A few weeks ago, I posted about a social media initiative from Downing Street: Ask the PM. The idea is great - anybody can video themselves asking a question, post it on YouTube for others to comment on and vote for. And then the most popular questions are answered by Gordon Brown and posted online. I was interested to see how this initiative was going to work in practice. The terms and conditions suggested that party political and other questions might not be allowed and I hoped that the experience wouldn’t result in simple and non-meaningful questions being asked. The results of the first wave of questions suggests this is not the case at all.
A total of 229 questions were posted and eight were answered by Gordon Brown. These do appear to have been the most commented on and voted for questions and the range of topics covered is wide-ranging and detailed. From knife crime and the voting age, to the tax on petrol and 42 day detention, the questions that were asked really were a mirror of the big political and social issues that have been debated in Parliament and the country recently.
This is really heartening. I have always thought that reaching out to people via YouTube and responding to their questions could be an exciting innovation for the Prime Minister and the UK Government. Talking to real people about real issues. And it seems that this is exactly what’s happening.
Take a look at Rob’s question and Gordon Brown’s answer below on knife crime, something that has been discussed extensively in the last few weeks after a spate of serious knife crime and murders in London.
Rob’s question
Gordon Brown’s answer
This round of questions has been great and if this initiative continues a large and vibrant community could build, both asking questions, commenting on them and voting, or just watching the questions and responses.
This month, Gordon Brown is asking for questions again. And rather than every time asking for any questions and risking getting the same types of topics covered, there is a theme. This month it’s health. If you want to submit your question, you have until 21st July, and from the 14th you will be able to view and vote for your favourite questions. Submit your videos here.
I think the use of YouTube in this way is truly innovative. Until now there was no way for people like Rob to ask a question directly to and get an answer directly from the Prime Minister. Now there is.
I wrote last week about how one of the benefits of social networks is that they can help people with particular interests or issues to find each other. It’s easier to network with people and share experiences with those who have similar interests of experiences to you, however niche.
Online communities are different to social networks. Rather than focusing on the individual, they focus on common issues, themes or interests. And if social networks are good at letting people find others with similar interests, online communities are a great place for these people to come together.
Any online community needs to concern a clear and defined area. There needs to be the common goal, aim or shared interest to get people to join and to contribute and for the community to move from infancy to maturity. One type of community that can work quite well is communities built round niche experiences - where few people
I was pointed this week to a new online community that fits in this category well: RareShare, a health-related community for people with specific rare medical disorders. The community is in its infancy and how successful it will be is yet to seen. As we know at FreshNetworks, even if all the factors for a successful community are in place its actual success can be made or broken by skills such as community management.
But the chances are that RareShare can be a success. Not only does it unite people around a common and niche experience, but as we have seen before, medical issues are often a great subject for successful online communities. People often feel more comfortable discussing often embarrassing or difficult issues online, and people like that they can find others in the same situation.
Communities such as this offer a real chance to create the kind of communication that has not previously existed between people with such niche interests and experiences. The benefits to members is clear and if well managed, RareShare could be a great success for them.
A few weeks ago, I spoke at the Social Media Influence conference in London on a panel discussion how to measure influence in social media.
It’s a tricky subject and people tend to fall int two camps:
People who are looking to define and then develop a set of quantitative metrics that can be used to measure influence. I’ve seen the simple (building on page impressions) to the complex (with algorithms and calculations that I’m not convinced always make sense).
People who try to measure softer factors such as the influence that somebody plays and then mapping this against the contributions they make online
I think that both of these methods are great ways of exploring what it means to contribute to social media. But in terms of real influence, I think other factors are as important. In fact, all of these methods look at input measures - the amount of content somebody provides, the number of people who reads this, the number of contacts or connections they have. Perhaps a better way to measure influence would be output measures - finding a way to identify and measure the impact that somebody has rather than the effort they put in.
My thoughts on this are fairly early at the moment, but we’re starting to gather data at FreshNetworks from our online communities that might help to explore and develop output measures of influence.
In the meantime, you can see the panel session I was part of below (there are two videos to view).
