The Relationship Economy

23/04/2010 keithlaw 24 comments

The Relationship Economy

A community can be defined as a social structure that shares personal values, cultural values, business goals, attitudes, or a world view. In general, a community facilitates and supports the aspirations and the welfare of its participants. Many social networking sites offer platforms for discussion of topics that a community or network finds mutually interesting or beneficial. In the most concise terms, an online social community is a group of individuals connected by interactions. (Strauss, 2009) These interactions include significant business and commercial transactions. The word “community” is derived from the Latin communitas (cum, “with/together” + munus, “gift”).

However, not all participants share the same motivations and goals. What binds it as a community is behaviour and group dynamics. This paper proposes that business or commercial goals are a key perhaps primary driver of Internet based communities. Business uses communities and web 2.0 techniques to advance their commercial interests. To support this proposition we will examine the demographics to establish the primary users of social media, look at a whole industry that exists to promote business exploitation of social media and consider some of their hints on how to achieve business goals. We will examine an example of a business community with Red Bubble and look at techniques to utilise a concentrated marketing scheme with Dark Knight. Lastly we will look at the results from an ebay experiment that shows in commercial terms “customer communities pay off handsomely”.

Most communities have an underlying commercial organised structure that allows the pursuit of higher satisfactions. The motivations for the interactions that connect an Internet based community include commercial motivations such as buy, sell, promote and create awareness and image. Other motivations are to find and exchange information, reinforcement of common beliefs and positions, maintenance and development of a network of real friends and in some cases sadly as a friendship substitute.

People are first and foremost social creatures. Friendships and social support are a central part of human life and interaction with others. Results of a study (Ridings & Gefen, 2004) suggest the same is true even in a medium that is designed for information exchange and that is devoid of the face-to-face social characteristics of most human communities. Even in such an information-centered medium friendship apparently is a crucial bond, keeping patrons in communities. (Ridings & Gefen, 2004) However, underlying this social appeal is a business activity that seeks to exploit the community members either as targets for advertising or by direct commercial activities.

The popular perception of Internet social network users as computer savvy teenagers is wrong. Demographic studies clearly show the majority of participants to be mature adults. This is the ideal customer base for business to exploit. To get consistent age data for the various social media sites a study using demographic information for the United States gathered from Google’s Ad Planner service showed: (Pingdom, 2010).

The study showed that the average social network user is 37 years old. LinkedIn, with its business focus, has a predictably high average user age; 44.The average Twitter user is 39 years old, average Facebook user is 38 years old, average MySpace user is 31 years old.

The study also revealed that Twitter and Facebook have almost the same male-female ratio; Twitter with 59% female users and Facebook with 57%. MySpace and Classmates.com were 64% female . The average ratio of all 19 sites surveyed was 47% male, 53% female. This study clearly shows that predominate social media users are not youth but mature adults of both sexes. It is this demography that attracts commercial activity due to its substantial income and market potential.

A major market research company has recently compiled a report outlining online usage and social media. (The Nielson Company, 2009). The report is a comprehensive analysis and should be read in full. Highlights of the report include:

There are 87 percent more online social media users now than in 2003, with 883 percent more time devoted to those sites.
In the last year alone, time spent on social networking sites has surged 73 percent.
In February 2010, social network usage exceeded Web-based e-mail usage for the first time.

As the social network medium and the adult participation have grown there has been substantial growth of business opportunities. This growth can be defined as “The Relationship Economy”. The “social business” model is one where the ecosystem is learning how to tap all the knowledge assets resting in the human capital. (Deregon, 2010) The marketplace of commerce has and continues to shift on-line. Deregon suggests that you need to compliment your off-line activities with an on-line presence. This presence is a way of managing your business image and includes such web 2.0 elements as blogs, websites and social media exposure.

The social web has become the place by which people and organisations try to entice others into an exchange. This action is not simply direct advertising. The real value that can be created by using social media is to “converse, learn and be relational”. Deregon’s theory states: “On-line and off-line success comes from serving the interest of others. Results come from service. There is plenty of opportunity to serve if you are listening and learning correctly. To serve however you must have a presence which reflects your intent in the marketplace waiting to be served”. (Deregon, 2010) Simply stated, the business must be a fully involved member of the social network. It must create value for the participants and by this create trust and a willingness to engage in commercial activities.

