European Business School
International University Schloss Reichartshausen
Seminar Paper
Seminar Subject
Fall Term 2010
Opportunities and Barriers of Social Media Marketing – A Critical Evaluation against the Background of Social Network Theory
Table of Contents
List of abbreviationsi
List of figures and tablesii
1.Introduction1
1.1 Problem Definition and Objective1
1.2 Course of Investigation1
2. Theoretical Foundations2
2.1 Social Network Theory2
2.1.1 The Strength of Weak Ties2
2.2 Web 2.03
2.2.1 Historical Review of the Internet3
2.2.2 Definition Social Media Marketing4
3. Why Social Media Marketing is Important5
3.1 Changed Internet User’s Behavior5
3.2 Reference to Social Network Theory5
3.3 The Decline of
…show more content…
Social Network Theory, as we know it today, refers to the structural analysis of social relationships between people, based on systematic empirical data (Marsden, 1990). These relations are commonly displayed by nodes and ties, where nodes represent the individuals within the network and ties the connection between them, showing the degree of interdependency such as close friendship or loose business contact (illustrated in figure 1). Generally, these connections can be divided into strong and weak ties in order to denote the respective closeness of the individuals’ relationships.
2.1.1 The Strength of Weak Ties
A very popular and renowned researcher in the field of sociology is Mark Granovetter who thoroughly investigated the marginal value of strong and weak ties in social networks. He concluded, that “social systems lacking in weak ties will be fragmented and incoherent. New ideas will spread slowly, scientific endeavors will be handicapped, and subgroups … will have difficulty reaching a modus Vivendi” (Granovetter, 1983, p. 202)”. To sum it up: the more links between several dense
Social networks can be reconstructed with the introduction or reduction of nodes that make up social ties. The nodes represent the individuals in that network and the ties are the connection between the nodes that vary depending on the individual 's social network (Christakis and Fowler: 2011). This diversity in social networks has the potential for changing the path of someone’s life course. For me this occurred during the time I was in high school. My mom became disabled when she injured her back at work. Her injury made walking difficult and painful, therefore forcing her to leave her job
Brian V. Carolan. (2014). 1: The Social Network Perspective and Educational Research Introduction. In Social Network Analysis and Education: Theory, Methods & Applications. (pp. 3-23). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. doi: http://dx.doi.org.library.gcu.edu:2048/10.4135/9781452270104.n1
As we’ve previously encountered social network analysis with some of our readings like Franco Moretti’s article, “Network Theory, Plot Analysis” and with Shada’s presentation last week, I’m not going to go into too much detail about the basics of social network analysis since I think that would be kind of redundant. My presentation will focus mainly upon how social network analysis can be used in literary studies to enrich our knowledge of subsets within the English discipline, and even the discipline as a whole. So before I get into that, I’ll provide a super quick review of the most important parts of social network analysis. Social network analysis started off as a technique in sociology, but has since expanded into other disciplines, including, of course, literary studies, and the technique allows us to see relationships among actors through visual displays of nodes and and ties. In their book Social Network Analysis, David Knoke and Song Yang underline some fundamental underlying assumptions about the importance of social network analysis, and state that “social networks affect perceptions, beliefs, and actions through a variety of structural mechanisms that are socially contructed by relations among entities. Direst contacts and more intensive interactions dispose entities to better information, greater awareness, and higher susceptibility to influencing or being influenced by others.” Importantly, they also remind us “that networks are not static structures, but are
The America society has many aspects in life since 1950 through 2000s, many up and down due to be economy changing over time. In the book, bowling alone by Robert d. Putnam believes that are society are influence by things that are leaders does and the effects on our people judgment. Putnam reveals that each chapter has clear message that highlights his points about people interest in American society. Putnam reveals his points about American society; social capital, religious participation, social network, and trust.
