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Are the biggest benefits of social media local?

Posted 04.30.09 by Adrian Ho

picture-13

The recent release of Microsoft’s Vine reminded me about an insight that we picked up while collaborating with Piers last year. PSFK interviewed a bunch of entrepreneurs and one of them (above) talked about the fact that his usage of social media had shifted over the years. At the start of using it, he connected mainly with people in other cities and in other countries, but as social media matured, he found that he was using social media more to connect with people that he’d actually met, people that are in the same city as him.

Over time, I’ve found the same to be true. One of the most useful benefits that I’ve gotten from using social media is that I know more about what the people around me are doing. I know more about what’s happening in my city.

Yesterday, Christian tweeted about this exact thing:

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In Memphis, someone asked about my thoughts on the future of social media. Typically I hate to guess about these sorts of things, but in this case it does seem to me that the future of social media will be increasingly local. If you ask a lot of the people who don’t use social media “why not,” they’ll often say “because I don’t care what someone in Australia is having for breakfast.” These people do care what their friends, neighbors and communities are doing and as more people adopt social media, the density of these types of people will inevitably increase. So I think local is what will really send things like Twitter mainstream rather than celebrity adoption. What do you think?

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  • Anonymous

    Agreed. Was driving by Pease Park in Austin last weekend and was surprised to discover a big outdoor happenin’ I had heard nothing about. I searched Twitter for “Pease Park” and immediately discovered tweets from people at the event–Eeyore’s Birthday Party.

    A Google search for “Pease Park” and “Pease Park events” was of no help at all. I eventually would have found the event by searching local listings, but the real-time search that Twitter makes possible is enormously powerful and nowhere is it more relevant than on the local level.

  • http://zeusjones.com/blog adrianho

    Yeah that’s exactly what has Google and others so worried about Twitter – there’s lots of places to get big national and international news and info. Local is really a huge hole that Twitter is filling – not sure why their focus isn’t on this more.

  • Anonymous

    The ironic thing is that Google rose to such prominence on its ability to deliver relevant, localized results and pair them with advertising. And in many ways it still does this better than anyone else by integrating Google Maps into search, etc. And on the content side you’ve got big players like NYTimes, etc, creating “city blogs” and upstarts like Outside.In aggregating local info.

    But I think what’s really different with Twitter is an evolution from static to real-time content that, due to its growing scale and relative simplicity, few others (including Vine) will be able to match.

  • http://stephaniegerson.weebly.com Stephanie Gerson

    I don’t necessarily think there’s something inherent to social media that render them more useful for local rather than remote interaction. so I wouldn’t necessarily say that “the biggest benefits of social media are local” (what are the units of measurement?) – there are certain people we’ll always follow on Twitter regardless of their location, such as our favorite musicians and favorite brands and famous types in general. instead I’d say that the benefits of using social media to connect locally vs. remotely are different – e.g. time-sensitive information about a deal at your local pizzeria vs. participating in an online community of interest. (…perhaps this correlates with your distinction between real-time and timeless information?)

    that said, I was recently thinking that the irony of geotility apps is that they ultimately make us friendlier to the guy at the next table at the pizzeria, as long as he has similar interests or is a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend on Latitude or some other geoapp du jour. the irony being: we usually think of communication technologies as enabling us to communicate with people across long distances. but now they’re enabling us to (have an excuse to) be friendly with the folks right under our nose.

    and because the original intention of communication technologies was to enable communication across long distances, it’s understandable that we explored the remote realm first, and are only now exploring using these same technologies for the local realm. also understandable that in doing so, we’ll find new and different benefits.

    we’re returning to the glory days of local: same season, different year.

  • http://zeusjones.com/blog adrianho

    Agree, nothing inherent to social media but definitely something inherent to humans. Probably reptilian. We pay attention to things based on proximity to us because they probably have the ability to impact us more. Also probably why we’re so bad about paying attention to big, global things like warming etc.

  • MarkBarker

    Agreed. Was driving by Pease Park in Austin last weekend and was surprised to discover a big outdoor happenin' I had heard nothing about. I searched Twitter for “Pease Park” and immediately discovered tweets from people at the event–Eeyore's Birthday Party.

    A Google search for “Pease Park” and “Pease Park events” was of no help at all. I eventually would have found the event by searching local listings, but the real-time search that Twitter makes possible is enormously powerful and nowhere is it more relevant than on the local level.

  • http://zeusjones.com/blog adrianho

    Yeah that's exactly what has Google and others so worried about Twitter – there's lots of places to get big national and international news and info. Local is really a huge hole that Twitter is filling – not sure why their focus isn't on this more.

  • MarkBarker

    The ironic thing is that Google rose to such prominence on its ability to deliver relevant, localized results and pair them with advertising. And in many ways it still does this better than anyone else by integrating Google Maps into search, etc. And on the content side you've got big players like NYTimes, etc, creating “city blogs” and upstarts like Outside.In aggregating local info.

    But I think what's really different with Twitter is an evolution from static to real-time content that, due to its growing scale and relative simplicity, few others (including Vine) will be able to match.