There is a great deal of activity in selling the best ways to utilise social networks for commercial advantage. There are commercial workshops that deliver a hands-on computer based social media course that detail step by step how to set up, monitor and measure a social media marketing campaign. (Papworth, 2010) These workshops use case studies and work through real world social media marketing campaigns by both teamwork and individual use of internet enabled PCs. There is money to be made from teaching others to exploit social media networks.

These promotional businesses will give information on how to best exploit the networks. The following “hints” for using blogs, Twitter and Facebook are paraphrased from one the many consultants that regularly publish bait type entries in blogs and newsletters. (Gregory, 2009)

A blog can be a valuable marketing tool for a business. The techniques include offering high-quality free information that is valuable to others, posting consistently and to a set schedule, showing a willingness to share a little of your personal side, having a point of view and being prepared to share it. The “hints “ also suggest that you need to be patient and give it time, keep keywords in mind, but don’t overemphasis them and take time to review and edit your posts before publishing.

Twitter can be an effective way to find clients by focusing on maintaining a professional profile and consistent account use. New business can be often found by being passive. The techniques to find potential business opportunities on Twitter include finding relevant people to follow using services such as Twellow, searching for targeted keywords through the search function, being willing to jump in and help others when appropriate and engaging in both business and non-business conversations. These hints state the most important things to do in order to maximise Twitter as a marketing tool is to be honest, genuine and respectful with each tweet.

Facebook can be a way to establish credibility and expertise in your industry and gradually create new business. By creating a profile and making the business the focus, it can develop a following that boosts the business’ prospects. The effective Facebook techniques for business include posting links to your business blog posts on your profile, accepting friend requests from acquaintances and reaching out to connect to those you don’t know well, creating a business fan page for added promotion, exploring advertising through Facebook and keeping your profile professional, but add in some personality. Facebook simply gives yet another way to reach business prospects.

The strategy in summary is to use these elements of social media combined with a web site and other online sources to build momentum that eventually leads to new business. “Too many businesses try to run their website like a walled garden, hoping people will come through the gate, when really it’s knock down the walls, get your content, get your brand, get your conversation across as much of the internet as you can, and then they will find their way to the website.” (Crossfield, 2010)

A great example of using a community to market a commercial enterprise is RedBubble. (RedBubble On-line Art Community, 2010) The website states: “we needed three things to become personally more creative online: a community to support us, a marketplace to sell things and a fulfilment service to get production done.”

Martin Hoskins a co-founder of Red Bubble in an interview for Nett# magazine said that there is an important distinction between a community and a social networking platform. “Facebook and Linkedin and Twitter are toolboxes of things you can do but a community is a group of people with shared interests who interact on top of social networks. A community has to be based around something in the top half dozen things you are generally interested in.” (Follow your Art, 2010)

RedBubble is about allowing participation in the creation of art. The site has a superior revenue model than Myspace and Facebook which are almost entirely based around selling advertising space. Hoskings states: “What we wanted was a real alignment of interest between what the community was doing and the way we made money. We don’t make money unless the community makes money and that means we look at what we’re doing from an artist’s point of view”.

An article in the Sydney Morning Herald summarised the economic achievements of the Red Bubble website and community. This article stated: “It has a simple business model: it’s free to join and free to upload artwork. It has a base price list of what items cost to produce and deliver. Artists can then add their mark-up, which they keep. The site has sold more than 200,000 artworks, which sent $700,000 to artists in Australia and overseas. The company itself takes its profit from the base price, minus the cost of producing and shipping the item on demand. It turned over $1.2 million in the first year and nearly $4 million in 2008.” (Timson., 2009)

The rather negative terms of viral marketing and viral advertising refer to techniques that use pre-existing social networks as well as creating new networks to achieve marketing objectives including sales and increases in brand awareness. These methods simulate the spread of real viral activity. This can also be called stealth marketing. In general the aim is to stimulate interactions that can be interpreted as a word of mouth recommendation.

