360DigitalInfluence

In a recent Washington Post article, Polarized News Market has Altered the Political Process in South Carolina Primary, we peak into the news consumption habits of a South Carolina voter. Two election cycles ago the South Carolina native would read newspaper for political news, now she “settles in at her desktop to fire up Facebook.”

“Selective Exposure”, described by researchers from UCLA and Stanford suggests to that consumers are “tucking themselves inside information silos” and that this is compounded by the speed and like-mindedness of social networking.

New research from Facebook suggests that - despite what many instinctively believe - social networks actually expose us to new, novel ideas and information rather than polarize us. While politics indeed may be more polarizing than ever, social networks like Facebook actually perform the opposite effect. According to a massive experiment, rather than polarize us, Facebook brings us together.

In the study, Facebook researchers modified EdgeRank such that two different groups were created focusing on how links are shared. First, a control in which the EdgeRank functioned as it usually does: sorting out all of your friend’s activity and serving up the links it thinks you’d like to read. And a second group that had a select number of links removed from their feed. From there, the researchers were able to track how information (in this case, links) spreads in social networks.

They found, as one might expect, you’re more likely to share links posted from your closest friends or strong ties. Not surprising. However, weak ties - the vast majority of our Facebook friends - were more likely to introduce us to a new or novel links - ones we wouldn’t have otherwise come across. Proving, as the authors suggest, that social networks actually introduce us to new sources of information, and not reinforcing the links, ideas and news we already consume.

Jury Still Out on Diversity in Networks

It’s an interesting study and certainly nothing comes close in terms of the total sample size (the experiment involved 250 million users). The message from Facebook is “[t]he research suggests that Facebook isn’t the echo chamber that some might expect – online social networks actually increase the spread of novel information and diverse viewpoints.”

The question remains, however, if weak ties represent diversity with respect to the level of exposure to new ideas, not just new links to the same point of view.

Real World Application

For marketers, it’s important to under how information spreads in networked communities online. We know head of tail influencer engagement programs don’t always scale up to the level that justifies the spend. Understanding the way word of mouth works - the art and science - is a critical step to reliability predicting the impact of a social media program.

A helpful question to ask in planning sessions is: do we expect our target audience to share with their close friends (e.g. social booking engines sharing your flight details) or more widely across weak ties (what you’re currently listening to on Spotify)? Building in a weak or strong tie designation into a brief helps to focus the program.

Resources

Facebook Data Team Blog

Blog from Facebook Researcher and Designer, Paul Adams.  His new book, Grouped - How small groups of friends are the key to influence on the social web is a deep dive into this topic and is excellent.

The Strength of Weak Ties. Mark S. Granovetter. American Journal of Sociology, Volume 78, Issue 6 (May, 1973).

Connected - The Surprising Power of our Social Networks.

(Photo credit: Flickr user dylan20)