Network Theory Applied In Social Media World
To briefly introduce the Network Theory we can first following these concepts: The Network is the properties of nodes their connection and relations. The Nodes are the people in the network, the relationship is the present by a line or edge; The Edge is the relationships between the nodes; The Direction of edge represent the flow of relationship; the Network Analysis is the degree of how far removes one person or node is from another person or node. In my perspective, the “network theory” gives a vivid metaphor of relationships between people under the recent social media community.
It’s seems that we have been clustered in different networks in our life. The people in networks is not isolating, but connecting by “hubs” and “nodes”. People in a same network mostly are sharing the same attitudes and ideas. It reminds me the concepts on “social class” and “social capital”. “World of Month” communication is coming from sharing the experience. It is said the people who makes reference to the others knows both product and potential customers better than the marketers. What’s more, the reference customers are good customers based on the foundation interpersonal trust. Social network obviously play a critical roles in the dissemination of information and influencing behavior. People in the networks know a better way to communicate compare with marketers’ persuasion.
Think about the people in your network, the idea “acquaintance versus close friend” also is an interesting topic to discuss. I believe in the age without social media, people are more “close” with each other, or to say fewer friends but more strength relationship. With booming social media, the concept of “friend” is extending, we can have “friends” anywhere, anyplace. It sometimes even makes me a little bit concerned on the definition of “friends”. Can I say that I have 200 friends on Facebook and I do own them? The answer is absolutely not. To sum up, social media extend our social network cluster people in different communities, however in the same time diluted the real definition of friend.
