Friday, April 9, 2010
Each person we encounter has their own Social Circle – a collection of people from all of the places they’ve been and all of the things that they’ve done with their life.
When our Social Circles meet, we expose each other to new ways of seeing the world, and steer one another towards new experiences. This intersection is where we share all of the things that make us unique – our opinions, passions, desires, and fears.
It’s here that our worlds collide – where new ideas take shape and spread.
I think there’s something really great about the way our social circles can unite us. One of my favorite ways that this happens is through parties and gatherings. Last week I suggested to a friend that we have a bonfire at the end of this next week to take time to relax and socialize in the midst of a demanding semester. He spread the word to his roommates, who suggested we fire up the grill, because, well, what’s a party without the food! I invited a few of my fellow art thesis students, and it began to spread to the whole lot of art students. One roommate invited a girl he fancied, and she planned to bring all of her roommates. Before my friend and I knew it, we were heading up a pretty substantial bonfire & barbecue with a variety of circles of people that all sprung up from a few small circle connections.
I got to thinking, how do you plan a great gathering for a group with so many connections, and yet such great diversity? How do you get the information to the right party people in a way that’s engaging and exciting? How do I think in social circles? I wrote this blog-style guide as a way to process these questions, and as a possible solution for them that involves social media and event design.
1. A Theme That We Can All Get Behind
The first step to planning a great party, that will unite your circles, is to pick a theme. Look at your target party-goers and come up with a list of common interests for them. If you want to plan a small get together, a specific theme will draw a specific, yet modest crowd. A broader theme will draw in friends of all types of social circles. Themes that tend work well for a more diverse crowd can involve currently popular memes or experiences that the whole group might share. An Awkward Family Photobooth Party or a Twitter Bird Costume Contest would draw on trends and experiences that a larger circle of people are familiar with. For this example, I devised a theme called Springtime for Minnesota. Here in the Midwest, we all know too well that tease named Spring. One day you’re in your parka, one day you’re in your shorts, and one day you finally stop caring about the below freezing temperatures and just keep wearing your shorts anyway in an act of defiance.
2. Give Your Party an ID Card
The identity of your party spreads a message to prospective attendees about the theme and the high caliber of gathering you intend to put together. This identity helps you promote your event through a wide range of social media, as well as direct contact with friends and colleagues. This identity for Springtime for Minnesota visually conveys the theme with a few design elements that can be used in a variety of ways to promote and create day-of decorations. For this example, I chose specific colors and used them to create a type-set title, an event logo, and a basic background image.
3. The Main Attractions
Before you can tell all of your 645 best friends on Facebook about your upcoming event, you need to take a look at what you can provide for your attendees. Themed (but delicious!) food & drink, activities, and music should be decided upon at this point so you can give your friends an accurate and fabulous representation of they party they will be dying to attend. Think outside of the box for ideas that will really make the party a unique experience without breaking your budget. Springtime for Minnesota might serve cold salsa with a really spicy kick, or have a hot cocoa and Popsicle bar. Costume contests are always fun; it gives your party people a way to loosen up and become the creative souls themselves. I would love to see guests at Springtime for Minnesota show off their best “Confusing Weather” pairings, perhaps donning flip-flops and short-shorts in the same outfit as a ski mask and puffy vest. Double points for successful executions of Hawaiian prints juxtaposed with snowflakes. The music can fit the mood or be suggested by each guest in their RSVP to give them an even more personal connection to the event.
4. The Talk of the Town
Promote your party in a variety of methods in order to get a buzz started and to spread the word. Use your event’s identity materials on your favorite social media sites to place the image into your friends’ heads. Create a Facebook group that talks about all of the great attractions, and plays to the audiences shared experience in the theme you’ve chosen. For Springtime in Minnesota, I can use the background image I created for a twitter background, in conjunction with a twitpic of myself and any co-planners dressed to suit. Brainstorming good copy for a 140-char promotion is hard, but if you take some time to craft a great line it will certainly pay off. Depending on how big your event will be, get involved in other media that will bring in a strong crowd. For the Minnesota crowd, sites like vita.mn and mspmag.com would be great places to submit a large scale event, or simply grow your own social circle. In addition to the great benefits of social media, it’s also good to remember the impact of a physical invitation. Consider printing invitations or handouts to personally give to the people in your circles that you run into often enough, perhaps even giving them enough to give to their other social circles.
