ZeFrank & Jonah Peretti @ Science Gallery

I have been to my share of talks on social media in the last month; in fact I’ve been to my share, your share and that guy’s share as well. Web 2.0 Expo was all social media, all the time; companies and people trying to reverse-engineer the success of social media success stories so that maybe they too can achieve the same success. Usually, this noodling focuses on the mechanics of viral ideas; the how, the who, the when and where - but it rarely focuses on the people, the why, the needs; because these are human problems, and human problems are hard. So, I wasn’t dreading the ZeFrank/Peretti talk, but was curious to see if they’d have anything new or interesting to say. Thankfully, they did.

Peretti is a bit of a nervous public speaker, but his energy and intelligence crackles. He is the founder of Buzzfeed and is a co-founder of the Huffington Post.

He gave a quick “why is social media different” intro (which you have no-doubt heard a million times; broadcast/passive Vs networked/active), and then reinforced the idea that it’s hard/impossible to pick apart successful viral ideas to find the reasons why their successful. He (maybe a little hypocritically…eek…sorry)  gave a few prerequisites for the success of viral ideas, including:

1. Tailoring viral ideas to the “bored at work network”
2. Offering quick, trivial ways for people to contribute and share virals
3. Asking passionate advocates (“crazy people”) to go a bit further, and share more
4. Use real-time analytics to highlight the stuff that’s working, and bury the stuff that isn’t

ZeFrank is such an entertaining, passionate guy. He presented his thoughts on social media based around a series of moments in his life; steps along the way to where his interests, understanding and work are now. This guy gets it. Users aren’t “users” - they’re people, they have fears, emotions, likes, dislikes, preferences and hopes, and sometimes they see things online that resonate with them at a certain level, and make them want to be part of something broader than the screen or device in front of them. This was a really refreshing, empathetic, honest take on social media - much needed.

ZeFrank’s work is also a testament to blind, hopeful experimentation. He showed several examples of viral ideas that went absolutely nowhere - a surprising number actually. Sometimes we are just afraid to try things, fail spectacularly (which he has several times), learn and move on. I think I am a totally victim of this - I have drifted from self-motivated practical/tangible experimentation into analysis and design on behalf of clients, where there’s usually far less room to fail. Another much needed kick in the ass to be honest.

So, great night. Thanks to Jonah Peretti and ZeFrank for speaking, and for all the Science Gallery team for organising it. Hat tip to @goodonpaper, @eoghanmccabe and @takete who were also there, among many other lovely webby people.