Month: March 2013

The Influence Ecosystem and Facebook’s Managing Editor Departing

Innovation Design

I read MediaShift’s article on Dan Fletcher’s departure from Facebook yesterday and immediately saw (reading between the lines) that Dan, and Facebook, were shifting their focus within the Influence Ecosystem. Dan was moving away from the “Influencer” role in the ecosystem and towards “Originator” (where the emergent stuff happens). Facebook is shifting “back” towards being a platform for advocacy between peers.

The key quote from the MediaShift article is: “There is no more engaging content Facebook could produce than you talking to your family and friends.”

There isn’t a need for a Managing Editor, thus Dan is moving on. The article implies he’s moving to where stories are heading…longer form content anchored to passions and deeper interests.

What does this mean? From a Futurist standpoint, this is an early indicator of a shift taking place. There is a burgeoning start-up movement in the “Originator” point in the ecosystem as it’s mostly the final frontier in the current social communications behavior (until it all shifts again). The shareable foresight is that attention is shifting towards the Originators. This is an early indicator, but if you’re planning ahead, I’d recommend strategizing on how you, your team, and your organization can adapt to this shift.

What’s the Influencer Ecosystem? It’s a three part cycle, that when cultivated and managed well, fosters the productive growth of influential ideas from the grass roots, to the influencers, to the advocates and back to the grass roots. Here’s a quick whiteboard on how it works:

Simply, the Influence Ecosystem is how original ideas become adopted by Influencers who then share them with their audiences. In the ideal situation, these audiences then become Advocates for the Influencer’s messages and share them with their peers via word-of-mouth. Then, from this word-of-mouth activity, new ideas are sparked, which are relevant to Influencers and the ecosystem keeps on rolling. The illustration below outlines how the ecosystem functions.

This next illustration identifies the roles and behaviors of the points in the ecosystem; what is happening at each of these points.

And finally, the illustration below identifies the “who” of these three points within the ecosystem. The “who” is meant to help you identify where in the ecosystem you want (or need) to participate. As example, Influencer Management should focus on acting like an Originator in order to get the right content to the Influencers. A full Advocacy Program should ensure the “original” content is making it’s way to the Advocates. One short-cut to this success is for brands to become Influencers. This step is taking place through “branded content” platforms such as news centers and company blogs.

Facebook (all social networks really) remain the platform for advocacy. Brands shift into the role of Influencers on those Advocates. The next undeveloped area is the “Originator.” The people that create the content and ideas that feed the Influencers. What’s your Originator strategy? 😉

Texas (1993 v2)

Narratives

Here, on this map, is Texas.
All tan and lonely.
Veiled by blue lines of highways and stop signs.

And here I am, this giant looking down on all that space
and I feel the breath of its desert on my face.

I’m on the roadside, and the weeds,
and the cactus, and the men in blue pick-up trucks
pass with their eyes below their hat lines.

Pulling my smile against my teeth so not to let the dust in.

I’m waiting for this bus. You’re already on it.
When it stops, you look out from behind the big round wheel
open the door and ask if we’ve met before.

As I climb the stairs I drop a stack of photographs.
They are shuffled down the highway by the highway wind.
Black and white and glittering like fires.

You dropped your pictures, you say.
I know, I say.
Don’t you want to get them, you say.
No, I say, and you look at me standing on the stairs to the bus
and it seems you are deciding whether or not to let me in.

It’s on that road in Texas that I see you, in a forever way
Christmas and the snow, parents and home.

I want to hold you, but all I have is this old map
and your smell in my old shirt.
You wore this one before you left.

Lexington Avenue Mary (1994 v2)

Narratives
In her hands she held a baby bird
Tiny, wet, squawking.
She has a virgin mary smile
and her head bent, her eyes bent longingly
at a virgin mary angle
She seemed content
standing there on the corner
with all that traffic moving by her
She didn’t notice
She rocked back and forth, slightly
coddling her young
She hummed to herself.
She stood there rocking her bird.
It was October and I thought that
birds only had babies in the Spring
It began to get cold
the sun slipped behind the tall buildings
but she didn’t notice.
She was the Lexington Avenue virgin of the bird
rooted to her corner like some strange city tree
making a nest in her hands
She stood there, across the street from the hardware store
humming to herself, humming to her bird
Unaware of the people and the cars
and the buses
and the noise.

In her hands she held a baby bird
tiny, wet, squawking.

She has a virgin mary smile
and her head bent, her eyes bent longingly
at a virgin mary angle.

She seemed content
standing there on the corner
with all that traffic moving by her.

She didn’t notice.

She rocked back and forth, slightly
coddling her young
She hummed to herself.

She stood there rocking her bird.

It was October and I thought that
birds only had babies in the Spring.
It began to get cold
the sun slipped behind the tall buildings
but she didn’t notice.

She was the Lexington Avenue virgin of the bird
rooted to her corner like some strange city tree
making a nest in her hands.

She stood there, across the street from the hardware store
humming to herself, humming to her bird
Unaware of the people and the cars
and the buses
and the noise.