Momentum: A Law of the Social Web

January 5th, 2010 by Easton Ellsworth

I’ve spent hundreds of hours over the past three months on Internet projects at various stages of development.

Nothing has impressed me more in that time than the concept of momentum.

What is momentum?

My concept of momentum as it applies to the ever-emerging social Web is not unlike one of its textbook definitions, which identifies it as the product of the mass and velocity of an object.

In other words:

(how big you are) x (how fast you’re going) = momentum

example: (a really big dude) x (doing a belly flop) = mucho momentum

The Web Has Unbelievable Momentum

This beast we call the Web is like a nine-zillion headed Hydra galloping at full speed on a treadmill that’s constantly accelerating inside a spacecraft that’s hurtling across the …

… anyway, you get the picture. It’s really big and it’s going really fast.

And Your Online Stuff Needs Pretty Impressive Momentum

So how big is your stuff that you’re doing online, and how fast is it going?

And what does it have to look like so that when it streaks across the sky of each individual’s mind, its gleam and arc snatch their interest like a case of candy bars passing under the nose of a hungry five-year-old?

If you can’t answer these two questions, stop and don’t go anywhere until you can.

Because Working With Momentum is Sooo Much Better Than …

… working without it.

What On Earth Are You Talking About, Easton?

I’m talking about that website you keep meaning to start but never seem to get around to working on.

Or that (insert your favorite social media noun here – blog/Twitter account/Facebook page/widget/viral video/social network/etc.) that you started and stopped and started and stopped and started and stopped.

Start-and-stop is your mortal enemy here on the Web.

Pause as needed, but don’t lose your momentum.

How to Keep the Law of Online Momentum

On the Web, momentum matters much more than how much time or even how much effort you pour into a project or a product or an event.

So keep the social Web’s law of momentum. Propel each thing forward enough to get it to gather speed on its own – even if that means working on fewer projects at the same time.

Make a plan (with awareness/focus/discernment/imagination) and then apply all your diligence to it.

It’s that simple. Not always easy, but always that simple.