Social Objects improve your website

I recently learned about social objects by following a link a friend sent me to Hugh MacLeod's 'gapingvoid' blog. The concept of these objects has become popular in marketing circles as businesses continue to grapple with social media and how to use it.

While I was studying I worked early mornings at a local bakery. I didn't have a lot in common with the bakers but I made a point of finding out who had won the football on the weekend so that I could talk about it with them. I'd never been interested in footy before, but for the two or three seasons that I worked there I enjoyed following it purely for the social aspect.

In this interaction, football acts as a social object. It's something that we talked about and shared with each other. It could have been anything, but the bakers liked football so I did too.

How you can use Social Objects

Social objects give people reasons to get together, talk, interact and simply hang out. Understanding how they work online allows us to build sites that interact better with our users and show clarity of purpose.

There are three ways that we can use Social Objects on the web.

1. Make the site itself a social object

If your website is astonishingly awesome or has a new, interesting idea it will become a social object itself. People will talk about it, share it with their friends, and blog about it. Other media will even come on board and cover it.

Think about websites you've heard mentioned on the radio (not in ads), these are guaranteed to be social objects at some level. They include big players like facebook, twitter and myspace but also smaller concerns that catch people's interest like Slap Corey.

2. Provide content that is a social object

YouTube is a classic example of a site that makes use of social objects as content. Besides the interactivity that happens online with comments, favourites and channels, the social aspects of the videos transcend the internet and make it into conversations across all media. Groups of friends show each other funny videos. Business people email each other the latest inspirational talks. Creative types get together to watch other people's creations.

3. Allow people to talk about social objects

Some sites and applications don't have content themselves but act as a platform to enable sharing of objects with others. It's called 'social media' because people share social objects - in fact, if we think about the definition above, pretty much anything people share becomes a social object.

People can share anything on Twitter, for example, although the site itself is very simple and has very little content. Even the content that people do create is relevant only for a short time. So why do people use it? Becuase it's an easy way of sharing other social objects: activities, sports, thoughts, links, events and more. People use Twitter because it's an easy channel for sharing social objects.

Social Objects perform

Social Objects are powerful. If you can successfully harness that power then people will send others to your site, word will spread and your visits will increase.

A perfect example is Hugh's gapingvoid blog. A friend sends it to me, I post about it here, others do the same. People visit his site, read his thoughts, look at his art - and he makes a living. It all works.

With careful planning, delivery and a bit of luck your site can use social objects to perform better as well.