1. ONLINE MILIEU STUDIES
AN APPROACH FOR REVIEWING SOCIAL NETWORKS WITH THE
MILEU APPROACH FROM PIERRE BOURDIEU
by Knut Linke, University of Latvia, at the International
Conference:
CURRENT ISSUES IN ECONOMIC AND MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
10-12 NOVEMBER, 2011, RIGA, LATVIA
3. The Approach - 1
• Market segmentation: defining and subdividing a
large homogenous market into clearly identifiable
segments, where each segment has similar needs,
wants or detailed demand characteristics.
• Milieu approach: Combination of the different
approaches (geographical, personal, behavior, history)
• First used by Durkheim in 1895 to distinguish groups
on behavior and to define sub systems [1].
• Includes the habitus definition from Norbert Elias [1].
4. The Approach - 2
• Existing approach from Pierre Bourdieu [2]:
26 sections of questions to cover the personal
and family history as also preferences in
purchasing and behavior.
• Based on capital and behavior
• Milieus != social classes
• Milieu can be moving for younger people, based
on their personal development
• Active used in Germany from marketing
companies like Sigma [3] and Sinus [4].
5. Re:Publica10 & Twitter
• Re:Publica10: Internet conference in
Germany [5], randomly selected
participants, request for the Internet and
Twitter usage behavior
• Twitter: started 2006 [6], >200m users,
micro blogging network [7], ~ 16.7m
German Tweets per month, mainly
younger/male users [8].
6. Questionnaire
• Survey: motivation for the online usage, personal
background, and place of living, preferences for
transportation, family situation, personal
professional background, and professional
background from their parents was researched.
• Proceeded with 10 participants as interviews
• Direct extension of additional questions
• No direct information about the target of the
interviews were provided
• Support during the process of question was
necessary to explain that no answer is wrong
7. Learnings - 1
• Differentiation between business and private
communication
• Prefered communication tool for different usages
• Motivation for interaction
• Self-positioning within the network
• Understanding of the term privacy
• Communication into the network or only to
friends
• Mobile usage/GPS
8. Learnings - 2
• Additional space for personal feedback
and additional information
• Area of living
• Why does a person actively use a product or
service
• Preferences in social networks
• Focus on features or friends?
• Definition of drivers for milieus
9. Learnings - 3
• Pre-test of the enhanced questionnaire
will be necessary
• group of 30 people to determine issues in the
understanding of questions
• additional information for the answering of
questions
10. Conclusion
• Usage behavior seems to be similar for dedicated
user groups
• Focus on heavy users will influence the results
(wide spreading will be necessary)
• Evaluation of the participants from online
surveys will be necessary
• Workshops for the extension of the questionaire
will be necessary
11. References-1
• [1] Emile Durkheim: Die Regeln der soziologischen Methode, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt on the Main, 1984 [P. 254].
• [2] Pierre Bourdieu: Die feinen Unterschiede - Kritik der gesellschaftlichen Urteilskraft, Suhrkamp Verlag, 1982 [P.
912].
• [3] Sigma: Sigma Milieus in Deutschland, Sigma - Gesellschaft für internationale Marktforschung und Beratung,
http://www.sigma-online.com/de/SIGMA_Milieus/SIGMA_Milieus_in_Germany/, 08/13/2011.
• [4] Sinus Milieus: SINUS Market- und Sozialforschungs mbH, <http://www.sinus-institut.de/loesungen/sinus-
milieus.html>, 08/14/2011.
• [5] Jan Trißler. Re:Publica XI: Vorschau auf Highlights der Internetkonferenz, t3n, Hannover, 04/08/2011,
<http://t3n.de/news/republica-xi-vorschau-highlights-internetkonferenz-305002/>, 08/302011.
• [6] Patel 2011 Raj Patel: Odeo Releases Twttr, Techcrunch, San Francisco, 15.07.2006,
<http://techcrunch.com/2006/07/15/is-twttr-interesting/>, 09/072011.
• [7] Shiels 2011 Maggie Shiels: Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey rejoins company, BBC, London, 03/28/2011,
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12889048>, 09/07/2011.
• [8] Thomas Pfeiffer: 480.000 Twitternutzende im März 2011, Webevangelisten.de, Haar, 04/04/2011,
<http://webevangelisten.de/480-000-twitternutzende-im-maerz-2011/>, 04/18/2011.
