Social Media Is Silencing Personal Opinion – Even In The Offline World

Social media is not living up to its promise of being an online outlet for discussion that mirrors our communications and conversations that take place in the offline world. In fact, people are less willing to discuss important issues on social media, than they are in real life, a new report from Pew Research Center has found.

It may seem like an obvious conclusion: of course, people are more hesitant to speak up with a contrary opinion when all their friends, family or colleagues feel differently. But there’s been little research that quantifies just how unwilling people are to take a potentially unpopular stance on outlets like Facebook and Twitter.

Pew refers to the this tendency to keep opinions to yourself, when you believe they’re not widely shared, as the “spiral of silence” – a term coined in the mid-70’s by a researcher studying the nature of public opinion.

“Some social media creators and supporters have hoped that social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter might produce different enough discussion venues that those with minority views might feel freer to express their opinions, thus broadening public discourse and adding new perspectives to everyday discussion of political issues,” explains Pew.

But as it turns out that optimistic desire is not the quite reality. If anything, social media is encouraging users to keep opinions to themselves.

In its study, Pew focused on the controversial topic involving Edward Snowden’s revelations of widespread government surveillance, because that topic saw a variety of opinions across the U.S. as to whether his actions were justified, and whether the government’s policies themselves were good or bad.

Only 42% of users said they were willing to discuss the surveillance program on social media, while a much larger 86% were willing to have an in-person discussion about it. Meanwhile, the 14% who were unwilling to discuss the topic in person didn’t turn to social media as a backup – only 0.3% did.

This, explains the report, “challenges the notion that social media spaces might be considered useful venues for people sharing views they would not otherwise express when they are in the physical presence of others.”

And in both online and offline discussions, people were more willing to share their views if they believed their audience agreed with them. For instance, if someone believed their Facebook network agreed with them, they were twice as likely to join a discussion about the issue.

Silencing Effect Extends Offline

But here’s the kicker: not only did social media silence users online, or fail to be a place where they could more freely discuss topics when they couldn’t do so with real-world friends, it also seemed to change people’s offline behavior, making them less willing to engage in potentially controversial discussions.

Social media users, says Pew, were less willing to share their opinions in face-to-face settings than others. The typical Facebook user was half as likely to have a discussion about the topic in the offline world, while Twitter users were 0.24 times less likely to do the same.

Of course, it’s worth pointing out that the choice to use the Snowden situation as the basis for this particular study could be flawed – after all, social platforms, including Facebook, were implicated as being among the places the government tapped to listen in on citizens’ conversations. Perhaps citizens didn’t want to publicize an opinion on this particular matter, but would be more willing to do so on others.

The study, for what it’s worth, didn’t get into the “why” question regarding people’s decision to stay silent, but theorized it could be attributed to a number of factors, including not wanting to disappoint or get into arguments with friends or post things that HR departments or prospective employers could one day discover. Plus, Pew says that an individual’s decision to share an opinion could also relate to their confidence and understanding of the subject as well as how intense or apathetic they felt.

Because of its sample size (1,801 people) and choice of topic, Pew’s study might not be a fully accurate example of social media’s silencing effects, but it’s definitely fodder for discussion – if you dare! – as well as further research.

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Is Facebook Killing Your Business Page?

If you own a small business page on Facebook, you need to be aware of changes that Facebook is making to how your content is shared amongst your followers.

Beginning a couple of months ago, some companies’ managed business pages began to see a noticeable fall-off in activity. Their posts were reaching a much smaller number of fans than usual. After several weeks of tracking this trend, several companies asked Facebook if this was something on their end or had Facebook changed its algorithm. Facebook did not answer clearly for quite some time.

The drop-off in organic reach per fan, the rate that content is seen by a follower as a natural part of their daily newsfeed, continued to drop for even more pages. Usually, around 16-20 percent was considered to be a large number. That meant that almost a fifth of all your followers saw the content you posted. This number has since dwindled down to 4-6 percent.

This phenomenon was met with outrage and frustration from everyone involved. Ever increasing calls for why this has been happening was finally met with a confirmation from Facebook that they had changed their algorithm and organic reach had dropped considerably for every page. Their suggested fix for this was to pay them to post ads more frequently. Understandably, this solution was not met with too much optimism.

