People are motivated to communicate online because of the real-time interaction and social belonging that online technologies provide.
Today, with the rapid growth of diverse social media platforms, users can choose from a conglomerate of online experiences. Social media can take numerous forms such as interactive dialogue, collaboration, multimedia, and entertainment. In “Social Influence and the Diffusion of User-Created Content”, Bakshy, Karrer, and Adamic (2009) identify that social media sites are designed for a particular purpose and sometimes a particular group, for example, “on YouTube, users view millions of videos created by millions of users, on Flicker users upload their own photos and view others’, and news are reported on, consumed, and commented on by a distributed network of bloggers and media sources” (p. 325). Choudhery and Sundaram (2011) state that “contemporary online communities support different types of social interaction, and cater to different kinds of audiences” (p. 53). People communicate online to build community with those whom they share similar interests. Jacobs and Nakata (2010) argue for the importance of businesses to be connecting online in real-time with customers “because this is both where the customers are and what the customers are demanding (p. 2). Another aspect of online communication is what Tang, Sun, Wang, and Yang (2009) refer to as “social influence.” In their article entitled, “Social Influence Analysis in Large-scale Networks”, Tang et al. (2009) argue that users of social media “are influenced by others” (p. 807). What people or businesses say or share online can greatly influence the actions and decisions of other users. Individuals organize themselves to communicate in online environments through real-time interaction forming a dynamic participatory presence.
The rapidly growing and diverse population of social media platforms and technologies creates a problem for online marketers, social business and platform developers because of the rapid turnover of online users compounded by social influence governing brands and platform popularity.
This report provides a limited solution in the form of a written description of the trending topics about social organization aggregated from multiple sources committed to social organization discourse.
This report was prepared by using the tagging community delicious.com to select the top ranked blogs and syndicated sources on social organization. Specific terms and categories were developed from the aggregated sources and were later tested for accuracy within the Google Trends database system. The Google Trends results identified a median level of performance from among the top categories tested. The following categories were identified in the sample that you can find attached to this report as an OPML file.
social business – 5.00 on a scale of 10 according to Google Trends
online sharing – 2.40
social influence – 1.00
online engagement – 0.70
social apps – 0.40
These numbers were produced by Google Trends on May 16, 2012. The median value is 1.00. What follows in this report is a discussion about the three top performing categories referring to social organization – social business, online sharing, and social influence – and final remarks.
Online networks allow businesses to interact with customers, build their brands, and dialogue with employees.
Social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have revolutionized the way organizations interact with customers on a daily basis. In an online article entitled, “Beyond Facebook: How Small Businesses can Use Visual Marketing to Build Brand”, Faris (2012) argued for the importance of organizations to have an active online social media presence. Using the social media platform Pinterest as a particular reference, Faris (2012) recommends “allowing your personality to come through in your posts, as well as following up posts with personal interaction with customers. This makes consumers feel as though their voices are being heard,…” (para. 5). Lamm (2012) commenting on the advantages of using Twitter for social business states that, “you can use the social network to see what people are complaining about, what they are looking for, and then offer a solution” (para. 3). Echoing the importance of social business and organizational advantages, Dale (2012) states, “collaborative technologies are enabling organizations to improve internal knowledge flows and extend the organization’s reach to customers, partners, and suppliers through ‘networked enterprises'” (para. 3). While some businesses today take the stance not to participate in social media, many organizations depend on a strong online presence for their success. The story that emerges from the discussion about social business echoes the importance of organizations having a strong social media presence. Organizations that don’t connect with customers online are at a greater disadvantage then those communicating and participating in real-time.
Social media provides an environment for building social bonds with other users as each person contributes to the online interaction and shared meaning.