An example is the best way to clarify how this type of commercial activity penetrates into existing social networks and creates new networks. The marketing campaign for the 2008 film The Dark Knight combined both online and real-life elements to make it resemble an alternate reality game. This included an online version of the fictional newspaper The Gotham Times which was followed by numerous websites, including a defaced Joker version of the paper called The Ha Ha Ha Times and even a website for the Gotham City Rail with a subway map of the city. After the bevy of new websites online messages started appearing in social networks and blogs promoting these websites. Many of these by stealth from employed marketeers while many were simply fans enthused by the hype surrounding the launch of the film. The on-line elements were interwoven with actual giveaways and promotional events at physical locations. (Billington, 2007). A comprehensive description of the techniques used can be seen at the Dark Knight specific Wiki. (Welcome to the Dark Knight ARG Wiki, 2009)

An experiment reported in the Harvard Business Review and undertaken by Rene Algesheimer of the University of Zurich and Paul M Dholkia of Rice University Houston USA showed that “customer communities pay off handsomely”. (Algesheimer & Dholakia, 2006) Of a population of 140,120 German ebay customers, 79242 were invited to participate in a specific product based social community. They were offered prize incentives to participate. The 60,878 not invited were the control group. Of those invited after three months 3,299 invitees were highly active in the community. These were called enthusiasts. 11,242 invitees were classified as lurkers in the community with some but minimal activity. Over 12 months members of the community bid twice as often, won 25% more auctions, paid prices 24% higher and spent 54% more money than the control group. The increased buying and selling by the enthusiasts and lurkers generated approximately 56% more in sales during the year the experiment ran than in the previous year.

Conclusion

The evidence is overwhelming in support of this paper’s proposition that business or commercial goals are a key perhaps primary driver of Internet based communities. Business uses communities and web 2.0 techniques to advance their interests. Commercial and business motivations drive a significant portion of on-line community and social networking interactions. These are not necessarily direct commercial transactions but a process of being a fully involved member of the social network.

We have seen that the demographics show mature adults as the primary users of social media, that a whole industry exists to promote business exploitation of social media and we looked at some of their hints on how to achieve business goals. We have examined an example of a business community with Red Bubble and looked at techniques to utilise a concentrated marketing scheme with Dark Knight. Lastly we saw the clear results from the ebay experiment that in commercial terms “customer communities pay off handsomely”. We can conclude that business seeks to create value for community participants and by this create trust and a willingness to engage in commercial activities.

Works Cited

Algesheimer, R., & Dholakia, P. M. (2006, November). Do Customer Communities pay off? Harvard Business Review .

Billington, A. (2007, Ddecember 5). The Dark Knight’s Viral Marketing Gets Very Real. Retrieved March 15, 2010, from Firstshowing.net: http://www.firstshowing.net/2007/12/05/the-dark-knights-viral-marketing-gets-very-real-cakes-cell-phones-and-all/

Crossfield, J. (2010). Show me the mummy: social currency in social media. Retrieved March 25, 2010, from Nett#: http://nett.com.au/marketing/quick-fix/show-me-the-mummy-social-currency-in-social-media/11715.html?grc=MD28958&chk=49b4e761aa7696df2369efd997ed30ed&RefCode=md_newsletter

Deregon, J. (2010, march). Creating Social Media Value. Retrieved March 15, 2010, from The Relationship Economy: http://www.relationship-economy.com/?series=963

Follow your Art. (2010, March). Nett# , pp. 26-32.

Gregory, A. (2009, July 25). Tips for Using Blogs, Twitter and Facebook to Find New Clients. Retrieved March 23, 2010, from Sitepoint: http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/07/25/blogs-twitter-facebook-for-business/

Papworth, L. (2010). Social Media Marketing Campaign course. Retrieved March 23, 2010, from Laurel papwoth: http://laurelpapworth.com/courses/social-media-marketing-campaign-course/

Pingdom. (2010, February 16). Study: Ages of social network users. Retrieved March 15, 2010, from Pingdom.com: http://royal.pingdom.com/2010/02/16/study-ages-of-social-network-users/

RedBubble On-line Art Community. (2010, March). Retrieved March 10, 2010, from RedBubble: http://www.redbubble.com/community

Ridings, C. M., & Gefen, D. (2004, November). Virtual Community Attraction: Why People Hang Out Online. Retrieved March 15, 2010, from Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication: http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue1/ridings_gefen.html

Strauss, L. (2009, March 18). what-is-a-social-community. Retrieved March 2010, from http://www.successful-blog.com/: http://www.successful-blog.com/community/what-is-a-social-community/

The Nielson Company. (2009). The Global OnlineMedia Landscape. Retrieved March 25, 2010, from blog.neilson.com: http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/nielsen-online-global-lanscapefinal1.pdf

Timson., L. (2009, May 12). Fine art of selling. Retrieved March 10, 2010, from Sydney Morning Herald: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/05/11/1241893916123.html

Welcome to the Dark Knight ARG Wiki. (2009, March 17). Retrieved March 5, 2010, from Dark Knight ARG Wiki: http://batman.wikibruce.com/Home

The Relationship Economy by Keith Law is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Australia License.

