Robert Young, writing of Of Social Nets and Business Models, provides a fascinating insight into the role of micro-celebrities (i.e. micro-influencers) within social networks:
MySpace in particular, needs to be a catalyst for trust among its users and advertisers. While taking a strategy of segregation (e.g. "roping off" brand-safe areas) might satisfy conservative advertisers and yield some dollars in the short term, such efforts will actually serve to undermine and limit the long-term viability of its business model by further exacerbating the distrust between users and advertisers. Instead, what MySpace needs to do is to tackle the problem head-on by launching programs that ultimately create new levels of trust between its constituents where none existed before....
When it comes to advertising in mass media, a big name is required since such campaigns are only effective if the viewer already knows who that celebrity is. But in a social network, micro-celebrities who are well known within their network of micro-communities could prove just as effective and potentially even more so, particularly if such campaigns are able to generate buzz, excitement and a cool-factor.
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MySpace can effectively play the role of talent agent by aggregating a list of users who would be appropriate for advertisers within various categories. In fact, the incentive "to be discovered" is likely to spur many users to express themselves in a manner that will position them favorably for consideration. The result is a win for everyone involved.
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By enabling advertisers to partner with users, this is the type of program that would create trust between the parties. This trust, multiplied by the number of ad campaigns and the users enlisted, could then be propagated throughout the entire social network in a manner that is completely native to the medium itself.
This reminded me tangentially of the "Maths buddies" - people knowledgeable in the mathematics of non-linear dynamics - who volunteered themselves as helpers on mathematical topics at an SFI Complex Systems Summer School I went to a long time ago (1999, I think?). Not in the sense that they are micro-celebrities, more that they are people who can be trusted on a particular topic, and so worthy of befriending.
Moving away now from the advertising/trust model included above, I wonder if it's worth thinking about the structures that appear in social spaces like MySpace, and working out how Universities, courses and libraries (for example) might justify a presence and make the post of their trusted status?
A lot of media related 'corporate' entities - like bands, for example - altready have a presence on MySpace that you can become a friend to. Here's one of my summer favourites: Uiscedwr, but you can find similar things for the big bands, like Coldplay (who were almost as sublime as Suzanne Vega at the recent Isle of Wight Festival;-).
And so I wonder how a library, or a course, might go down in MySpace... A quick search reveals there are actually quite a few libraries in MySpace already, although I haven;t managed to find any courses in there yet (but I haven't looked very hard...if you know of any, please post a comment...).
One of the main questions for me, I think, is what benefits you get from actually having a presence within an architected social space like MySpace? So what if a student can sign up as a friend to a T184 Course page in MySpace? What benefits could they possibly get from such a relationship? I need to set up a page there for real, I think, and see just what sorts of things I might sensibly, and usefully, put on it.
Another approach would be to have lecturer's pages within MySpace and develop the idea of academic personalities who announce and maybe even actually run courses via their MySpace pages, just as band promote track releases and live gigs via their pages.
On the other hand, just because we could do all these things, it doesn't mean that we should do them, or even suggest that they are remotely sensible things to do... On the other hand, there may be an argument that a small number of people should be exploring these new ways of engaging audiences and leveraging the power of self-organising social networks?
PS another class virtual space that may be worth setting up outposts in are the massive multiplayer online games like Second Life. There's already a Second Life library, for instance, and an increasing number of organisations have started hosting events there - educational and otherwise (like the BBC for example). (Here's a useful starting point for reviewing some of the educational events that have already taken place in SL a bit further.)
Posted by ajh59 at June 20, 2006 02:11 PM