  • http://stephaniegerson.weebly.com Stephanie Gerson

    I don't necessarily think there's something inherent to social media that render them more useful for local rather than remote interaction. so I wouldn't necessarily say that “the biggest benefits of social media are local” (what are the units of measurement?) – there are certain people we'll always follow on Twitter regardless of their location, such as our favorite musicians and favorite brands and famous types in general. instead I'd say that the benefits of using social media to connect locally vs. remotely are different – e.g. time-sensitive information about a deal at your local pizzeria vs. participating in an online community of interest. (…perhaps this correlates with your distinction between real-time and timeless information?)

    that said, I was recently thinking that the irony of geotility apps is that they ultimately make us friendlier to the guy at the next table at the pizzeria, as long as he has similar interests or is a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend on Latitude or some other geoapp du jour. the irony being: we usually think of communication technologies as enabling us to communicate with people across long distances. but now they're enabling us to (have an excuse to) be friendly with the folks right under our nose.

    and because the original intention of communication technologies was to enable communication across long distances, it's understandable that we explored the remote realm first, and are only now exploring using these same technologies for the local realm. also understandable that in doing so, we'll find new and different benefits.

    we're returning to the glory days of local: same season, different year.

  • http://zeusjones.com/blog adrianho

    Agree, nothing inherent to social media but definitely something inherent to humans. Probably reptilian. We pay attention to things based on proximity to us because they probably have the ability to impact us more. Also probably why we're so bad about paying attention to big, global things like warming etc.

  • http://modocars.com Modo

    Yes i agree,

  • http://runmotherfuckerrun.wordpress.com/2009/05/01/local-vs-global/ Local vs Global « Run, Motherfucker, run

    [...] Zeus Jones. « [...]

  • Anonymous

    Can this local and the fact it is about people you know mean that it is beyond geographical considerations? For example, I have friends in advertising across the globe. Will ‘local and friends you know’ encompass all of them or only those in India?

  • Subbu

    Can this local and the fact it is about people you know mean that it is beyond geographical considerations? For example, I have friends in advertising across the globe. Will 'local and friends you know' encompass all of them or only those in India?

  • http://www.funnyyoushouldask.biz/blog Olle

    I think that in that case you/we have to define local. Because my old definition of local is geographical, and based on that I don’t agree with the post. I think if it’s local as in “closer to reality” then yes. And paying attention to things in proximity is only half true. Many people (tribes/WoW etc) are much more “approximate” to that then people in their class. I do think that the “interesting” thing with twitter or whatever service will ware off and value and benefit will be what we care about. Clay Shirky’s “technology only gets socially interesting when it gets technologically boring” comes to mind.

  • http://www.funnyyoushouldask.biz/blog Olle

    I think that in that case you/we have to define local. Because my old definition of local is geographical, and based on that I don't agree with the post. I think if it's local as in “closer to reality” then yes. And paying attention to things in proximity is only half true. Many people (tribes/WoW etc) are much more “approximate” to that then people in their class. I do think that the “interesting” thing with twitter or whatever service will ware off and value and benefit will be what we care about. Clay Shirky's “technology only gets socially interesting when it gets technologically boring” comes to mind.

  • Guest

    Benefit to who? Me, us, them?
    Local to what? My geography, my task, my time?

    Social media will get better at helping us shift between different contexts. We’ll still have to do the work of figuring out what context we want to be in.

  • Adam

    Benefit to who? Me, us, them?
    Local to what? My geography, my task, my time?

    Social media will get better at helping us shift between different contexts. We'll still have to do the work of figuring out what context we want to be in.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Paul-Saarinen/753290219 Paul Saarinen

    I believe we have to explore the new definition of “proximity”. Look at your friends list in different online networks. How much is comprised of geographical proximity? We’re still a ways away from geographical proximity not having such a large impact on our decision making for building and maintaining relationships. “Out of sight, out of mind” may not apply the same way it did a couple decades ago, but it still plays a large role. Until we can duplicate the other human senses (touch, smell, taste) over large distances, online relationships will take a back seat to the real thing.

  • http://zeusjones.com/blog adrianho

    I am definitely talking local as in geographical not local in the new-age/shared interest type of local. I don’t dispute that the web has brought us closer with people who share our interests but we (those who comment on this blog) are already believers in the power of social media to connect us with people around the world.

    My question was not really for us, it was for the majority of people who still don’t really engage in social media because they see the benefit of connecting to others (even those who share their interests and values) around the world less interesting than knowing what their neighbors are up to.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Paul-Saarinen/753290219 Paul Saarinen

    I believe we have to explore the new definition of “proximity”. Look at your friends list in different online networks. How much is comprised of geographical proximity? We're still a ways away from geographical proximity not having such a large impact on our decision making for building and maintaining relationships. “Out of sight, out of mind” may not apply the same way it did a couple decades ago, but it still plays a large role. Until we can duplicate the other human senses (touch, smell, taste) over large distances, online relationships will take a back seat to the real thing.

  • http://zeusjones.com/blog adrianho

    I am definitely talking local as in geographical not local in the new-age/shared interest type of local. I don't dispute that the web has brought us closer with people who share our interests but we (those who comment on this blog) are already believers in the power of social media to connect us with people around the world.

    My question was not really for us, it was for the majority of people who still don't really engage in social media because they see the benefit of connecting to others (even those who share their interests and values) around the world less interesting than knowing what their neighbors are up to.

  • Anonymous

    I like what Paul said – ‘out of sight is not necessarily out of mind’ in today’s networked world. And it is true. Yes, Social Media has helped me connect with friends beyond my physical proximity and has also helped me know newer people like you all. Thanks.

  • Subbu

    I like what people said 'out of sight is not necessarily out of mind'. And it is true. Yes, Social Media has helped me connect with friends beyond my physical proximity and has also helped me know newer people like you all. Thanks.

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  • Jeanne

    I have only two words: “taco truck.”

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