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Comments

Written by li ying about 2 years ago.

Hi Michael, I agree with your points where Fashion houses and other brands announce their updates or sales through Facebook Groups. As they have hundreds of followers, it is best to promote it there as some people log into Facebook at least once a day. This not only creates a immediate boost of sale items but it is also an easy way to promote their products.
Written by Belindam about 2 years ago.

“The Average twitter user is 39 years old”.

That’s amazing, as a very recent new user of Twitter, I feel whoever compiles these stats must be watching me!

On the serious side, on the topic of Social Media, I recently wrote a paper on a similar line to this, for another unit. I found the Advertising industry is now looking to Social Network Sites more seriously.

With the advent of PVR and Bittorrent, fewer people are watching free to air advertising watch. Advertisers are therefore looking for an alternative to traditional advertising mediums. Many now see Social Media as the industry’s ‘white knight’. It will be interesting to see what happens.
Written by keith Law about 2 years ago.

It is unethical for a third party to imply you endorse a product. I was not aware of this “Beacon ‘ practice until I read the papers at this conference. Business needs to build trust by interacting with an open and customer focused policy. This was certainly not the case with Beacon.
Written by jhiroberts about 2 years ago.

Hi Keith,

My understanding with how beacon was used, was that partner site, of Facebook would send purchase information from these sites to Facebook, which were used to target advertisements to the user, in come cases this information was also added to the members news-feed, which caused the biggest issues for members.

I am all for businesses getting statistics on users, for example how many unique users a site gets per hour, there total spend, what concerns me is when business start to trade this information with each other..

I agree that the only way to keep things private is not to add this information. But i think the biggest concern is the trading of this information. Information That you are OK to add on one site might not be OK for another.

Cheers

Jhi
Written by keith Law about 2 years ago.

“I would be very interested to know your position on what privacy is being relinquished by members of social networking, for businesses to get these stats. ”

I really don’t know a great deal about privacy on social media other than from the papers on this conference. The only way to keep something private is not to publish it. Once a things is published on the Internet you never know where it goes and how it is used. Some businesses will exploit any opportunities that happens.
Written by Taraeta about 2 years ago.

Hi Keith

Understanding the Latin origins of community was very thought provoking especially that the “gift” aspect. This lead me to think of how people take online communities for granted.

After reading the various comments I also came away a little confused between the SNS and community aspect. The eBay example did assist me in understanding the direction of your paper a bit better.

I was just interested on the statistic that you quoted from The Nielson Company, 2009 when you state that 883% more time was devoted to social media. Did this paper cite figures in hours? This is quite a large increase percentage wise but with all statistics sometimes it is a jump from a small to a more “reasonable” figure that can skew a percentage.

Taraeta
Written by jhiroberts about 2 years ago.

HI Keith,

A very well written paper, excellent research and well presented.

I think the main point of your paper, shows that business are aware of the popularity of social networking, so it makes sense that they want to use this popularity to their advantage.

Much like the introduction of Radio advertisements or TV Ads.

I would be very interested to know your position on what privacy is being relinquished by members of social networking, for businesses to get these stats.

In my paper i discuss the privacy breaches by Facebook, I also touch on how user privacy has been breached time and time again by this site in order to increase revenue. One particular example would be the use of ‘Beacon’ which is now defunct application launched by Facebook to collect and track user activities on the site. This information was then used to lure in advertisers, without member knowledge. The application has since been shut down after a pending class – action lawsuit, which Facebook later lost.(Guynn, 2010)

Cheers

Jhi

Guynn, J. (2010, May 12). Facebook settles privacy class action for $10.3m. Retrieved March 28, 2010, from smh.com.au: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/facebook-settles-privacy-class-action-for-103m-20100318-qif7.html

http://networkconference.netstudies.org/2010/04/facebook-and-the-demise-of-individual-privacy-%E2%80%93-a-flawed-assumption-or-serial-disregard/
Written by Keith Law about 2 years ago.