As people interact online through social media such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, conversation around shared content drives the participatory user experience. Cohen (2012) talking about Microsoft’s recent update to the Bing platform states, “Bing users who log in with their Facebook credentials will be able to post questions to their friends on the social network while they search, and tag Bing-suggested friends who may be knowledgeable on the topic” (para. 3). Online sharing builds stronger community networks and motivates greater participation. Andrews (2012) talking about Facebook’s new sharing feature says, “all Facebook groups will now be able to send files” (para. 2). In the online article entitled, “Visa Attempts Olympic Gold in Social Media: Q&A”, Odell (2012) talks about how people join together online through social media to cheer for the Olympic Games “as one world” (para. 6). Odell (2012) says, “Social allows every fan around the world to be able to participate…” and he continues by saying that online social media allows people, “to get closer to The Games and the athletes themselves, to be able to cheer for the athletes and to share those cheers with their friends.” Falls (2012) talking about the benefits of online communities in healthcare states that “social media ensures that patients can find one another, they can offer support, and they can offer counsel” (How Should Patients Use Social Media section, para. 2). The ability to share real-time personal experiences as they happen in the form of pictures or posts creates a strong sense of community and social belonging.
Communicating online produces individual interaction that is driven by social influence.
When people communicate online through social technologies, the content they share such as individual interests, ideas and opinions greatly influence the behaviour of other users. Lewis (2012), in an online article entitled, “Leveraging Internal and External Social Influence” argued that “influence is the single most effective and most enduring marketing asset” (para. 1). Solis (2012) echoing the same point argued that online social influence “is causing effect or changing behaviour” and that “one out of three connected consumers saw a movie in a theater because of something they read on a social network” (Social Media on the Silver Screen section, para. 1). Roberts (2012) identifies the power of social influence to drive social trends and brands, “the social aspects will continue to influence both phone adoption and technology enhancements as phones are used for purposes that rely more heavily on a social component, like gaming, sharing photos and music” (There’s Always Be More To Say section). Social influence associated with organizing and communicating online steers individual choices, trends, community interaction and personal branding.
The discussion regarding social organization in this report echoes a consistent message of real-time interaction and social belonging. As social media technologies are improved, more people will be motivated to join online communities in order to stay connected and engaged with a global interactive presence anytime and anywhere.
Andrews, J. (2012, May 10). Facebook adds file sharing for groups. Retrieved from http://allfacebook.com/file-sharing-groups_b88541
Bakshy, E., Karrer, B., & Adamic, L.A. (2009). Social influence and the diffusion of user-created content. In Proceedings of the 10th ACM conference on Electronic Commerce, New York, 325-334. doi=10.1145/1566374.1566421
Choudhury, M.D., & Sundaram, H. (2011). Why do we converse on social media?: an analysis of intrinsic and extrinsic network factors. In Proceedings of the 3rd ACM SIGMM International Workshop on Social Media, New York, 53-58. doi=10.1145/2072609.2072625
Cohen, D. (2012, May 10). Bing redesign includes social sidebar column with more Facebook integration. Retrieved from http://allfacebook.com/bing-social-sidebar_b88509
Dale, S. (2012, May 9). Creating the conditions for social business. Retrieved from http://socialmediatoday.com/stephendale/504286/creating-conditions-social-business-update?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Social+Media+Today+%28all+posts%29
Falls, J. (2012, May 10). Honing Twitter’s Power to Improve Healthcare Communication. Retrieved from http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/social-media-training-2/honing-twitters-power-to-improve-healthcare-communication/
Faris, S. (2012, May 10). Beyond Facebook: how small businesses can use visual marketing to build brand. Retrieved from http://smallbiztechnology.com/archive/2012/05/beyond-facebook-how-small-businesses-can-use-visual-marketing-to-build-brand.html/
Jacobs, A., & Nakata, K. (2010). Evolving the social business: a look at stages of growth for web 2.0 integration with business activities. In First Interdisciplinary Workshop on Communication for Sustainable Communities, New York, 1-6. doi=10.1145/1951493.1951497
Lamm, N. (2012, May 10). How To Use Twitter To Make Sales. Retrieved from http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/use-twitter-to-make-sales_b22411
Lewis, M. (2012, May 10). Leveraging Internal and External Social Influence [Infographic]. Retrieved from http://socialmediatoday.com/mlewis1/504920/leveraging-internal-and-external-social-influence-infographic?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Social+Media+Today+%28all+posts%29
Odell, P. (2012, May 9). Visa Attempts Olympic Gold in Social Media: Q&A. Retrieved from http://chiefmarketer.com/social-marketing/visa-attempts-olympic-gold-social-media-qa
Roberts, J. (2012, May 9). Can the future of mobile be found in social? CI & CNBC use social media analytics to find out. Retrieved from http://smartdatacollective.com/jennifer-roberts/50636/can-future-mobile-be-found-social-ci-cnbc-use-social-media-analytics-find-out
Solis, B. (2012, May 10). Music, Film, TV: How social media changed the entertainment experience. Retrieved from http://www.briansolis.com/2012/05/music-film-tv-how-social-media-changed-the-entertainment-experience/
Appendix: OPML file of the sources used in this sample. You can copy-paste the following to a text file and upload it into OMPL supported reader, e.g. Google Reader, Netvibes.
