A few weeks ago, I read this post by Scott Rafer pronouncing the ‘Follow‘ function on sites like Tumblr and Twitter as equivalent to RSS + Humanity. The more I think about it, the important I think it is.
As soon as I read that statement, I realized that until that point I’d subconsciously equated ‘Follow’ with ‘Subscribe’. The end result appears to be the same, a piece of content is shared from one user to another, usually via some kind of reader or dashboard. But as Scott articulated so well, ‘Follow’ is more personal and as a result can be much more valuable than ‘Subscribe’.
In the same way, ‘Reblog’ and ‘Like’ are more powerful gestures than bookmarking or sharing a link even if the latter are done in public. They might sound like very subtle differences on the surface but these gestures enable a completely new form of expression and a new mechanism for content distribution.
Albert is right, these gestures are different to comments because they attach a very explicit personal endorsement to content. The sum of that person’s online identity and reputation is attached as well and that is potentially very valuable.
Someone that reblogs part or all of your post is using the permission granted to them by their followers to insert your content/message/identity/reputation into their followers’ sphere of attention. And that’s a big deal. It moves reputation a step closer to currency.
The difference between reblogging and sharing a link is like the difference between someone you feel close to recommending a deli, and bringing you a sandwich in person to show you how good it is. It’s what Seth Godin has been talking about all this time and it still only costs a click.
I’ll get to journalists in the next post, I promise. I wanted to keep these ideas separate from specific examples.
Posted on March 13, 2009
My name is Phillip Baker and this is my personal blog about finding value in a world of free information.