Alio

Thanks for your comments. As you say business will go where the people are. It make sense if you need to attract customers to become engaged in related areas: for example bicycling communities are often supported by bicycling manufacturers and retailers. Bicycle Victoria is a great example. It also has potential for tourism related events and accommodation to target specific on-line communities.

It obvious that Facebook promoters are making money from the platform. I doubt their motivations were ever altruistic.
Written by alio about 2 years ago.

Hi Keith

I enjoyed reading your paper, it was very thought provoking.

The use of online social networks sites as part of a many pronged advertising strategy seems to be on the increase. If SNSs are where the people are, then SNSs are the logical place to promote one’s business and products.

I must admit I have interpreted your argument slightly differently to others who have commented here. When you wrote: “Most communities have an underlying commercial organised structure that allows the pursuit of higher satisfactions”, I thought more about the logistics and financial aspects of SNSs. Somewhere, someone is providing the server space to host these sites – are they doing that out of pure altruism or are they getting a return of some sort?

Alio
Written by Keith Law about 2 years ago.

Barnes

Your point is valid. The aim of the paper was not to produce a balanced analysis but to argue a point of view. There are definitely communities that do not have a commercial aim and have resisted the ingress of commerce. I think they are a minority.

I can can see that social support groups like Beyond Blue to have the highest ideals but even they can be seduced by commerce. For example this quote from their website:” beyondblue and Woolworths – The Fresh Food People have joined forces to help raise awareness of depression across Australia.” It is not just Woolworths but Woolworths – the Fresh Food People.(Woolworths Depression Awareness Week, 2005)

WORKS CITED
Woolworths Depression Awareness Week. (2005, December). Retrieved May 2, 2010, from Beyond Blue: http://www.beyondblue.org.au/index.aspx?link_id=59.517
Written by Barnes about 2 years ago.

Your paper puts forward a well reasoned and researched argument that is interesting to read. I found your examples from redbubble and The Dark Knight intriguing. However I don’t think your statement “most communities have an underlying commercial organised structure that allows the pursuit of higher satisfactions” is accurate.

From your paper you have used a lot of social networking tools as examples and clearly these have underlying commercial goals. There are a lot of other online communities that you have not discussed that are not based on commercial models. Support groups and special interest forums are not always of a commercial nature or linked to any commercial enterprise (though I acknowledge they sometimes can be as well); just to name a couple of examples. A more accurate statement may have been many commercial organisations use online communities, new or existing, to set up an underlying commercial structure on which the community is based.

With the above exception, I found your argument for the links between community and commercial organisations sound and though provoking.
Written by Michael N about 2 years ago.

You do argue the case well. I think it is interesting that Facebook seems to balance the personal from the business. But what I find interesting is that, if they pay attention or not, when a store has a Facebook page they can get feedback about their products. But they can also tell people about upcoming sales, especially with fashion houses, and it is almost like they are building a relationship. The customer may not influence the design of the product but they are getting immediate feedback on what they produce. Your description of The Dark Knight promotion campaign is, at the present time, atypical of the social media strategies companies are going to do more of.
Written by Chris Johnson about 2 years ago.

Jocelyn and Keith

I would have to say that the data would not be valid from a blog? However to say there is no other reliable source then it may of been better leaving it out. Neilson whom you have reference would have been a reliable source along with Forrester or Hitwise who publish this data in professional reports on a regular basis. This way you able to establish methodology used, and they came to the conclusion.

Sometimes it difficult to get this data as the ask for a high price to access the report. This may be the reason you searched for the data from another source.

I had the same issue with my paper collecting mobile phone data. The Data referenced in my paper came from Gartner but because I did not have direct access to this data I used another source (Cozza,2010) who had then referenced that the data they came from Gartner. You will see how I worked that, and noted that the Data belonged to Gartner although I retrieved it from Cozza.

Someone who has access to Gartner report may discredit my data. But the information is there for them to research.

