In yesterday’s post A Definition of Noise, I talked about two types of social media consumers. Those who have a strong desire to receive only signal (signalists) and those who are looking for stuff outside their own interests (discoverers).
I thought it would be interesting to explore this a little further. Shall we break it down a little more?
Where are you on this table?
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See this item on FriendFeed: http://friendfeed.com/search?q=%22social+media+consumption+you+want+signal+or+discovery%22&public=1
I am a discoverer and always will be. BUT… I want to seek a deeper understanding of things and I also have a strong preference for those who are passionate about that which they cover. So … both.
Comment by Louis Gray — June 5, 2008 @ 10:28 pm
+1 for Discoverer.
Comment by atul — June 5, 2008 @ 10:38 pm
I’m primarily a Signalist (it so sounds like I’m a conservative in an increasingly liberal society, but that’s what I am) although I do go on discovery binges every once in a while and return back to my “things I’m passionate about” castle.
Comment by Sachendra Yadav — June 5, 2008 @ 11:05 pm
I think I’m a discoverer, but I like the occasional deep dive as well.
Comment by Mark Dykeman — June 6, 2008 @ 2:55 am
Love the breakdown, but I am somewhere in between. I like to keep my feed list larger and I filter by exclusion. But, I like content rankings/relevance and a deeper understanding of things.
Comment by Rob Diana — June 6, 2008 @ 5:24 am
Definitely a discoverer, but I can’t help thinking that there’s something in between, like Rob above. We’re probably all variations in between with a few people at the extremes.
This can also be applied to other topics, like sports, food, web design, etc. I’m more of a signalist when it comes to sports.
Comment by Shey — June 6, 2008 @ 5:52 am
Can we get a middle section? I’m a mixture of both.
+ I’m a signalist with filters.
+ Discoverer with subscription decisions
+ Discoverer with number of subscriptions
+ Both for content rankings.
+ Both for time spent on social media.
A little of both with a preference for discovering.
Comment by Corvida — June 6, 2008 @ 7:12 am
Great responses here. For myself, I’m also in the middle. Started much more as a signalist, but as I’ve gotten comfortable with FriendFeed and the flow of stuff, I’ve expanded into the right column a lot more.
Comment by Hutch Carpenter — June 6, 2008 @ 12:24 pm
I’m a discoverer according to Hutch’s table, but I don’t necessarily want to wade thru tons of stuff to discover, at least not all the time. It would be nice to have a discovery filter, though I don’t know how that would work.
I like the new “best of” filters. But I also think we have to be careful to not equate relevance with popularity (if that’s how the “best of” routines work). Popularity depends on who’s voting and what they want. If you don’t totally share their criteria, “best of” rankings might not help you much. Either that or choose your friends carefully
I’ve noticed there’s no “best of” option in rooms, just in the general friends feed. It might be interesting to apply the new “best of” filtering to rooms in addition to the general friends feed. That way, you’ve at least chosen to share some specific subject with the members of the room.
Comment by Tom Landini — June 6, 2008 @ 2:03 pm
[...] got some great, sharp insights into social media and its associated challenges. One of his signal vs. noise posts was quoted in ReadWriteWeb, so you know he’s got a sharp mind and writing [...]
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[...] Kirkpatrick wrote a great post about the signal vs. noise discussion today (see also Hutch Carpenter’s article from yesterday about this). I recommend you read the whole article, because it puts a lot of the [...]
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I would imagine everyone is a bit of each, with an emphasis one way or another. I’d say I’m a focused discoverer. I do have a preference for subjects of specific interest and passion, but I’m aware that there’s a limit to how much I can concentrate on. So I pick and choose what’s of worth, and what’s of worth tends to be what’s closely of interest to me.
Comment by Robin Cannon — June 7, 2008 @ 4:37 am
[...] Hutch Carpenter hat das Thema mal ein wenig aufgedröselt und unterscheidet zwischen zwei Typen Internet-Usern. Er unterscheidet sie in ihrem Konsumverhalten hinsichtlich sozialer Medien wie Blogs, Foren, Twitter-Streams,… [...]
Pingback by Es rauscht im Netz | quickes wohnzimmer — June 10, 2008 @ 5:10 am
[...] it. Hutch Carpenter broke it down even further classifying 2 types of social media consumers, Signalist or Discoverer’s. I would have to classify myself as a little of both, leaning towards the side of discoverer. [...]
Pingback by My thoughts on social networking applications. » Blog Archive » Robert Scoble noise on Friendfeed - I embrace it. — June 12, 2008 @ 9:36 pm
[...] Social Media Consumption: You Want Signal or Discovery? « I’m Not Actually a Geek an interesting breakdown of readers into those have a strong desire to receive only signal (signalists) and those who are looking for stuff outside their own interests (discoverers) (tags: web2.0 socialmedia socialnetworking interesting media social signal noise complexity) [...]
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[...] Social Media Consumption Differences: Image by Hutch Carpenter [...]
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