2. Chapter Objectives
•
•
•
What are the characteristics of online
communities? How do ideas travel in a
community?
In what ways do opinion leaders develop in
communities? How do these influentials
influence others?
What role does social capital play in the value
of social media communities? What types of
ties do we have to others in our communities?
How has social media leveled the playing field
and created a source of power for consumers?
Visit
www.dogster.com for an example of a community organized around a social object
2-4
•
3. Online Communities
3-4
Online communities are
groups of people who come
together for a specific
purpose, who are guided by
community policies, and who
are supported by Internet
access that enables virtual
communication.
4. Networks: The Underlying
Structure of Communities
4-4
A social network is a set of socially relevant nodes connected
by one or more relations.
Nodes are members of the network.
Members are connected by their relationships with each other.
Interactions are behavior-based ties such as talking with each
other or attending an event together.
Flows are exchanges of resources, information, or influence
among members of the network.
Object sociality is the extent to which an object can be shared
in social media.
Vertical networks are sites designed around object sociality.
5. It’s a Small World After
All
Six degrees of separation is an observation that everyone
is connected to everyone else by no more than six ties.
• Based on the mathematical model of small-world network.
Play six degrees of separation by clicking here
6. Characteristics of Online
Communities
The interactive
platforms of Web 2.0
enable online
communities to
exhibit the following
basic characteristics:
•
•
•
•
6-4
Conversations
Presence
Democracy
Standards of
Behavior
• Levels of
Participation
9. Characteristics of Online
Communities
Democracy is a descriptive term that refers to rule by the people.
• Media democratization means that the members of social
communities control the creation, delivery, and popularity of
content.
10.
11. Characteristics of Online
Communities
Standards of Behavior. Virtual communities need norms, or
rules that govern behavior, in order to operate. Some of
these rules are spelled out explicitly but many of them are
unspoken.
11-4
• Open access sites enable anyone to participate without
registration or identification.
• The social contract is the agreement that exists between the
host or governing body and the members.
12. Characteristics of Online
Communities
12-4
Level of Participation. For
an online community to
thrive, a significant
proportion of its members
must participate.
Otherwise the site will fail
to offer fresh material and
ultimately traffic will slow.
13. How Ideas Travel in a
Community
Network structure and
composition play a role in the
community’s ability to support its
members.
There is evidence of community
culture in the memes that evolve
within the community
13-4
• A meme is a snippet of cultural
information that spreads person
to person until eventually it
enters the general
consciousness.
• http://www.knowyourmeme.com
14. Group Influence and
Social Capital
14-4
Opinion leader – a
person who is frequently
able to influence others’
attitudes or behaviors.
15. Group Influence and
Social Capital
Opinion leaders are extremely valuable information sources
because:
• They are technically competent
• They prescreen, evaluate, and synthesize product information in
an unbiased way
• They are socially active and highly interconnected
• They are likely to hold positions of leadership
• They tend to be similar to the consumer in terms of their values
and beliefs
• They tend to be slightly higher in terms of status and
educational attainment than those they influence
• They are often among the first to buy new products
15-4
•
16. Social Capital
•
•
Social capital is accumulated resources whose value flows to
people as a result of their access to others.
Reputational capital is based on the shared beliefs,
relationships, and actions of those in the community such that
norms, behaviors, and values held and shared by individuals
ultimately support a community reputation.
17. Strong and Weak Ties
Emotional support is one
form of social capital.
17-4
• Core ties – those people
with whom we have very
close relationships
• Significant ties – those
individuals with somewhat
close connections, but
less so than core ties
• Weak ties – those
individuals with whom
your relationship is based
on superficial experiences
or very few connections
18. Strong and Weak Ties
Power users are those others view as knowledgeable
sources of information
• Five characteristics help to describe them:
Activists
Connected
Impact
Active minds
Trendsetters
18-4
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
19. Strong and Weak Ties
The Bases of Social Power
19-4
• Reward power: ability to provide others with what
they desire
• Coercive power: the ability to punish others
• Legitimate power: authority based on rights
associated with a person’s appointed position
• Referent power: authority through the motivation to
identify with or please a person
• Expert power: recognition of one’s knowledge,
skills, and ability
• Information power: one’s control over the flow of
and access to information
20. Node-to-Node Relationships
Your level of activity in a social network is based on:
• The mix of people with whom you are connected
• The artifacts (content) you create on the site
• The feedback you receive from others
• The distribution of the artifacts and feedback
20-4
•
21. Influence
Word of mouse – online word
of mouth and a very strong
influence on consumer
decision making
•
Ad equivalency value - what
would the value of the
unsolicited online mention be
if it had come through a paid
advertising placement?
