Peter Fletcher

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Micro Persuasion: Social Networking Demographics: Boomers Jump In, Gen Y Plateaus

March 25, 2009 by Peter Fletcher

Micro Persuasion: Social Networking Demographics: Boomers Jump In, Gen Y Plateaus

Rubel calls attention to an Accenture study which shows the social technology adoption rate is plateauing for GenY. Is this a sign they’re losing interest or that they’re already connected enough?

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: academic research, social networking

Social networking can improve business | The West

November 19, 2008 by Peter Fletcher

“The use of social networking tools such as Facebook, blogs and even the online game World of Warcraft could improve business, a report based on the opinions of senior executives shows”…(read more on The West)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: social networking

Cisco emraces social networking – others not so sure

January 28, 2008 by Peter Fletcher

A recent article on Times Online points out that tech firm Cisco actively encourages their employees to get involved with social networking. The company is reported to have built their own social networking and collaboration platforms that they claim improves innovation and speeds product development. Cisco management, the article suggests, is unfazed by the possible loss of productivty that has lead to many companies implementing a blanket ban on social networking sites.

Such a ban, the article reports, may be a knee-jerk reaction by people who fail to understand the business benefits. The author points out that banning social networking may be inconsistent in that many companies presume to invade on the private lives of employees through the Internet bringing work to a person’s home – but the same companies have issues when people bring their private lives to work.

“Others make the point that bans on bringing one’s personal life into work time are a bit rich when companies now harness the internet to such effect that employees can never entirely escape from work.”

The article also points out that the conflict between social networking and employment predates the techhnology that brought with it social networking sites. It shows that social networking – company golf days for example – has been an important part of business life for a very long time.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: social networking

The long tail of social networking

January 24, 2008 by Peter Fletcher

I’m in the throws of reading Chris Anderson’s book, The Long Tail, a story of an Australian bush kangaroo – kidding, OK? – and got to thinking that a power law may exist in the world of social networking. Such a power law (1/x) may show up in the amount of time spent on SNS activity and the threat to a business as a result of SN activity may follow a similar power law. For example the threat to a business of the most dangerous post is twice as much as that of the next most threatening and three times that of the following etc.

Not sure if this will go anywhere but thought I’d jot it down anyway.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: power laws, social networking, The long-tail

IBM creates social software mashups

January 24, 2008 by Peter Fletcher

A report on Internetnews.com claims that IBM is merging business and social networking. Don’t do one or the other says Big Blue, do both.

IBM’s strategy places even more pressure on leaders and managers to wrap their heads around social networks and social software and formulate a meaningful strategy rather than waiting for their competitors to dictate the terms of engagement. Think back to 1995 when Microsoft switched their focus into making all their office productivity applications web-friendly. There’s nothing more certain than a similar effort occurring but this time it will be around enabling human interaction.

Managers who miss the boat may end up participating very heavily in the next round of corporate redundancies.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: IBM, social marketing, social networking

Social networking a no-brainer for real estate

January 24, 2008 by Peter Fletcher

There appears to be little conflict between real estate and social networking in the real estate industry – or so it seems on the surface. According to a recent article real estate agents are jumping on the social networking band wagon in droves.

I wonder if there’s going to be some big train wrecks down the track as agents shift between firms and possibly make negative comments about current and past employers. And what of the potential for agents to over step the legislative mark without the knowledge of their principals.

One wonders if the genie, once out of the bottle, can ever be recaptured.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: real estate, social marketing, social networking

What do we mean by "social network sites"

January 23, 2008 by Peter Fletcher

There appears to be a fair amount of confusion around what is meant when people refer to the term “social network/ing site”. For many the first response is to equate the term with sites such as Facebook and Myspace. Dana boyd makes this observation and points out that such a narrow-cast definition precludes other platforms of interaction such as blogs, wikis, and social bookmarking sites. Can flickr and Youtube, for example, be classified as social networking sites?

I would contend there’s a distinction between social networking per se, which can and does happen in real life, and social networking sites, social software, and collaborative software.

To give examples, social networking often takes place at a pub. You arrange to meet a friend, they bring along one of their friends, who you meet and with whom you form a life-long friendship. For me, a network can best be likened as a spiders web where threads connect and form paths to all other parts of the web. Meeting friends friend in this way creates a new connection and a new thread leading to other similar opportunities.

Boyd suggests that social networking emphasises the initiation of relationships and proposed an early definition of a social networking site that included mention of the ability of participants to interact with strangers. Certainly the meeting of strangers happens in a networking environment, but I would argue that social networking is very much driven by, or augmented by established relationships that encourage and enable the development of further relationship connections. Social networking, both on and off-line, is lubricated by a conducive environment.

Narrowing the definition down to “social network sites” Boyd points out that the term networking is problematic in that it indicates a much more active role of the initiation of new relationships between strangers than actually occurs on social network sites. Whilst new connections occur, she believes, the primary reason for people to be on a social network site is to maintain a relationship with people they already know. On most SNS’s, Boyd observes, a participants profile is usually supplemented by a display of a person’s contact or friends network; and it is amongst this group that most of the network activity occurs.

However, this argument also has it’s problems. Certainly on “social network sites” by which I refer here to as the likes of MySpace and Facebook, there is a level of passiveness to the activity of networking. There appears, from my experience to be little in the way of any active efforts to become acquainted with perfect strangers. However, to use these sites as the standard bearers, whilst understandable, would preclude others where activity has a very different nature.

As examples, sites such as RSVP, Adultfriendfinder, Xtube, and a host of other adult networking sites – where the active pursuit of new connections is the expectation rather than the exception – would be precluded from boyd’s narrow-cast definition of a “social network site”. Such a preclusion makes sense if what we are attempting to research are those sites where the networking is much more passive and benign. I would question the value of research, though, that failed to take into account these more assertive networking fora.

Going further with this problematic term of “network” or “networking” is the difficulties faced when we begin to consider the nature of a blog. Some blogs, such as Penelope Trunk’s Brazen Careerist, and Darren Rowse’s Problogger, are heavily trafficked by a loyal readership who regularly contribute and debate via comments. The activity in which these people are engaged appear to be both in the nature of “networking”, as in people attempting to create new connections with other readers through interesting comments, and “network”, as in a network of bloggers.

Further still, there exist other platforms of collaboration and interaction, which create connections where none previously existed (with a nod and smile to dana boyd). Is it relevant for the sake of research purposes to exclude wikis and photo and video sharing sites from the field of focus? My instinct tells me no.

I’m still a long way from developing a definition, however I feel a sense that any definition that points to socially oriented human interaction on the Internet should necessarily be broad and inclusive. Only at the pointy end of the research might it be relevant to narrow the field down so as to achieve needed clarity and direction.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Danah Boyd, definitions, social network sites, social networking

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About Peter

Speaker, trainer and coach. I write about living, loving and working better. Love a challenge. More...

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