What Your Stereo Can Teach You About Social Media
When stereo sound was first introduced to radio, people had no idea what to do with it. Previously, everything had been broadcast in mono which provided only one channel to push music through. Stereo now provided to separate channels.
“How does this work?”
When stereo sound was new, producers filled one channel with the instrumental track and the other channel with the vocal track. That’s what made the most sense to them at the time. To this day, if you catch certain tracks while listening to an oldies station, if you isolate the left channel you’ll hear the instrumental track; if you isolate the right, you’ll hear the vocal track.
It took awhile for producers to experiment and figure out that stereo music sounded best blended and subtly nuanced rather than isolated to individual channels. In short, it took time, trial and error.
I think the social web follows the same parallel. We’re producers of this content who are trying to figure out how to best use this new medium. We’ve been given a new “channel” to experiment with and are still trying to find the right way to use it.
- You see this when the Today Show cites a tweet from a celebrity as a legit news source.
- You see this when radio stations send people to their websites and their Facebook fan page. A social media schizophrenia of sorts.
- You see this when people link their Twitter accounts to their Facebook pages and have them update each other. Constantly.
“How does this work?”
Like listening to music that’s separated into two channels, we’re almost there. Just not quite yet. Some people are really close, but we’re still isolating the channels–left and right.
We’ve gone from mono to stereo in terms of human communication. We’re not quite sure what to do with this brand new canvas, but we’re trying.
Before too long, someone’s going to blend the left and right channels of the social web and this thing will really start humming.
What a great connection, love that.
Thanks Kyle. I’m waiting for someone to nail the stereo sound here on the social web. I think we’re close. It could even be you. Is it you?
Well I definitely think social media is all about listening and the conversation.
That is what I want to be excellent at, listening.
Which that goes back to your analogy, being able to listen in a whole new way.
Fantastic post.
Thanks, friend. What was one take-away for you?
Good thoughts.
I’m still a proponent of Facebook and Twitter being separate audiences.
For real. I disconnected the two awhile back and haven’t regretted it since. Two communities sharing and engaging in two different ways.
Twitter = Conversational. Facebook = Communal.
I liked your analogy. I really don’t think many churches or ministries are putting a lot of thought or strategy into utilizing social networking tools effectively. Still very much one-way communication to the congregation at-large.