[By Scott Juba, President, Radar Public Relations & Consulting, of counsel to Hennes Communications] I used to tell people that social media is the “great equalizer” – a place where everyone is equal and your ability to successfully communicate is not dependent on how large or small your brand may be. While I still believe there is a lot of truth in the general principal of that statement, it is becoming clear that some of the major social networks are more and more overtly deciding who has the most communications power online.
With increasing frequency, there are special features on social networks only available to well-known individuals and companies online. Take “Live,” Facebook’s new live-video streaming service that launched in early August. It is part of Facebook Mentions (an app exclusively for public figures with streamlined notifications from influencers and more). At rollout, Live was only accessible to a few celebrities with a verified page. This live-streaming video capacity on Facebook would be useful to a wide variety of people and organizations. Unfortunately, those who don’t have access to Facebook Mentions currently miss out.
It is possible that Facebook needed a test batch of users in order to refine the live video service before it is rolled out to more users. In fact, we now know that Facebook Mentions (which includes Live), will be available to all people and brands with a verified profile in the future (probably in a few months). Perhaps at some point, all users will get the ability to post live video, but that is not likely to happen in the near term. Therefore, as it stands, this current incarnation of live-streaming video on the social networking giant has a strikingly similar feel to traditional media – many can watch and interact but few can broadcast.
Such examples aren’t limited to Facebook. On Twitter, the “verified” badge you see on the profiles of celebrities and big brands isn’t a mechanism solely used to let other users know that the account is authentic. Those verified users have a special set of “extra features” that standard Twitter users are not privy to – including special analytics and the ability to filter notifications. Specifically, if verified users only want to see what other verified users have tweeted to them, they can do so without having to view the notifications they received from the “general public.”
The exclusive nature of Facebook Live or the special privileges verified Twitter users receive aren’t likely to cause an immediate revolt amongst Facebook users and tweeters. It will be interesting to watch if this trend of special privileges for public figures and big brands on social media continues, though. Part of the reason social media initially became such an enthusiastically adopted form of communication was because of the lack of gatekeepers that allowed everyone to have an equal voice.
The alteration of that formula by some major social networks has been subtle and is slowly happening over time. I am not the first nor will I be the last to examine this shift.
Users will probably tolerate this gradual evolution to a certain extent, but I believe there is a tipping point. The only constant in online communication is change and there will always be innovators who will work to recalibrate the balance of power online if the major players lose their way.