Carman Pirie's Blog

Farmers' markets and social media

Halifax's Farmers' Market

I think I first wrote about the similarities between social media and farmers' markets back in February and the image above has been a part of several presentations I've given in the past year or so. I stumbled upon Tom's post referencing David Korten earlier this week and it got me thinking again. Here's an excerpt from the referenced interview: 

"...one of the interesting examples is the data that shows that people who shop in a farmers’ market have ten times the number of conversations of people who shop in a supermarket. And, you know, I know that from when I lived here in New York on Union Square and I did most of my grocery shopping at the farmers’ market. And, yeah, you meet people, and you talk, and you meet your neighbors, and you get acquainted with the farmer that grows your produce and so forth. And this is all about building relationships. And, you know, we have so monetized the economy, and a part of that process is monetizing relationships. And it diminishes our very humanity."  - David Korten

Beautiful.

Have you ever gone to a farmers' market in a rush... when you just wanted to get in and out with minimal fuss? I have. It doesn't work particularly well. You're going against the grain... everybody else is taking their time, chatting with each other, sipping a coffee, etc. - no rush whatsoever. You may still be able to get in, get what you need, and get out, but you'll do so with the understanding that your behaviour really is largely out of place and that your hurried pace is likely pissing others off. Everyone else is focused on the in-between... the stuff that happens between the times when they're taking cash out of a wallet to buy stuff... and you're just focused on the stuff.

So if the old, 'traditional' way of doing things was more like supermarkets - communication via 'messages' with minimal time for chit chat (just hurry up and buy something already!) - then today, it's more like a farmers' market.  There's a lot more conversation going on - and you better get pretty good at the stuff "in-between".

Imitation and ReTweets

Frank mentioned a great Eric Hoffer quote a few days ago:

"When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other."

Dan Zarella, who has been doing some research around ReTweeting, said the following in a post yesterday on Copyblogger:

"Nearly every form of viral sharing that I’ve looked into includes some form of social proof. Humans have a natural tendency toward imitation, especially of those who they assume have more or better information than themselves. The likelihood of a tweet being ReTweeted increases dramatically each time it is ReTweeted."

While I'd like to know more about the "especially of those who they assume have more or better information than themselves" part (it seems to be heading down that influencer road again that Mark has warned us about), it's the last line that sums it up so well. Essentially, ReTweets beget further ReTweets.

In addition to making stuff easier to share, the social web allows each of us to keep loosely connected to a greater number of people than would otherwise be possible. And, in the process, we're finding new ways to copy each other. That's just how us super-social apes work...

Order, control and social media specialists

When Dee Hock introduced the world to chaordic theory in 1993, he also gave us an interesting way to think about the transition companies go through as they shift away from purely traditional forms of communications. 

Chaordic theory essentially views chaos, order and control as existing on a continuum with each system characteristic overlapping the next in sequence.  The intersection of chaos and order is what Hock calls the chaordic path - where the minimum amount of order is maintained that allows for the creativity inherent in chaos to be positively channeled. A gross oversimplification of course, but that gives you a sense of it. You can learn all about it here if interested further.

I've found that an awful lot of so-called social media specialists like to dazzle their clients with talk of the chaos of it all. (Official Notice: calling the blogosphere the 'wild west' has to be at least 4 years out of date.)  And companies spend a lot of time lamenting the loss of control, or more accurately a loss of perceived control.  

If you endeavour to earn a living counseling clients in social media, the real work ahead is not in explaining how twitter works or endlessly musing about the intricacies of the blogosphere.  The real challenge is in helping them come to terms with the fact that their previous sense of controlling the message was simply an illusion and then working with them to introduce a level of order to their work in the space - one that allows them to embrace the perceived chaos and begin making the real change that is necessary for them to be relevant going forward. 

In other words, your work is in helping them find their chaordic path.