•
Social proof – works by
encouraging consumers to
make decisions that mimic
those of people in their social
network
21-4
•
22. The Evolution of Online
Communities
“Modern society makes it more difficult to connect
with others….”
22-4
Do you agree or disagree? Why?
Notas do Editor
{"16":"When people form community relationships these affiliations allow them to accumulate resources that they can “trade” for other things. This is “Social Capital.” Social capital tends to be a limited and protected resource.\n","5":"Chances are you’ve heard of the game The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. It’s based on the principle known as the six degrees of separation; an observation that everyone is connected to everyone else by no more than six ties. This statement comes from the mathematical model known as a small-world network, which illustrates that most nodes in a social graph are not directly linked to one another—instead they are indirectly connected via neighbors. The principle is highly relevant in social media marketing, where sources of influence can flow throughout the network easily and quickly. It is this connectivity that has given rise to viral marketing where a message such as a joke or bizarre YouTube clip quickly spreads among members of a network. Social networks also have the characteristic of being “scale free.” This means that the more connections someone has, the more likely they are to make new ones.\n","22":"Sociologists have recognized that technological innovations actually can help us to maintain and support a number of community relationships despite physical distances and other limitations. A Pew report showed that the more we see members of our network in person and talk on the phone, the more likely it is that we will also communicate with those people online. So, the more connected you are, the more connected you will become!\n","17":"This resource easily accrues online because of our accessibility to people who can help us with a variety of issues even though we may not know them personally. In contrast, our core ties, those people with whom we have very close relationships, may or may not be in a position to provide solutions to some problems we face (or we may not want them to know about these in some cases). Interestingly, through the course of giving and receiving bonding social capital, we may come to develop core ties, or at least significant ties (somewhat close connections, but less so than core ties), with others in the community.\n","12":"Researchers estimate that only 1 percent of a typical community’s users regularly participate and another 9 percent do so only intermittently. The remaining 90 percent just observe what’s on the site, so they don’t add a lot of value. \n","18":"In other words, influencers develop a network of people through their involvement in activities. They are active participants at work and in their communities. Their social networks are large and well developed.\n","13":"These memes (snippets) may include songs, phrases, ideas, slang words, fashion trends, or shared behaviors. For example, when the TV show The Apprentice caught fire a few years ago, its trademark term “You’re fired!” made the rounds very quickly.\n","19":"Influencers exist in all social communities. It is a natural pattern for some members to be more active and to acquire positions of authority within a community. The source of the influence itself, however, originates from the power bases an influencer may possess.\n","8":"Virtual communities do not develop and thrive without a foundation of commonality among the members. Just as your offline communities are based on family, religious beliefs, social activities, hobbies, goals, place of residence, and so on, your online communities also need commonalities to create bonds among the members. These groups come together to allow people to share their passions, whether these are for indie bands, white wines, or open-source apps. Communities are made up of people who share some reason to join together. As we said, this basis can be a location, a shared characteristic, a hobby, an occupation, or any number of other activities that people share.\n","3":"Though infrastructure, channels, devices, and social software make social media possible, people like you make it a living, breathing part of everyday life. Social media is first and foremost about community: the collective participation of members who together build and maintain a site.\nThough different approaches exist, we’ll refer to online communities as a group of people who come together for a specific purpose, who are guided by community policies, and who are supported by Internet access that enables virtual communication. Here is a brief sampling of online communities; there may be some out there just waiting for you!\n• MyLife\n• LiveJournal\n• Tagged\n• Last.fm\n• LinkedIn\nIn some ways, online communities are not much different from those we find in our physical environment. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary (online version, of course) defines community as “a unified body of individuals, unified by interests, location, occupation, common history, or political and economic concerns.” In fact, one social scientist refers to an online community as a cyberplace where “people connect online with kindred spirits, engage in supportive and sociable relationships with them, and imbue their activity online with meaning, belonging, and identity.”\n","20":"We refer to connections in a SNS with many terms, including friend, fan, follower, colleague, and contact. The biggest predictor of whether someone will become active in a social network space, regardless of the site’s primary function, is the presence of a critical mass of friends. Of the four elements detailed on the slide of SNS participation, three are dependent upon the nodes in your network. If your contacts are not active in your experience, your own activity in the network will be stunted because you won’t have people with whom to interact, you won’t receive sufficient feedback, and your content will not be redistributed.\n","4":"All social communities are social networks. Networks underlie the premise of social media. This slide presents the basics of social network theory.\n"}