Cozza, R. (2010). Gartner Says Worldwide Mobile Phone Sales to End Users Grew 8 Per Cent in Fourth Quarter 2009; Market Remained Flat in 2009. Retrieved 2th March 2010, from http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1306513
Written by Keith Law about 2 years ago.

http://www.flowtown.com/blog/social-media-demographics-whos-using-which-sites?display=wide

This site has a visual demographic analysis of Social Media sites also using Google Ad Planner data.
Written by Keith Law about 2 years ago.

It is interesting about referencing other works and using their conclusions. I didn’t see the raw data or the controls on the sampling techniques involved so I can’t give any real assurance that the figures are correct. You would have to make your own assessment from the pingdom.com website. Also Google keeps statistics for their business purposes and there may be some type of bias involved.

I’m confident that generalised conclusion that the average and the majority of social media users are mature adults is correct. I have seen no evidence for the contrary position.

I like statistics but you really have to understand what they say. There are a lot conclusions drawn which are not actually supported by data. I’m thinking of political polls for one where conclusions are treated as fact when they are usually only at 95% confidence with an error range each way of at least 2%.
Written by Jocelyn Peucker about 2 years ago.

oh and I have four sons aged from 12 up to 20 years old – none of them have any fillings ….
Written by Jocelyn Peucker about 2 years ago.

Off topic slightly, and with no discredit to your paper Keith, but a few years ago, I was told about this ‘super’ tablet that could solve autistic problems in kids. They presented stats, and data, including ‘everyone has sleep problems’, and ‘all children don’t eat enough vegetables’, along with ‘all children will have at least two fillings in todays society before they are 14 years old’…

I asked the presenters “where was this information collected from, because I know I wasn’t asked”.. they couldn’t answer.

In my family alone, there are 6 of us, 2 being 30+ years old, 4 being under 21… all of us use the internet, therefore .. the 30+ statistic would be altered, if my family was used to create that statistic.. very interesting ..

Cheers
Jocelyn
Written by Keith Law about 2 years ago.

The average age is all over 30 years. The source is difficult to assess for accuracy. I’m not sure how accurate Google’s Ad Planner service is but it was the best analysis I could find. It was certainly different from my expectations – I had expected a younger age and a higher female ratio.

Like you Janette I suspect many people give inaccurate data – I often do {except to the tax office and the census.}

Thanks for reading my paper
Written by janette about 2 years ago.

Interesting paper. I am intrigued at the usage statistics – everyone over 30-years of age!
Is this really true? I wonder what parameters and samples were used to collect these stats.

I wonder … do people really reveal their true DOBs and genders online, and their locations for that matter? I know I don’t

I also wonder what the breakdown stats of social networking systems across countries, and rural and urban mgiht be.

As you say, trust and respect are key factors in conducting successful online business – any business really.
Written by Stevie Marshall about 2 years ago.

I couldn’t agree more on the integral link between community and business on the Internet. My own paper, ‘Commodifying Community’, looks at a similiar topic, though on a larger scale, exploring the commodification of social networks by venture capitalists.

Ofcourse community and business have always been kinda linked in our capitalist system. Various business models rely on community, I can’t help but think of Amway’s network marketing approach. Ofcourse, as we move towards a socio-capitalist model the link is becoming stronger and more accepted.

I can’t help but feel that community is cheapened by all this business involvement, just as I couldn’t help but think hitting up all my friends cheapened the relationships when someone tried to sell me on Amway.
Written by Keith Law about 2 years ago.

“Is Twitter an SNS or a community?
Is Facebook a SNS or a community although there are communities that have formed with in Facebook? ”

These are clearly platforms on which people communicate. Much of this communication is by members of communities both social and commercial. There are many other means of communication but social media sites are the most recent and fastest growing channel. You can not really separate the Internet based community from the means of communication. My discussion is not about the platform technology but how business exploits these communications channels to create value for community participants and by this create trust and a willingness to engage in commercial activities.

Sitepoint is a number of things depending on how you look at it. It is a website,a media and publishing company, a market place and an information resource. It also has a community of members that regularly interact with each other through its forum and communication channels. It is not simply a social media platform as in Facebook and Twitter.
Written by Chris Johnson about 2 years ago.

Keith
Site point is a SNS or a community?
Is Twitter an SNS or a community?
Is Facebook a SNS or a community although there are communities that have formed with in Facebook?

