The Controversy Of Social Sharing

Singer and actor Tyrese Gibson recently has come under fire for a social sharing practice he’s used to build his Facebook following to more than 22 million fans. The celebrity shares videos and content created by others to his Facebook page to entertain and enlighten his fans.

You may be wondering what’s wrong with that practice.

That was my first thought -- what’s wrong with that?

After all, don’t many content creators encourage -- indeed, expect -- others to share their content? Isn’t the whole point of social media sharing buttons to actually share content that is available on the Web?

The answers to those questions is “yes.”

But if that’s all this were about, there wouldn’t be any controversy.

What has some people speaking out is that celebrities -- and other people, for that matter -- have been known to share videos without attributing them specifically to the original source or even mentioning the source. What’s more, they take advantage of a relatively new feature of Facebook, where you can upload videos directly on the Facebook platform (rather than just sharing the link to the video hosted on YouTube, for example).

What that means is that when someone views the video, the original creator is not getting credit for the number of views on YouTube or Vimeo or elsewhere. Instead, the person loading the video on Facebook directly and sharing it gets credit for the video’s popularity.

And on today’s Web, popularity is currency. Getting many views can lead to building the content creator’s own online popularity and following, and that has value to them.

Facebook’s algorithms seem to encourage this kind of “upload it as if it were mine” sharing. Facebook gives higher visibility to content that gets more engagement. Videos uploaded directly to the Facebook platform appear larger in size, and play automatically, resulting in more engagement. This, in turn, results in Facebook showing the item to more people. And this leads to the sharer’s Facebook page becoming more popular. And the cycle continues.

Senior editor Chris Plante of the Verge, had some strong words about such sharing practices, noting, “Celebrities ... that steal content aren’t just exploiting Facebook’s algorithm; they’re exploiting you.”

Technically, such behavior may not rise to the level of copyright infringement if sharing has been enabled for the video. That’s a question for a copyright attorney to answer. But at the very least, some may consider it poor etiquette, and it could earn you ill will.

Source: inc

About LaraNet: We are a web design firm focused to help you to grow your business and communicate with your customers and prospects using two simple but powerful tools: 1) Interactive Website and 2) Internet Marketing Strategy on social networks like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc …
Whether you want to work with just a web page, or launch or improve your presence on Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn or communicate with your customers through newsletters, or improve the location of your business in the search engines through Search Engine Optimization, or start marketing your products or services online, in LaraNet we can help you.

Website designer in Houston

Keywords: Website designer in Houston, Web Designer in Houston, Web Site Developer in Houston, Webmaster in Houston, Internet Marketing Agency in Houston, Website Consultant in Houston, Enrique Antonio Lara Vidales, LaraNet, Web Design in Houston, Website Development in Houston, Open Source Content Management, Internet Marketing Services, Houston Small Business Websites, Integrated Internet Marketing, Content Marketing Specialist, Community Manager Specialist, Houston Internet Marketing for Small Business