Tag 3 Besties

If you have ever been 13 years old, you are most likely familiar with the “tag 3 of your besties” phenomenon. I know we all collectively prefer to repress these memories, but they are useful in the context of spreadability and stickiness. Jenkins, author of Spreadable Media, comments on the idea of stickiness as the need to create content that attracts and engages your audience and it seems that we have all fallen into this trap at least once. From the classic 2013 cartoon grid on Instagram to company giveaways, corporations and personal accounts have quickly harnessed the power of “like, comment, and tag your friends!” to pull in views and increase user activity.

Jenkins explains “the success in stickiness depends on spreadability”, meaning, your post is useless if it does not reach others. Despite the cringe associated with tagging 12 of you friends on Instagram as funny, cute, smart, etc., posts like these were effective in pulling people into looking at your posts and usually to respond in the comments. The role of spreadability, or uniting an audience to view a message, in these types of posts is operative to staying relevant on a social platform. Tag your friends posts explicitly identified who your friends were and what crowd you associated with to publicize to others that you have close friendships. Posts that try to sell a new makeup collection with the requirements of following, commenting, and tagging friends virtually have the same goal in mind. They are trying to let your followers know that you like their company enough to publicly post about them and land a few more eyes on their page. Ideally, your friends would gain interest in the giveaway and tag even more people.  In the picture attached, to enter their giveaway, you had to follow 2 accounts and tag 2 friends. This adjusts your feed to seeing more of their posts as well as checking their page more often to see if you won. Tactics like this are functional because the cost of the prize they are offering is far less valuable than getting activity and followers from a single post.

An advantage of spreadability is that it can build a relationship between corporations and large industries to consumers that opens a window for communication. If this relationship is perceived to be personal, through giveaways, shoutouts, and follow sprees, customers become more appreciative and loyal to brands they love. Even local coffeeshops have jumped on the trend of creating a hashtag that they advocate their customers use when posting their drinks. By doing so, an entire page is available advertising their drinks just by clicking the hashtag. It is worthwhile to mention that although spreading did not originate on social media, it has been amplified by the gigantic audience offered online.

While the fame and attention from sharing, retweeting, and sending links can be fantastic for spreading a message or passing on news, it also exploits people and can be manipulated equally as quickly. For example, the yearbook picture of Ralph Northam from 1984 displaying blackface was revived online when someone found his picture in their yearbook. The picture spread online to millions within hours and ruined his reputation and credibility as a governor. News channels were covering the topic within the same day and were even tagged by accounts in hopes that they would mention it on TV.

The toxicity of stickiness also lies within the desire to have others engage with you and appreciate your content, often diluting the user’s true personality. Applied to the tag your friends example, this may be illustrated as tagging people you hardly know to be included in the trend. Succeeding at stickiness and spreadability requires manufacturing content that a massive amount of the general public would enjoy. Don’t believe me? Check your retweets. I can’t speak for anyone else but my retweets consist of dumb jokes, released tour dates, and my friend’s accomplishments. The jokes, especially, are retweeted because they are funny to me and vague enough that most of my followers would enjoy seeing them rather than being defensive. If I were to see a tweet that I thought of as funny, but that might the problematic, I most likely would not retweet it as to avoid arguments or backlash.

Looking back, the act of posting tag your besties pictures may not have the type of philosophical depth I’m pulling from it, but it certainly shows a similarity to how we post today and why. If you are looking for your posts to spread, as Jenkins would identify a success on social media, it may come at the cost of diluting personal qualities to please the general public. However, techniques such as telling followers to tag others, comment their favorites, or follow other accounts to win something utilizes the concept of stickiness and has proven useful for both personal and professional gain.