Comments on: What Makes Social Media Social?

By: Samantha Krieger

Samantha Krieger — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 22:41:45 +0000

Yes welcome to my generation (I’m in my mid-twenties). This is exactly where we’re at. My email inbox is full of facebook messages (of conversations). Who needs email anymore when you have facebook? Who needs voicemail when you have text messaging (a conversation)?

Good post Bas. I also agree with Woody that it has much to do with our need (crave) for community and relationships. I’m actually working on a book proposal dealing with that idea.

Thanks!

By: Bas

Bas — Sat, 30 May 2009 08:36:09 +0000

@Woody: thanks for helping out… I have to blend in “community” into this argumentation. This makes perfect sense as this is one main topic I will be discussing when talking Social Media and project teams… Thanks!

@Diwant: you might be right. I think an anonymous “conversation” is not a real conversation it’s more like being the drunk in the bar talking to anyone who forgot to walk away

(with the exception of self-help groups that need this kind of privacy, but even then i’m not sure).

By: Diwant Vaidya

Diwant Vaidya — Fri, 29 May 2009 19:44:28 +0000

I don’t know if I would call FMyLife social media. Social media = conversations, but that is a tough fit because emails are conversations and I wouldn’t consider those social media. There has to be an aspect of exhibitionism to the conversation (i.e. others could possibly see and catch up on the conversation so far).

By: Woody Williams

Woody Williams — Fri, 29 May 2009 17:37:02 +0000

There are important connotations to the word “social.”

-communities
-communal
-relationship or companionship

In this sense, shared document editing might or might not be a “social” activity. For example, in the course of editing a submission from a writer, there may be considerable back-and-forth communication and shared changes but the exchange does not meet the criteria of “social.” It is essentially a business transaction.

It is possible that “social” is more about community and relationship (which certainly implies “people” or a person) than it is about one-on-one although we can be social one-on-one. Social is really more one-to-many and many-to-one in addition to one-to-one… community.

Social media are tools that allow us to create and participate in social networks. Social networks allow connections, community, and interaction not only among individuals but among organizations as well. In other words, organization-to-organization, organization-to-individual, and individual-to-individual. In this sense, organization could refer to corporate or non-profit entities as well as other groups or associations.

The tools (social media) are becoming more personal and personalized but it is the communal nature and the creation of a community that makes them truely social.

By: Bas de Baar

Bas de Baar — Fri, 29 May 2009 16:31:21 +0000

Hi Anonymous (sorry, couldn’t find your name)

… hmmm, those anonymous sites put a dent in my argument.. yes yes. Hmm. For now I just exclude them from my definition until I have a better explanation.

Thanks for raising this point.

By: Project Management Tools & Techniques

Project Management Tools & Techniques — Fri, 29 May 2009 11:57:18 +0000

I’m not sure collaborative document editing isn’t social. It certainly has some of the same results as traditional social media (people work together to create something that’s more than the sum of the effort involved). There are anonymous and psuedonymous social sites that still get a lot of traction — fmylife.com is a recent example.