First / Last person wins meme (please help)
by asi
I’ve been fascinated for a while now by a not so new social behaviour which I believe Faris will agree with the wanky term status-affirming-Phatic-group-interactions-meme. It appears in different contexts but facebook is where i spotted it most.
Following EVERY post on a branded fan page (or any other social platform), dozens of people will leave a comment just for the sake of leaving a comment, regardless of the post content – just for the sake of leaving your mark on the page.
It’s a self and social kind of behaviour with the sole purpose of being there, in the moment and interact without passing of any content or information (read phatic)
I’m very keen to collect more examples to make some meaningful research into this. Can you please send me more links/occasions where you spot similar behaviour?
Thanks forever x
Hi Asi – B3ta http://www.b3ta.com/ always has a rush for the first comments after the newsletter, as does BSNYC http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/ just two of the ones I check out. Across Bebo we see it a hell of a lot on some of the popular brand profiles, and have got the brands to use it to their advantage by ensuring they put the first comment up to recycle the user back into the profile – see http://tiny.cc/3zBu0 in 17Agains Zac poll. Hope this helps Dom
Hey Dom – thanks a lot
Asi, check out the Nike Football group I am working on. http://www.facebook.com/nikefootball
Exactly the same thing happens, within seconds of posting a note, we get 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc posts….without fail.
I’ve noticed this behaviour on forums (remember those?), where this has been going on for years.
As example I’ll give you Talklfc (I’m a member of admin staff) – you’ll see this behaviour particularly after a funny post. We even have a smiley for this behaviour:http://www.talklfc.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/postcount.jpg
I s’pose there is a slight difference here in the sense that the post count provides an incentive (however small it may be), whereas Facebook has no such thing.
Hope that helps
Hi Asi, it’s tempting to conclude this behaviour is particular to certain demographic, i.e. teens. Will be interesting to see what you’ll find out!
The Onion’s AV Club usually has a race for firsties on posts. Although, it doesn’t seem as rampant now as it once was. People get pretty creative too. Like so http://www.avclub.com/articles/slasher-films,34400/.
Have a look at the Lynx page we’re running – http://www.facebook.com/lynxeffectuk – same thing happens. Heli may have a point on the demographic!
I think there’s a link between the content and this behaviour, and also the first person to post influences what folows. So if the first person responds to the content, you very rarely see this, if the first person says “first” you get the type of conversation seen above. What I’m unsure about is whether this is a good or a bad thing. Facebook count it as an interaction so improve your post quality score….
(Liking the Bunny campaign by the way, but couldn’t you get the ads to at least mention twitter or Facebook? Or am I too hung up on calls to action?)
You could test Martin’s idea with an automatic 1st comment that is either banal (“1st”) or something more constructive/useful and see if the subsequent comments follow…
wooo!
I’m winning!