Eric Kintz of HP Labs reports a study of 1 million Digg users to explore the dynamic between “novelty” and “popularity” of stories posted to Digg.
In their full report “Novelty and Collective Attention” by Fang Wu and Bernardo A. Huberman, Information Dynamics Laboratory, HP Labs (pdf) I found some interesting data on the kinds of stories that really “kick” at Digg.
“The subject of collective attention is central to an information age where millions of people are inundated with daily messages. It is thus of interest to understand how attention to novel items propagates and eventually fades among large populations.” -”Novelty and Collective Attention” Fang Wu and Bernardo A. Huberman, Information Dynamics Laboratory, HP Labs
Why Care About Collective Attention Dynamics?
“Collective attention” is something every blog marketer should be keenly interested in. By default, we are working in the social medium of the web to bring attention to our content, products and services (or simply our advertisers). But ask your average blogger what they know about the social scene as it pertains to “collective attention dynamics” and viral marketing and you are likely to be met with a blank stare.
Knowing how the average user of a social site deals with information they are bombarded with on a daily basis can only help content providers create better, more targeted, more “on the radar” pieces that succeed more often in the social news world.
What’s the definition of success in this case?
Lots of votes. Lots of “pick ups” resulting in links from other sites talking about your story. And some resulting improvement in overall search engine rankings or specific, significant ranking of the story itself.
The success or failure of a viral marketing campaign either depends on luck (not the ideal) or intel. Here you get to peek at some real intel from a professional study of the dynamics of social networks which can only help boost your viral marketing efforts as you apply what you learn to your upcoming posts.
