Social Media Social Science

In wanting to write something again on social media I thought of it from the aspect of social media and it’s effect on influence. And how that influence affects human and social, or collaborative behavior. I want to take the broader question and focus it on how this influence affects the blogosphere.

• In terms of blogging and authority social media determines, or creates ‘social authority‘ which is measured by a combination of reach (# of followers and friends in our networks) and engagement (number of replies and comments, Facebook Likes, retweets, etc.) reach + engagement = influence = social authority. And I would go one step further in stating influence + social authority + knowledge = absolute authority.

• So when someone becomes an authority they are able to affect or influence the choices others make.

• In this case we are talking about bloggers and other users of social media. Individuals are influenced by their observation of the choices of others. And the stronger the social message is the more they are influenced by it. They think they like what others like.

• However what happens at the social level is what is popular then becomes more popular, perhaps undeservedly so. And conversely, what is unpopular becomes that much less popular, perhaps undeservedly so as well.

• The more information people are given that influence likes and dislikes the more it affects a market which may, or may not give rise to it’s popularity.

However what becomes skewed is that individuals are ranking the market based on what others like and dislike and not on their own individual knowledge of the market, or their own opinion of it.

As bloggers we are disseminating information whether second hand, or information plus experience that will influence our readers and engage them to carry out our ‘call to action.’ We produce content and post it. They read it, and if they like it, if they find it useful they in turn disseminate it using social media and social bookmarking. So it goes from our network to and through their network and it goes on like that. We exercise our influence.

One of the most powerful ways of networking this information is with Twitter. Even with a 140 character limit it is a powerful propagator of information when URL shorteners are used. We can take a very large chunk of information, namely web content shrink it down into a small packet and shoot it off into the twittosphere. Again we exercise our influence.

In closing I just want to say that I’m intrigued by the science of social media. So the next time you click the retweet button, or digg an article know there is a science to what you’re doing. And you’re affected by it whether you realize or not.

How do you employ social media in your blogging?

How does social media influence you?

Happy Blogging!

Article first published as Social Media Social Science on Technorati.

Advertisement