5. Work It!
Look to the talent in your social circles to help create the decorations, or cater the food. There’s a good chance you have willing friends in your circles with the skills to pitch in and make it a great party. Incorporate your theme effectively, and always have a plan B you can count on in case it snows on your parade. When the party is in full swing, keeping small checklist of things that need to be periodically checked during the party will help you get through the tasks quickly while enjoying the party thoroughly. Try to touch base with all of the guests you invited and offer your thanks. Make a goal for how many new people you want to connect with; maybe you’ll finally find some friends that will go to that upcoming show at First Avenue with you, or that ComicCon you never thought you’d even admit to loving! Oh, and whatever you do, don’t forget to dress in the right style or costume for your party!
I think a great party has the potential to make a huge positive impact on a social circle, and have a sort of “Pay it Forward” effect of inspiration. This guide to event design, with social circles in mind, really encompasses how I aspire to interact with my peers. I want to inspire the creative spirit, and find ways to connect with the many different groups I consider myself a part of. It’s always encouraging to see bridges built when my circles collide, and I think that’s what a great party is all about.
Thinking in social circles is about seeing in the perspective of a brand outward through its interlocking connections. Last month, wanting to gain insights about social circles, I started a social experiment called Social Circle Project. My experiment began with a theory that I can reach and relay messages to people whom I am not in acquaintance with using my social circle connections. I will reach those I don’t know through those I know. In order to measure the result, I made a goal that I would get 1,000 people to do two tasks for me in one month, to become a Fan of this project on Facebook, and tell someone else to become a fan as well.
Strategically, I chose this format for two reasons. With Fan Page application, Facebook enables me to track fan activity, monitor and collect other data such as demography, country of residence, etc. Secondly, I hate chain emails that end with “If you don’t forward this email to ten people, something bad will happen to you.” (That just creates bad karma.) Plus, with Facebook’s easy interface, the tasks are much more convenient. All the tools are planted at the fingertips—just click “Accept” and post the information on the Facebook status. Bing, Bam, Boom.
On March 7, 2010, Social Circles Project Fan Page was founded. My overzealous plan was in place—starting with a post to the project’s Fan Page along with a sugar-coated message about me needing a big favor on my Facebook status and let all my 122 friends light the fireworks. (122? Don’t laugh, I’m a very private person.)
Well, the fireworks didn’t really go off. It went sput, sput, pfff…
Almost a month later, I finally broke 250 fans. (Shhh, I think it’s funny too.) 25% of expected goal? Is this experiment a failure? Yes and no.
Firstly, a few of my predictions were confirmed true. My very first fans are those whom I speak to on regular basis. Also, after the first huge spike of fans rate without an aggressive campaign to follow, the fizz fizzles out quickly. Lastly, my favorite, I’m friends with too many skeptics.
Social Circle is about connection. Good brand connects people. I did not create a good brand. It was intentional—a controlled experiment. The brand was unknown—only two forms of advertising were used, social media and words-of-mouth. The participants were kept in the dark. None knew much about the experiment nor did they know that it could help me get an internship. The incentive was also controlled. What’s in it for you? Nothing, friends. You’ll do it because it makes me happy—yes, for the pure loyalty of a friendship. That worked! Within 4 days, the project reached its first 100 fans—80% of those, I’m already friends with on Facebook. Not bad at that rate? If I kept this up, I could reach 1,000 fans in less than a month. Sooner than my expected goal. Assuming that each of my 100 fans completed the second task by getting every single one of their 100 friends to join. Keyword, assuming.
Well, that did not happen.
The next one and a half weeks of the project inception, I let the first wave worked its course. I wanted to see how far my ripple effect would reach until it completely died down. The bubble bursted quickly (see graph below.) The momentum disappeared within the first week. Also, I limited all communication on Facebook—no post was released on the Fan Page to keep fan engaged and interested. No interaction. No mention of the name, Social Circle project on my Facebook status. At the end of the second week, the total fans slowly creeped up to 128 fans and halted. Without connection, the project stood still.
The second peak in total fans was induced by the aide of LinkedIn. I used my groups’ discussion boards to advertise my project. Few responded. Then, the third peak, I stole my roommate’s computer and used his Facebook account to invite all his 923 friends to join. Sneaky, sneaky. That got me about a hundred fans. As of April 9, 2010, the total fans stands at 255. On the bright side, that is twice the number of my Facebook friends.
