Social media is happening, people. If you’re not on it, you’re not. In today’s fast-moving world where the pace of change is accelerating, very few people and organisations can afford to ignore the potential of social media platforms.
And you can see why they think that way. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat and Instagram have grown user numbers at phenomenal rates, almost to the point of becoming verbs. Only an incredibly stubborn organisation would ignore the potential to connect with so many potential customers by using social media platforms.
As you would expect, the people behind Facebook, Twitter and their ilk, are always tweaking and revising their services and platforms to keep ahead of the game and improve the experience of their users. It’s that kind of attitude that shows what older world companies need to survive in the modern business world.
For example, Facebook recently held one of its Hackathon events where the company’s engineers assembled to come up with new ideas. As the Hackathon’s own Facebook page puts it: “Hackathons are a big tradition at Facebook. They serve as the foundation for some great (and not so great) ideas. It gives our employees the opportunity to try out new ideas and collaborate with other people in a fun environment.”
According to a report in the Huffington Post, one of the products of a fairly recent Hackathon is a possible ‘sympathise’ button (or ‘sympathize’ for any US readers). The point of the button is to give people the option of responding to friends’ posts where the ‘like’ button might appear inappropriate, such as attending a loved one’s funeral or having a bad day or getting divorced.
Speed of thought and deed
Viewed from the outside, this is one of those ‘so obvious why didn’t they think of it before’ ideas but no doubt from the pressure cooker environment of a company out there on the cutting-edge of modern technology and culture, this is A REALLY BIG DEAL.
Facebook engineer Dan Muriello, quoted by the Huffington Post, said the idea had been well-received by many at the Hackathon. “A lot of people were – and still are – very excited about [it],” he said.
Great news, right? And given that social media platforms are not just about engagement but the speed of engagement, it can only be a matter of days (hours even?) before the ‘sympathise’ button appears. After all, we’re talking about the new world of companies that are fleet of foot, agile, able to turn on a dime, insert your own cliche here. Well, not quite.
“We made a decision that it was not exactly the right time to launch that product. Yet,” Muriello said.
Don’t give up hope, though. It’s because of a previous Hackathon that you and I can ‘Like’ the fact Facebook is considering a ‘sympathise’ button on our timeline. But the prospect of anyone having the chance to ‘dislike’ it is still a long way off .
That’s good news for businesses, I suppose. In fact, I wonder if the foot dragging over the ‘sympathise’ button has anything to do with the fact Facebook users might be able to post negatively about their experiences with a business or organisation and attract sympathy for their predicament rather than the more ambiguous Like which could be misconstrued and deter people from adding their support to a particular post.
Could there be a tension between commercial considerations and the user experience that might be slowing down the process of approving the button? If there is, it merely demonstrates that however new and agile Facebook might be as a publishing platform, it is still subject to the same border disputes that have afflicted all types of publishing down through the ages between what the readers/users would like and what advertisers want. As someone who edited a magazine many years ago, I’d like to sympathise.
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