Will Wright has created some of the best video games in history including SimCity, The Sims, and (slightly less successfully),  Spore. Will Wright’s keynote speech during the Web 2.0 2009 Conference was billed as “A Conversation”.  It was by far and away the most talked about keynote of the entire convention that had implications far beyond video games.

So why was everyone interested in what Will Wright had to say about Web 2.0?  Well, the man can see the future and his insights were invaluable.  Here’s how what Will Wright had to say and how it impacts Social Media Strategy:

Don’t Educate Me; Motivate Me

• “Education is not the filling of the pail, but the spark of the fire.  I’m interested in how to get kids motivated.  Once they are motivated, get out of the way, and they will learn themselves.”

• Impact: Let wikipedia provide the facts, give your users frameworks or a set of tools.  I see many Social Media Strategies along the lines of “Our site will educate customers on how to improve their daily lives.”  Facts are a commodity on the internet right now.  What matters to your users is how they can APPLY THE FACTS to their specific needs.

Keep (The Content) About Me

• “My central premise in game design is that people are narcissistic.  The more you make it about them, the more they like it.”
  
• Impact - Study the deep detail behind what your users or customers want or need, and then, with laser-like focus, give them what they need.  Companies have many great ideas about what they THINK people want, but so rarely do they understand the customer enough to give them what they want.
• So rarely does our content truly match up with what our customers want.  Talk to your market research department, study what the blogs are saying, or RUN A TWITTER SEARCH!  Just make sure you aren’t guessing.

Revolve the Universe Around Me

• “The Web allows us to make games asynchronously.  Spore was a Massively Single Player Online Game; you are God in your own universe, but you are affected by others.”
• IMPACT: Give users the ability to access your content on their own terms.  Many companies have to measure Social Media Strategy with metrics like page views or unique visitors, but forcing measurements like that do not easy ways for users to see your content.

Forrester’s classic 2007 report on Social Technographics is an easy way to explain the use of Social Media.  I’ve used this construct many times to show how broad social media participation is.  Additionally, this construct increases Social Media Strategy understanding since most everyone has done one of these activities.

Recently, some of the most valuable people in my networks don’t really fall into a class on this ladder.  I’ll propose we call them “Surfacers”.  You know who this person is, it’s the person whose links on facebook or twitter you ALWAYS read.   They don’t add commentary or content, but they play a HUGE role in what you click on every day.

Here is Forrester’s classic construct:

The Surfacer falls somewhere within the Top 5 rungs…but has these unique characteristics

• Digests massive quantities of content through RSS feeds, their friends’ content, and their own curiosity
• Avoids posting content that is super-popular
• Takes pride in ability to share new information
• Focused primarily on sharing information with friends, not with broader community
• Credits friend/source of information

I have no idea how to get to the percentages that Forrester did, but the strategic implication is clear.  These are the “taste-makers” that marketers dream about.  They provide tremendous value to their friends by finding and filtering the best content from around the web.   The implication for content creators is to make it easy for them to find information, determine its uniqueness, and allow them to clearly share and communicate its value with friends.

For Discussion:  Is this a common role in social networks?  Are those who want to play this role constrained by technology?