Social voting has long been a tricky game: on one hand you want to play a fair game, on the other hand you may come to realize that you are unlikely to succeed without connections and vote exchange. Ask almost any “power” social media user: he votes by request and asks for votes.
Now, here’s the news: social voting has evolved – it is getting smarter and more transparent.
Facebook: Where Your “Like” Goes
Despite popular beliefs, a “Like” on Facebook does NOT only express your appreciation and shares your find with your friends via your personal feed. A “Like” is something bigger. It categorizes you and ranks your profile in Facebook search – ultimately, a “Like” is used to promote Facebook content.
Really, nothing is simpler than going around the web “liking” web sites and pages: all you need to do is just to click a button on the page (or use a third-party browser plugin or script). But where does that “Like” go?
Sure – as we mentioned – your “Like” shows up on your personal feed and, depending on your privacy settings, becomes visible to your friends, family or any Facebook user. However, most importantly, Facebook uses your “Like” to recommend the fan page or content to your friends.
Have you ever wondered why you see only familiar faces on almost any Facebook page widget you come across? This is because Facebook pulls the list of your friends who “liked” the page and displays those to you (to encourage you to “like” the page as well):
As such (depending on the button settings), when a friend of yours lands on a page you “Liked” they will automatically view your recommendation as an incentive to click the button themselves:
Your “Like” is, essentially, a direct recommendation of yours and an encouragement for your connections to take action.
What’s in Your Digg?
If you had the chance to check out the new Digg-4.0 alpha edition (or to read the detailed review), you should have noticed how much more emphasis is put on what your friends (people you follow) do. We are no longer merely shown a list of trending topics – instead, we see a list of trending topics and news recommended by your friends.
Specifically, information regarding what friend voted for what story is available on your home page (under “My News,” “See what the people you follow are digging,” and “See the top stories as dugg by your friends!”):
You see your friends’ names at the general “Top” page listing popular stories:
Ultimately, every vote you make is visible to people you know and is perceived as your personal recommendation. In such a way, you are an influencer to your connections.
(New) Social Voting Responsibility
Now, don’t get me wrong: your social circle recommendations have been in place for a long time. Facebook has been utilizing this for a while and StumbleUpon has a few similar features as well (i.e. you see your friends’ names within Google search results if you have StumbleUpon plugin installed and the feature enabled).
What is happening now is just the logical development of algorithms: more emphasis is put on your connections and more influence is given to each person inside their circle.
Just as Brent Csutoras eloquently put it during one of the BlueGlass LA sessions, you are an influencer now. And you should be aware of that and behave accordingly. All of your actions are visible to everyone – every time you vote, comment or participate, your actions are not distributed to a selective few, but to everyone that follows you.
Your vote (no matter how nonchalantly you have been treating it by digging and liking on request) is your direct recommendation to your friends.
Previously, your vote might have been lost in a crowd: the number was the decisive metric. Now it’s your connection. The story doesn’t have to go hot to be viewed by hundreds of your connections as well as connections of your connections.
The more followers you have, the more people see your every vote and judge you by it. Therefore, one would be wise to increase the level of care with which one participates.
Do you realize your social media responsibility? Are you eager to change accordingly?
Talking about social media recommendations, consider liking BlueGlass page at Facebook and recommend it to your friends – they’ll love you for it!
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