Social Networking – paradigm change from Push to Pull communication

Yes, I am convinced social networks bring along vast opportunities to optimize efficiency in collaboration. Nevertheless I am asked plenty of times, why I see it this way.

I would like to anchor my answer by referencing to the strong variance in statisics within my Tweets on Twitter.

Example1: Tweet on Altruism seems to have met interest of only few in my network (208 views).

Example2: Tweet on support for planning a Barcamp at Siemens reached more than 4.5k views.

How does this lead to the conclusion, that social networks increase efficiency in communications?

The two examples illustrate, that the recipients are not selected by the sender of information. Instead the reach of a tweet is the result of its relevance for the network. How come?

  • The reach of tweets majorly depends on the network’s response.
  • Readers can promote posts by liking or retweeting.
  • Any like or retweet leads to increased audience thanks to social network algorithms.
  • Hashtags help drawing attention from those interested in the tweet’s content.

I guess this effect can be named by the **paradigm change from push to pull communication,** which I identify as key advantage of social networking.

Accordingly – feel free to like, comment and reference to this post ;). Looking forward to the network response – Yours, Benedikt Pape

PS: How does the image of fishermen (source: pixabay) match the topic? I like to associate social networks to the ocean, where tweets swim around and readers fish them out if their hashtag matches.