Indeed, I failed to reach the goal of 1,000 fans, but I also did gain a greater insights about social circles because of this failure. It has forced me to examine my strategy of what actually went wrong, what went according to plan, and which theories were confirmed true. I was, in fact, in the eyes of the storm.
1. The strongest links to any social circle are those with loyalty based on connection. Brand loyalty is hard-earned, but the greatest.
2. Interaction creates connection. A great brand creates a conversation that connects the audience, which sustains the life of a brand.
3. Incentive is everything. A Fan Page that starts with “First 25,000 fans get a $500 Best Buy gift card,” is more likely to reach 1,000 fans in a month.
4. Word-of-mouth is still the most effective form of advertising. Those whom I have spoken to face-to-face, brought the most fans to the page while my outer circle of friends, only became a fan and ignored the second task.
5. People are often skeptical when asked to react, but within your inner social circle, you can ask them to do almost anything. Once again, all about connection.
6. You need more than a bag of tricks to sustain interest in a brand. It’s always a never-ending campaign. The minute the dialog subsides, the audience will lose interest.
7. We are all connected. Identify the connection and you can always reach those whom you don’t know through those whom you already know.
Social Circle Project will continue until it reaches the goal of 1,000 fans. To track its ambition or become a fan of this social experiment, please visit Social Circle Project Fan Page on Facebook.
-Andii Bunnag
jumpingyellow@yahoo.com
When I think in terms of social circles, I think about how people define one another through their circles. In this wonderful world of ours everyone has their unique perspective, but that perspective is constantly changing and is heavily influenced by our respective social circles. We talk with our families, hang out with our friends and interact with our coworkers and classmates. Even if we’re feeling too lazy to leave the house we can (and some people do) spend hours surfing social networking sites. How each of us is connected to the people around us may vary, but the fact that the way we think, feel and make decisions is influenced by the opinions, actions, and ideas of those people remains constant.
Everything we experience has the potential to influence us. Our social circles are a means of sorting through the clutter. We connect most strongly with people who have interests similar to our own. We decide these people can be trusted, and we respect what they have to say. These are the people with whom we enjoy shared experiences. We exchange ideas and introduce one another to new things because when we find something we like, we want to share it. And we share it with the people we know to have similar tastes and interests.
For the purposes of branding, the better we understand this idea of social circles, the more effective we can be. We don’t want our brands to be splashes of color in the mass of clutter. Thinking in social circles allows us to position our brands more effectively, in ways that make it easier for them to become a part of and facilitate those shared experiences that are truly influential.
Social circles are constantly changing and morphing; Current members taking a step back to make room for new members; New members introducing old members to new circles. The cycle repeats itself over and over. The following is a story drawn in MSpaint about the social circles I chose to be a part of in college and how they led me to be the person I am today. My story starts in my bedroom on a muggy August day in 2005 with me apprehensively awaiting the most important piece of mail I will ever receive. Unfortunately, the mail does not come this day and my anxiety is let to fade for the day. The next day is the actual start of my story; the day I received the most anticipated/dreaded letter of the summer: my college roommate assignment. The girl I had been assigned as roommate was Ashley Something-Or-Other from Somewhere, MN:
Whether we know it or not, we all think in social circles. From a family, to friends, to a corporation, to a nation; each communal construct has some sort of social circle…Read More»
download image here: see-social-circles
As a graphic designer, I participate in many different social circles on a daily basis. Above, I have visually demonstrated how I think in these social circles by comparing my design style to a kaleidoscope.
A kaleidoscope transforms various pieces into beautiful, unexpected designs held within a circle shape. Like the designs a kaleidoscope creates, my designs are made up of simple shapes and patterns, repeated to create a more intricate design.
The pattern of a kaleidoscope changes each time it is shifted; similarly, I approach each challenge presented to me differently and give a uniqueness to that piece. My designs are made up of small parts of a process to create one continuous cycle of design, just as a kaleidoscope creates a finished piece from many small parts.
These kaleidoscope patterns change with each movement, but all of them have the same, consistent core or center; my design style changes, I execute and introduce new ideas, but my overall style and process stays consistent and strong.
My name is Levi Lowell and I dream in color.
Here is a link to the full PDF-
www.coroflot.com/levilowell
levi.lowell@gmail.com