What We Can Learn From the 25 Things About Me Lists on Facebook - If Sharing Creates Deeper Friendships, then Sharing Online With Current and Potential Customers Should also Create Deeper Customer Loyalty
For the past several weeks on Facebook using the “Notes” application to write a “25 Things About Me” list have been all the rage. For those of you not familiar with these lists, they involve writing down the first top-of-mind 25 things about yourself that you think of, even if rather private. Some may be very defining, others more trivial. You then post this list in Facebook and ‘tag’ at last 25 of your friends who are then free to comment on your list and are also supposed to create their own list and share with 25 people.
The difference between other SNS applications, like those Anderson Analytics has created for Facebook, and this one is that this isn’t really a specific application, rather it involves using a simple tool already available on Facebook to express a basic/personal need.
An estimated 5 million + lists have been posted already. Earlier this month, mention of the lists started showing up in media, many surprisingly negative such as this article from Time : 25 Things I Didn’t Want to Know About You where writer Claire Suddath comments that while the list “seems harmless enough… [but] this recent bout of viral narcissism has sent roughly 800,000 hours of worktime productivity down the drain”. She goes on to call it stupid.
After having received several of these lists from facebook friends since January, mainly from women, I decided to interview a few of these FB friends. Of course the lists themselves are a potential gold mine for market researchers like myself who utilize text analytics, but I was more interested in the reason behind the popularity and viralness of these notes. I found that for some, creating the lists became very important, they simply had to share these things. The process itself seemed to be therapeutic. More importantly from a CGM/SNS perspective, unlike the reaction from the Time article quotes above, for the vast majority, reading other peoples lists was a very positive and bonding experience.
After several invites I debated whether I should make my own list . I finally did (see below if interested). Importantly, I think this is what managing new media successfully is all about. I’ve been telling our clients not to worry so much about word-smithing and carefully controlling their image online. What is rare/refreshing and what customers want most is honesty. Those who are willing to bare themselves, including mistakes, in ways like this stand to gain a lot of social equity. If our goal through online media is to generate more customers and deeper relationships, then they need to first become our friends. The way friendships develop are through sharing honestly…not spinning!
25 THINGS ABOUT ME
RULES: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.
(To do this, go to “notes” under tabs (+) on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.)
OK, I’m going to do this…
1. I love strong black coffee, realistic action and drama or comedy movies, and I’m afraid of heights (oops that was more than 1)
2. I love nature: views, trees, mountains, rivers and the ocean, I’ll pick that over the city almost any day
3. I also love storms, rain, thunder, wind, snow. Love that nature shows she has ultimate power over man.
4. I love intelligent discussion and debates, especially over beers. You can’t really offend me. Unfortunately some people get offended too easily
5. I took the ROTC test in HS and scored incredibly high, that should have been a warning sign. Luckily my parents talked me out of it (My father was in WWII). Still for a long time I thought about doing something like the peace corps or something like that.
6. I’m not too picky in who I befriend though it takes a while. I think I have a lot of friends and I keep them forever. I’m very loyal. I extend these ideals to my larger network as well. I think some people don’t value friendship and interaction with other people enough, especially in America. We’re way too caught up in our jobs and nuclear family. Of course, now I’m guilty of this as well.
7. I’m fluent in Swedish, and pretty good at Norwegian and Danish (Yes they’re similar, but most Scandinavians still have difficulty). I nearly learned Chinese, but got the tones wrong so have been forgetting it. I bet I could get by ok in Spanish if I had to.
8. I’d love to write a book if I ever get the time! Time is our biggest enemy.
9. I’m good at doing things I say I will do and never give up till I finish.
10. I tend to identify weaknesses and conquer them and they become strengths. But I’m trying to figure out if there is a better way. If I can do more of what I like and am naturally good at that might be a better life? Currently I feel I have to do a bit of everything though. Luckily I am fairly good at that and kind of enjoy it.
11. I always go for the underdog. I hate injustice and value fairness highly. I value truth, I hate lies, even white ones. I appreciate people who are straight forward even if it sometimes causes offense.
12. I don’t mind sitting back in a group and letting someone else take charge. However when I see injustice or things going the wrong way, or a bully , I will oppose even if I am the only one who will do so. This may be because we moved around a lot when I was a kid, and you usually meet and have to deal with the bullies first, or it may be my Scandinavian sense of egalitarianism, probably both.
13. I analyze everything too much, I get this from my mom. Wish I was a little more like my Dad and brother in this way, they just make a quick decision and never regret it (If they do I wouldn’t know. They are also better at keeping secrets) . So I can change my mind often, this can be a strength, but more often perhaps a weakness. Wonder if this is one I can/should work on.
14. I’ve always been on the Introvert/Extrovert borderline. I’ve always been neither an optimist nor a pessimist, rather a realist. Both of these are traits are changing now since starting a business. I am more optimistic than ever, you have to be. I’m also becoming more of an extrovert and enjoy meeting more people.
15. I thought I would have more freedom having my own business, but I work way more hours than ever before, and get outside to enjoy nature less often. I still have stress, but less of it and usually it’s “good stress”.
16. I want everyone to like me. But I’ve realized that’s not always possible, nor a good idea in business. So I try not to stress too much if I offend one or two people once in a blue moon, as long as most people really like me and I do what I think is right.
17. Something I’m ashamed of… when I was younger I was ashamed of bringing my Dad to school. He’s quite a bit older so the other kids thought he was my grandfather, I let them. I regret/am ashamed of this now as he’s a great man. Interestingly I told him this once recently. He said the reason he tried to come to school with me is that he thought I would have been embarrassed over my Mom’s Swedish accent (I wouldn’t have been). Why? , because he was embarrassed over his parents’ accents as they were both Swedish immigrants. What comes around goes around I guess…
18. People say opposites attract but likes stay together, and that people get married to spouses who are like their parents. But my wife couldn’t be more different than my mother or my for that matter. The only thing we have in common is a big heart and that we love each other deeply and love life. We dated for 9 years and have been married for 8.
19. Oh there’s one other thing my wife and I have in common, we both love to travel. We actually have a world map on the wall in the home office with pins. Yellow pin means I’ve been to that country, black pin -she’s been there, green pin we’ve both been there. We’re about tie and are mainly adding green pins now.
20. Any bad things I may have tried in HS was not really due to peer pressure as much as curiosity. I could have applied myself a lot better in HS and undergraduate than I did. Though I wonder if I would raise my kids much differently than my parents raised me. Perhaps not. I enjoyed graduate school a lot more.
21. I’m a collector of licenses. I suppose I have the need to feel I can do anything. Over the years I’ve gotten licenses for everything from motorcycles, trucks, buses, bartending, hunting, firearms etc. Sometimes I don’t get a license I do it anyway, like Scuba. Currently I’m considering airplane/Helicopter license.
22. One of my goals is to live on two continents, probably US and somewhere in Scandinavia. In some ways that goal seems closer now than ever before, in some ways further.
23. I hate people who unconditionally think the US is the best country in the world on every attribute, i.e. “Love it or leave it”. Don’t get me wrong, the US is a great country, especially for business. But these people either have not traveled enough, are not intelligent enough to look for improvement in themselves and things around them, or are otherwise terribly closed minded.
24. I joined the republican party when I was 18, though I voted independently for several years I didn’t bother changing parties until Bush first became elected and I saw his economic plan. I voted for Nader several times because the two party system seems ridiculous to me and because what he had done he deserved to win more than any other candidate. I believe my vote counted more that way. I voted for Hillary in the primary and then for Obama. I’m very happy Obama won, still can’t believe it. Almost make me wonder about rewording #23 a bit, nah, LOL
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