yourself up on Twitter. It starts with a quick explanation of what Twitter is and goes on to explain how to get an account. I shared the hour with @AlisonStarr who went on to explain how to actually use Twitter. It was great to have over 100 members listening in and many more webinars on a variety of topics are planned, details to be presented here as they come available. I’ll be doing a more Advanced Twitter later in the year.
The key thing researchers need to think about is – what do you want to get out of Twitter? Is it to get news and updates, to get links to deeper market research comment and analysis, to connect with other researchers (and who knows, clients) or to promote yourself. Most of us will use it for a balance of these things but being clear about which of these you’re most interested in will help decide how you set yourself up. We should probably all be using Twitter to drive people back to our website or other online profile where we highlight our expertise.
I set up a new account for the purposes of the webinar and was surprised at how quickly it managed to identify people I already knew to follow. In February here was a bit of a furore about contact details being shared when it was discovered that Path lifted users’ address book without permission and there’s a suggestion it’s public practice. Twitter does something similar.
Here is me attempting to oppose the motion that ‘our adoption and elevation of social media and digital technologies is undermining human skills and values’ at the ICG debate evening. Having just cringed my way through the video – nothing came out the way I planned it to – I think it must have been the John Griffith’s fluent articulacy that swung the ICG members in our favour.
I’ve listed the arguments I marshalled below but our opponents Sheila Keegan and Roy Langmaid made great points about how digital technologies are distancing us from people. As researchers, how can we get deep into people’s heads unless we spend time with them? We deal with clients by email so how well do we understand them? And of course, with the always-on stream of pithy insights, how do we find time to reflect? Yesterday, I came across a great argument against facebook that made many of these points and more.
Anyway, here is my top 10 areas where social media and digital technologies are building human skills and values:
KNOWLEDGE
1. We’re learning about new things, the researcher’s very raison d’etre
My Twitter feed is an excellent news service. Snippets may lack depth but we’re learning how to make sense of the crowd-sourced mosaic of opinion. First person shooters may be mostly about killing but gamers are often learning from the contexts, for example historical time periods or strategies. And it’s easy to learn things – who hasn’t used a discussion forums to find out how to do something?
2. Information literacy
When there is a deluge of information, people need to discriminate. They are learning to look at the source and understand how to manage it.
3. Morality
I sometimes wonder about this when I see how anonymity enables so much virtriol in online conversation (just check out the comments on pretty much any youtube video) but there is the opportunity to learn about and engage with scenarios that help with our personal relationships and society.
HEALTH
4. Dealing with depression and stress relief
There are some question marks over this (our narcissistic tendency to present only the positive side of ourselves can make the rest of us feel inadequate) but there is evidence to say that online connections with others can improve our mental health. As for stress relief, try killing some zombies.
5. Fitness
It’s a skill and it isn’t sitting in front of a computer that is making us obese – it’s eating. With Wii Fit and the huge growth in personal health management apps, some of us can get fitter.
6. Having fun
We need to lighten up, there is a lot of fun to be had with social media and digital technologies.
SOCIAL SKILLS
7. Co-operation and connection
Whether it is getting together to create the world’s greatest encyclopedia or teaming up to defeat some clan on World of Warcraft we are learning to do some amazing things with each other. And whether you are into knitting, ultra marathon, or bringing up children there are people like you out there you can talk to and learn from.
8. Creativity
I never cease to be amazed at the feats of creativity that people are sharing for free. Pinterest is the one of the latest in a long line of tools that are giving us the opportunity to express ourselves differently.
9. Inspiration
People’s stories of personal battles with cancer, building great organizations or travelling the world cannot fail to make us reflect on our lives and how we might do things differently.
10. Democracy
The big one. Much discussed as a key factor in the Arab Spring uprisings, the world is undoubtedly a flatter one. More and more of us have a voice to give an opinion or hold corporates to account. People have more control and as researchers we need to accept them as collaborators and not subjects. Digital technologies allow us and our clients to get closer to people by introducing greater equality.
“Diplomacy has always involved dinners with ruling elites, backroom deals and clandestine meetings. Now, in the digital age, the reports of all those parties and patrician chats can be collected in one enormous database. And once collected in digital form, it becomes very easy for them to be shared.”
…
“But when data breaches happen to the public, politicians don’t care much. Our privacy is expendable. It is no surprise that the reaction to these leaks is different. What has changed the dynamic of power in a revolutionary way isn’t just the scale of the databases being kept, but that individuals can upload a copy and present it to the world. In paper form, these cables amount to some 13,969 pages, which would stack about 25m high – not something that one could have easily slipped past security in the paper age.”
…
“This is a revolution, and all revolutions create fear and uncertainty. Will we move to a New Information Enlightenment or will the backlash from those who seek to maintain control no matter the cost lead us to a new totalitarianism? What happens in the next five years will define the future of democracy for the next century, so it would be well if our leaders responded to the current challenge with an eye on the future.”
‘Revolution’ may be hyperbole but access to data is shifting the balance of power. Governments need to wake up to the idea that sharing their public data with us will help us develop while at the same time, they need to house the individual data they hold about us in smaller, more secure silos.
My hope is that governments’ embarrassment will encourage them to start taking the privacy of OUR data a bit more seriously.
Seems to me that rules and standards about social media etiquette are still emerging and, characteristic of the medium, they are being negotiated by the people who are using social media. The novelty of the medium, its interconnectedness and its ability to transmit a message across very wide audiences means that there is an ongoing debate about how it should be used and how users should behave.
However, there also seems to be a consensus emerging around etiquette, which unsurprisingly would serve us well in our personal relationships. There’s quite a bit of chat about it but here are my seven:
1. Be giving – respect needs to be earned by referencing and helping others
2. Be patient – respect and influence will come but this needs to be built gradually
3. Listen – it’s easy to misinterpret what others are saying so take time to hear what they are saying
4. Say something interesting – of course (!) but the key to influence is to say things that others will be interested in
5. Be authentic – if it isn’t real you’ll get found out
6. Relinquish control – you’re a participant in a sea of opinion you cannot hope to control
7. Be nice and friendly – this really is the crux of it and this attitude will serve you well