The majority of small businesses and fan groups out there made accusations ranging from mild frustration to outrageous accusations of illegitimate business practices. The larger issue was that these groups have spent a lot of time accumulating the followers and likes that they have. Facebook made the guarantee that followers and likes would translate into long-term success on Facebook’s business page options. These businesses and groups became frustrated when it was said that all this work they did was now secondary.

There is a legitimate method to this madness. The algorithm that Facebook uses to determine which posts make it to the newsfeed was changed to value greater quality posts. Things like interest in the quality of the post, who posted the content, how recently it was posted and other factors were the focus of this new algorithm.

VP Ads Product Marketing and Atlas at Facebook. (Photo: Facebook for Business)

Facebook’s Defence: The Challenges of being the world’s largest Social Media platform

Facebook admitted that organic reach rates had dropped, but it was not because they are being vindictive or seek greater profits. The head of Facebook’s ad product marketing, Brian Boland, stepped forward to answer questions that Facebook had been receiving for some time.

This change was not a bid to increase profits. Boland assured business owners that Facebook has always had its customers and businesses at heart throughout the changes that they have made. The choice to decrease organic reach rates was motivated to allow more people to be exposed on the newsfeed rather than having it dominated by a handful of super-massive groups. The paid-ads option was also meant to appease groups that had the budget to increase this minimal ad space. The two messages seem contradictory, but at its core, Facebook was trying to give the little guy a chance at making it on a newsfeed.

Part of the decrease was natural, an argument that has sound roots. The number of likes made per day has grown by 50 percent in the past few years. This is an incredible amount of people and information being posted on boards. Decrease in organic reach to a given managed business page was the result of too much content on too small of a venue. There are only so many hours people spend on Facebook and the newsfeed is only large enough to hold so much. This was a crisis of supply and demand. To resolve it, Facebook decided to cut everyone’s average reach in a bid to bring less popular pages to light.

When Boland spoke, he mentioned Google as a peer company that had a similar problem. Bigger companies with larger followings were posting low-quality blogs and content that were overshadowing the high-quality content that smaller businesses and bloggers were posting because they had so many more likes. Google then updated its algorithm to favour websites that posted good content more often, rather than spam websites. Facebook has merely tried to create a similar algorithm to better promote smaller businesses and fan pages.

Many of Boland’s answers and messages point to one larger assumption businesses must be making towards Facebook: it is changing. Advertising on Facebook is now a far different experience than it was even a few years ago. Where once success was determined by likes and follows, it is now far more similar to advertising on Google.

If you want a successful business page on Facebook, you must have great content, the interest to draw Facebook’s attention and the cash to supplement a reliable ad campaign.

Adapting your managed business page to the new Facebook

Now that you know what has occurred and what it means for you, how can you start adapting to the situation? Luckily, the grand majority of changes you have to make are relatively small. What they will require is more work on your part and dedication to the platform.

Post more often with fresh content. Now that the newsfeed’s content is far more limited, you will need more content to increase your chances of being posted for your followers to see. This means posting more often at all times of the day. Posting once or twice a day will only work if those posts receive a massive amount of activity. If a healthy discussion keeps your post in the newsfeed for hours, great! However, this is likely not the case.

You will want three to four posts a day, at various times of day. How recent a post was made is a large factor for Facebook, so older posts have an increasingly low chance of being put up on the newsfeed. Having a quasi-fresh post at all times of the day will help.

(Photo: Facebook for Business)

Facebook’s Insights Feature lets you know when to post. Posting all the time is best, but you also want to make sure that all of your work pays off. This means finding out when your demographic is the most active. Under ‘posts,’ Facebook has an option for your managed business page called “Insights.” This option allows you to see the activity on your page, how large it was and when it occurred. Use this information to decide when to be active on your business page.

Link back to your regular business website and any other social media accounts you may have. This is great for Facebook’s algorithm, but also for Google’s algorithm. The more connected your pages are, the more likely it will be noticed by search algorithms in general. It also allows your Facebook followers to jump back and forth between their comfortable Facebook feed and your website.

How businesses interact with Facebook has irreparably changed. It is harder, as a small company, to break into fame through the Facebook newsfeed and the odds are stacked higher than ever against you. The best way to grow your managed business page is to use the new Facebook to your advantage and spread your message through every avenue possible.

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