<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
<title>PCOM530[PROFCOM-MA 2011-1]-Social Organization OPML</title>
<outline title=”Social Organization” text=”Social Organization”>
<outline text=”All Facebook” title=”All Facebook” type=”rss”
<outline text=”AllTwitter” title=”AllTwitter” type=”rss”
<outline text=”Brian Solis” title=”Brian Solis” type=”rss”
<outline text=”Collaboration” title=”Collaboration”
<outline text=”Copyblogger” title=”Copyblogger” type=”rss”
<outline text=”Forrester Blogs” title=”Forrester Blogs”
type=”rss” xmlUrl=”http://blogs.forrester.com/feed” htmlUrl=”http://blogs.forrester.com”/>
<outline text=”HubSpot’s Inbound Internet Marketing Blog”
title=”HubSpot’s Inbound Internet Marketing Blog”
type=”rss” xmlUrl=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/HubSpot” htmlUrl=”http://blog.hubspot.com/”/>
<outline text=”Ignite Social Media”
title=”Ignite Social Media” type=”rss”
<outline text=”Inside Facebook” title=”Inside Facebook”
<outline text=”Jeffbullas’s Blog” title=”Jeffbullas’s Blog”
<outline text=”Online Community Strategist”
title=”Online Community Strategist” type=”rss”
<outline text=”Outlook Blog” title=”Outlook Blog” type=”rss”
<outline text=”Smart Mobs” title=”Smart Mobs” type=”rss”
<outline text=”SmartBrief on Social Media”
title=”SmartBrief on Social Media” type=”rss”
text=”SmartData Collective – The world’s best thinkers on business intelligence & data analytics”
title=”SmartData Collective – The world’s best thinkers on business intelligence & data analytics”
<outline text=”Social @ Blogging Tracker”
title=”Social @ Blogging Tracker” type=”rss”
<outline text=”Social Media Examiner”
title=”Social Media Examiner” type=”rss”
<outline text=”Social Media Explorer”
title=”Social Media Explorer” type=”rss”
<outline text=”Social Media Marketing”
title=”Social Media Marketing” type=”rss”
text=”Social Media Strategy for Nonprofits and Businesses”
title=”Social Media Strategy for Nonprofits and Businesses”
text=”Social Media Today – The world’s best thinkers on social media”
title=”Social Media Today – The world’s best thinkers on social media”
<outline text=”SocialMouths” title=”SocialMouths” type=”rss”
<outline text=”Socialnomics” title=”Socialnomics” type=”rss”
<outline text=”SocialTimes” title=”SocialTimes” type=”rss”
<outline text=”Spiral16″ title=”Spiral16″ type=”rss”
<outline text=”TEDTalks (video)” title=”TEDTalks (video)”
<outline text=”The Content Strategist”
title=”The Content Strategist” type=”rss”
<outline text=”The Future Buzz” title=”The Future Buzz”
<outline text=”The Network: Features”
title=”The Network: Features” type=”rss”
<outline text=”The Next Web » Social Media”
title=”The Next Web » Social Media” type=”rss”
text=”The Social Customer – The world’s best thinkers on CRM and customer service”
title=”The Social Customer – The world’s best thinkers on CRM and customer service”
<outline text=”The Social Organization”
title=”The Social Organization” type=”rss”
<outline text=”Useful Social Media Blog”
title=”Useful Social Media Blog” type=”rss”
text=”Young Entrepreneur – Small Business & Entrepreneur Community » Blog”
title=”Young Entrepreneur – Small Business & Entrepreneur Community » Blog”