Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about how our society is becoming more “social” thanks to digital tools that are bringing us closer together. Blogs, online communities, Twitter, Facebook, and Foursquare are helping people help each other more than ever since we broke out of small clans thousands of years ago. For a while I have believed that these social-media tools are taking off because they match the way the human race has evolved to survive and advance by sharing. At the SXSW Interactive conference, I had the chance to see professor and author Clay Shirky connect more dots for me in his talk, titled “Monkeys with Internet Access: Sharing, Human Nature, and Digital Data.”

Shirky retold several stories from his excellent book, Here Comes Everybody, but focused on describing some fundamental insights around what and why people share. His first point was that people are programmed to share based on millions of years of evolution in which we lived in small groups and traded favors and resources to survive. Remembering favors and managing personal relationships takes up a large part of our advanced brains, and studies show that there is even a limit to how many relationships our powerful processors can manage at one time (Dunbar’s number, which is said to be 150 for humans). The act of sharing releases a pleasant-feeling dopamine reward and positive memories that last for some time.

But all sharing is not created equal. While all forms of sharing can bring positive feelings, different types come at different costs. Shirky painted the picture of an old woman walking toward you on the sidewalk. She is trying to get your attention and can ask for one of three kinds of favors:

• Goods: She might ask for money. This causes us to tense up and feel most negative, because sharing a “good” like this comes at a one-for-one cost. If you give her your money, then you cannot benefit from it any more.
• Services: She might ask you to help her cross the street. This comes at some cost, as you must stop what you are doing and spend your time backtracking with her. But this favor does not take much from you.
• Information: She might ask for directions to a nearby store. This favor is essentially free because it takes very little time and nothing is lost. Interestingly, because information is given at no cost, our society generally looks down on people who fail to share this. We have evolved to punish people who fail to share alike.

Shirky used this model to describe how online music swapping arose so quickly with Napster despite claims that it was socially unacceptable—like stealing. In the days of records, people did not share music very often because you would literally have to give up your record album to a friend. It was a good people did not want to part with. With the rise of cassettes and CDs, people shared more often by making a mix tape or burning a copy. This was a service that took some time to do for each person, so it was still fairly difficult. But the ability to rip and share music online turned music into information that people easily shared among friends. In fact, we became compelled to share this information at risk of being perceived as a hoarder.

Technology that allows for greater sharing, say turning goods into information, or making information much easier to share broadly, has led to some of the largest societal changes in history. The adoption of the printing press in medieval Europe brought religion to the masses and sparked revolutions in faith and science. According to Shirky, “abundance brings more change than scarcity.” He described how already digital sharing is “turning small, private, expensive good acts into big, public, cheap ones.”

I believe marketing is one of those models that will change dramatically because of the power of sharing. Today, digital tools have turned us all into consummate sharers. With five seconds on Facebook or TripAdvisor, we can benefit from the positive feelings of sharing tips and reviews with friends and strangers. Such information is more trusted and useful than anything advertisers can say, and Google places much heavier weight on what society says when individuals search for answers online. Advertisers, grocery stores, maitre d’s, and travel and real estate agents no longer have the power of information scarcity in a society in which people are rewarded, encouraged, and compelled to share with each other.

In a presentation after Shirky’s, renowned speaker Tim Sanders shared his experiences and secrets on how to make a living from the speaking circuit as he does. That’s right, Sanders gave away extremely rare and powerful information to people who might end up competing against him for speaker fees in the future. But Sanders enjoys helping others, and he believes that he is better off sharing with others who will drive the personal connections and positive word of mouth that will him get more, higher-paying speaking gigs down the road.

Interesting, Sanders was asked by someone in the audience about whether “transparency” was the defining word of our new age of digital social sharing. He actually disagreed, saying:

“Anyone can be transparent. I believe the history books will say that social media was about ‘being helpful.’”

My many thanks to both Shirky and Sanders for sharing information that will help me be more successful in guiding marketing strategy and winning speaking opportunities. And through this blog post, I hope you benefit from their knowledge as well.