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The Sociology of Social Media
By Andrew Clough (c) 2008

While being hired on at StepForth Web Marketing
(http://www.stepforth.com/) our CEO, Ross Dunn, was interested
in how someone with a background in sociology could benefit his
company, specifically in understanding social media and how to
market to it. Sociologists look at communities and try to dissect
them as to what its participants have in common in addition to
trends or commonalities within the communities.

Sociologists study society and social action by examining the
groups and social institutions people form, as well as various
social, religious, political, and business organizations. In
essence it is the study of social interactions of people and
groups.

They like to watch groups of people and see how they interact
and function. Understanding the group's values and ideas is the
key because once you understand a group one can participate
within it. Participation means that you have the ability to
communicate to those within the groups and spread or gain
information. The concept of a social media marketer is to gain
understanding of a community and leverage it to increase
awareness of their own or their client's expertise. Social media
based communities are seen as the new web properties for
marketing campaigns. Driving traffic and developing information
users trust and use is the monetization of the social media
world.

This article is a general understanding as to what social media
is and its potential for reaching the public. In the future I
will be covering more specific areas within social media and
helping clients build campaigns that work for their specific
situation in this emerging marketplace. If you have any questions
please feel free to ask (andrew@stepforth.com).

Why People Use Social Media

Social Media is a web based venue that shares ideas, values,
and information. Social media sites are formed when groups of
people want to share information. They are used to keep up with
friends and colleagues, to exchange ideas, and get information
from those who might have an answer. Social media sites create
a community (a group of individuals) based around this shared
information. Many of these sites have gained huge followings and
therefore are seen as authorities in their particular area of
expertise (news, technology, sports, etc.).

Social media creates a community where like minded people can
interact, mingle, and explore. They provide information that's
judged by those within the community to be deemed noteworthy. It
is interesting to note that social media sites have the same
basic format in how they propagate the content provided by their
users. Individuals are able to vote on the content or respond to
the content. In this way, social media sites seek to gain and
direct viewers. Social media is about giving control over
information back to the masses.

Information provided on these sites is judged on a combination
of criteria; its relevance, its quality, and the uniqueness of
its content. The information is seen as trustworthy and unbiased
because it is peer filtered. The information within these
communities will have influence on the people who view it and
can determine what actions they take regarding this new found
information. As social media sites prosper with large user bases
of interconnected individuals they provide a new platform for
finding web based information.

Social media is inherently personal. The users provide personal
information and ideas, respond to them, share them, and create a
social media personality. This is where social media marketing
comes in. Marketers want to know who you are and what you like.
With booming global communication and technologies social media
sites are seen as important venues for exchange. They embrace
ideas surrounding information like connectivity, word of mouth,
promotion of quality, and trust of those deemed trustworthy.
Social media sites are important because they contain information
users find interesting, timely and informative.

Marketing is the sharing of information to influence a consumer
to purchase a product or service. Social media marketers want
to get their messages out across the many mediums (video,
interactive, audio, etc.) on social media sites to the
individuals spending time on them. Social media sites also
provide a space for advertisers to promote and gain insight on
their products. These sites are seen as a great venue for
advertising because of their ability to reach individuals based
on their demographics, like age, location, and search profiles.

In both social media and marketing a niche is a smaller more
focused section of a broader market. Niche communities are able
to congregate within social media sites and share ideas and
fraternize on very specific topics. This idea is very important
to marketers and social media because they want to be able to
reach the appropriate market for their information. Niche
marketing is the process of finding and serving these specific
market segments and designing custom-made strategies to profit
from them.

Currently social media sites hold huge amounts of information.
Social media is a great tool for spreading information and adding
to it. Do people want more personalized, up to date and high
quality information? What kind of information do users actually
get in a current search inquiry? Is there a better way of
accessing all the information on the web? These are questions
social media is trying to answer. Social media sites are giving
the power back to the people for exchanging information; it is a
tool that helps society communicate and connect. Society values
unbiased, accurate information and access to it. Social media
provides personalized information and the chance for your voice
to be heard. Social media's ability to influence one's personal
decisions will give it huge potential to shape the society we
live in.
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Andrew Clough is StepForth's Social Media Specialist at StepForth
Web Marketing Inc.; based in Victoria, BC, Canada and founded in
1997. You can read more of Andrew's articles and those of the
StepForth team at http://news.stepforth.com or contact us at
http://www.stepforth.com/, Tel - 250-385-1190,
Toll Free - 877-385-5526, Fax - 250-385-1198
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