As Communities and Social Network Sites are two different entities then this is where I struggle with your argument. Defining where the the paper argues about communities been commercial when in fact your paper refers to SNS. Your response still fails to identify the differences.
Written by Keith Law about 2 years ago.

In response to Chris:

Sitepoint describes itself as: “SitePoint is a fast growing online media company and information provider targeting the Web professional market, specifically Web Developers and Designers. The company has five major revenue streams: advertising and sponsorship, content-based products both online and in retail, software, and more recently streaming video subscriptions and classified listings.” (About Us Sitepoint, 2010)
Sitepoint is a great example of a technological savvy company that uses all aspects of Web 2.0 technology to communicate with and develop its community of users. They use all platforms including email, blogs, forums, market places and social networking to maintain and expand their network. The Sitepoint Community is large and active and growing. They claim to be “the 903rd most visited web site in the world!” (About Us Sitepoint, 2010)
The point is that the platforms are the means to communicate and grow a community and hence the underlying business. While we can separate the community from the communication platforms in discussion in practice they are integrated channels. It is for this reason that business targets social media networks as a significant means to grow and interact with new and existing communities. To access the community you need to use a communication platform.
You said “It’s a rather narrative view that business and commercialism is the reason people participate in online communities.” I assume you meant naive. I don’t think and I hope I didn’t imply in my paper that business and commercialism is the reason people participate in online communities. This is not true. It is the reasons why businesses participate in online communities but individuals participate for their own personal reasons. For example, I’m a member of the Sitepoint community as it is a great resource for acquiring technological knowledge and support. I use their forums extensively and have purchased a number of their publications. They achieve their commercial aims and I achieve my personal aims. Sitepoint content is in the top half dozen things I am are generally interested in
This example supports the quote: “Facebook and Linkedin and Twitter are toolboxes of things you can do but a community is a group of people with shared interests who interact on top of social networks. A community has to be based around something in the top half dozen things you are generally interested in.” (Follow your Art, 2010)

You said: “Your paper focuses on only the commercial SNS and fails to research online communities.” I had to chose how best to make my argument within the word constraints of the exercise. I see the exploitation of the social network platforms by business as a growing means to access into existing communities and create new communities. It is by no means the only way being used but it seems to me to be the fastest growing and least targeted method. It can be a scatter gun approach.
My conclusion was: “We can conclude that business seeks to create value for community participants and by this create trust and a willingness to engage in commercial activities.” Social Networks is one of the main ways business communicates with potential new members and expands the footprint of their influence. In the above Sitepoint example the value is created by the information and support available which leads to purchase of their commercial products. Social media platforms especially Twitter and Facebook as well as newsletters and other techniques are used to continually reinforce their communication channels.

WORKS CITED
About Us Sitepoint. (2010). Retrieved April 26, 2010, from Sitepoint.com: http://www.sitepoint.com/about/?source=homepage
Written by Chris Johnson about 2 years ago.

Keith
I am somewhat confuse as to what you are referring to when you state that

“This paper proposes that business or commercial goals are a key perhaps primary driver of Internet based communities.”

However the data presented is that of Social Networks Sites (SNS) not online communities?

Online communities can be a layer of social networks that is not for the purpose of business or commercial gain. Online communities may not always be a part of SNS. Online communities take on many forms on the web. List Servs, Bulletin boards, Online games, Chat rooms are just a few.

“However, not all participants share the same motivations and goals.”
This is correct in that they not all have a commercial reason for their activities.

It’s a rather narrative view that business and commercialism is the reason people participate in online communities.

If your papers is more about SNS site I like you to consider the motivation behind Wikipedia. There is no commercial business model and is run on donation only to meet the cost of operating the site. There are many free wiki’s out there that do not have a commercial purpose.

Your paper focuses on only the commercial SNS and fails to research online communities. The one example you gave was “Red Bubble” that would come under your argument. Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin do not. As you correctly state in your Paper

“Facebook and Linkedin and Twitter are toolboxes of things you can do but a community is a group of people with shared interests who interact on top of social networks. A community has to be based around something in the top half dozen things you are generally interested in.” (Follow your Art, 2010)

Follow your Art. (2010, March). Nett# , pp. 26-32.

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Online Conference on Networks and Communities

The Relationship Economy

The Relationship Economy

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