Granovetter highlights weak ties by stating that weak ties are best when it comes to the collection of information and resources that do not fit your normal or desired behaviors. For example, if you wish to gain insight into new job opportunities you would go to your weak ties. This is because as your weak ties, these people are not obligated to tell you things that will reaffirm or make you feel good about your current standing in the world because they are not invested in to your personal feelings, only the matter at hand. Meaning that they do not see any double meanings in your questions as a strong tie would. To clarify when asked as person that is slightly removed from you immediate agents of socialization, weak ties offer an opinion they draw on their own contacts that will have little or no relation to yours and therefore
Living in a less populated town, I formulated close tied friends, in which my parents grew up with their parents. Since everyone knows each other and builds one’s security,
The most essential idea to see about closeness that I read In this section was one determinant if closeness which is self-exposure. Self-exposure comprises of fair, uncovering messages about the self that are deliberately coordinated towards others. Uncovering correspondence contains data that is by and large distracted by means of different sources. 2. The most essential idea to see about double dealing that I read about in this section was lying. Untruths have the possibility to incite a social emergency, particularly if the substance of the data lied about is huge. 3. The measurements of closeness are, enthusiastic, physical, scholarly, and shared exercises. The measurements of separation are, withdrawal, evasion, held, shortening connection,
In our first unit of sociology, I felt I could relate with the term social network, " The term social network refers to the people who are linked to one another(Henslin,116.)"Social networks include everyone you know. I can relate to social networking because I 'm on a social salsa team. When I joined my dance team , we all had the same passion, the love of dance. After a few years of performing and hanging with the same clique all the time for they have the same interests as me. After a while we all seemed to cluster together and they are now more than just a clique to me they are my fiends.
The use of social networking sites is rising at great rates. According to a report conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in 2012, ninety-five percent of individuals aged 12-17 use the internet; and eighty-one percent of those use social network sites (Pew Interest). Although it is known that social media can have a useful impact on lives, often times people forget that with a positive comes a negative. The continual use of social network sites will impact teen lives more negatively than positively because they can cause huge distractions from valuable and critical pursuits like education; they can also cause mental health issues and a reduction in communication skills.
According to Granovetter, whether a tie is strong or not is dependent on four factors: amount of time spent together, emotional intensity, intimacy, and reciprocity of services. I tend to define my personal networks as with lots of weak ties, and a few strong ties. Strong ties offer me emotional support and huge favors, and weak ties are good information sources.
Using the multitude of resources the authors draw from, they study the results of a survey of several hundred companies using online marketing in order to determine the best practices for those advertising strategies. The authors ascertain that social media marketing is only as effective as the prevailing psychological factors in which social media works. These factors are inherent in human communication, not only on the internet, but in the real world as well. The authors state that there are communities of people using social media and that “these communities often thrive because the members primarily are drawn to one another. The importance of person-to-person affinity – and the ability to interact with these other humans – typically trumped the role of the sponsor’s goods or services or the presence of other features in the online communities.” (Moran 232) What the authors are saying is that social media is a new tool in order to bring similar consumers together and that if a company wants to be successful in social media marketing, they must concentrate on the human connection rather than their product or services.
So the social structures, divisions and agencies which underpin society influence friendships. Analysis has identified many different types and formations of friendship of varying degrees of intimacy. Perhaps the key to understanding friendship is to understand that different friendships thrive in accordance with the different needs of each person, and that finding a person who or a friendship which meets personal expectations is where the relevance lies. A ‘symbolic interactionist’ sociological approach to future research would ascertain how that understanding between two people is reached. So, friendship exists within the social and economic context in which it was formed, and if this context alters, so does the nature of the friendship. The way in which humans manage and create friendships reacts to changes and evolves in order to sustain itself as part of the human condition. This is evidence of the value and necessity of human connection, be it friends or family, to the life experience. Studying friendship provides knowledge of social developments and changes. This is valuable in understanding human interaction and future policy within health and
We connect with friends via social media or a video gets viral, here user is a Vertex and other connected users produce an edge, therefore videos get viral when reached to certain connections. In sociology, economics, political science, medicine, social biology, psychology, anthropology, history, and related fields, one often wants to study a society by examining the structure of connections within the society. This could befriend networks in a high school or Facebook, support networks in a village or political/business
Despite the fact that we’re already in the 21st century, society continues to show signs of progress and development strongly leaning towards the direction of advancement, constantly evolving. This pattern is no different from the world of advertising, as it has also evolved through the years and quite recently an unexpected technological innovation took the world by storm. It made such a tremendous impact that eventually led to the transformation of traditional marketing, and it’s no other than social media that we all learned to love.
The way that individuals and businesses communicate and interact has radically changed. With the development of technology and the internet, people can connect almost instantaneously and with very little effort. Social media has come to play a huge part in the way that the world communicates with each other. In fact, a recent report shows that in a single month people spend over 25 hours on social networks (“The Digital Consumer”). With consumers committing that much time to social media sites, social networking has become an important aspect of everyday life for individuals—and businesses. Like most marketing activities, social media marketing poses some risk. However, it is advantageous for businesses to exploit this opportunity, and develop an effective and ethical marketing strategy that includes using social media as a marketing tool.