I picked up Clay's book from my girlfriend Lisa and have devoured it over the past two days whilst on holiday. At the moment I seem to be absorbing any material on social media / new technology and/or the music industry as music is where I principally work, and its future is so unknown and I love the uncertainty about what's coming. I'm so fascinated right now.
Clay's book is a thumping read - in many parts it simply opens out the though processes I've already been having about social media. The real-life examples give new depth and context, and in many cases were brand new stories to me. In a shrinking world it's still amazing how much you miss because of geography; what is a talking point in, say, New York (ie the Stolen Sidekick), is completely overlooked in the UK.
Small points resonated too. When Carl and I started our Sleeveface Facebook Group I used to look at every new picture added and, usually, add comment. I did this because I loved the pictures and I was appreciative that people were taking time to add their snaps and upload them, as well as being amazed that they loved the idea as much as we and our friends did. What I didn't realise is that my posting was one of the reasons Sleeveface caught on - Clay talks about how this behaviour is often done deliberately by new groups or businesses - to make people feel welcome and included. What a revelation to realise that something I did out of genuine appreciation was actually contributing to the group's success. I had no idea.
What I did realise was that Facebook was the main reason for Sleeveface's early success. Clay would love Sleeveface as an example in his book. Here's a perfect balance of new tool, promise, group formation and interest all neatly weighted. I got the first pictures up onto Facebook before nearly all of my friends had Facebook accounts. As they joined, they explored and so they easily found Sleeveface - something fun and easy to pass on and be involved in. If Sleeveface happened now, when they are familiar with Facebook, used to new groups, less interested in exploring or passing on fun things with quite the same enthusiasm, I doubt it would catch on in the way that it did. Likewise, we've since found versions of Sleeveface from many years ago, pre-Facebook. Other peopl had small groups of pictures of each other holding up record sleeves. Why didn't they catch on? Well in part, they didn't have the catchy title that Carl came up with - 'Sleeveface' - but they also didn't have the right tool - Facebook. We were alerted to some groups sitting on some forums which had all the right kinds of photos, but they sat on forums waiting to be found by new members to that forum, often being forums of something quite specific with low membership rates. Facebook made Sleeveface easy to find and easy to share.
That's definitely one of the reasons why I enjoyed Clay's book, because its those kinds of moments I truly appreciate with emerging new forms of social media. For example, though I love Twitter as a tool for personal updates, I find it to be an incredible promotional tool for my work (as my work and my personal life are so intertwined I don't have any problem with this - though it's often a discussion about whether one should have two Twitter accounts - one for work, one for personal stuff. It's something I should look into and comeback too.) When I first joined Twitter a few years ago I wasn't sure what it was for, but I realise now that's because very few of my friends were on it (infact only one, @tobiaspeggs which is how I learned about it). As more friends have joined I've found Twitter has found its purpose, for me at least. I think Clay would like that way of working.
