Digital Oxytocin: How Trust Keeps Facebook, Twitter Humming. The most surprising takeaway from the recent Pew Research Center study, "Social Networking Sites and Our Lives," wasn't that 80% of Americans regularly use the Internet or that 60% of web users have a social network account--double the number in 2008, with the vast majority on Facebook (52%) and Twitter (33%).
Nor is it that people have gone gaga over smartphones, with one in three Americans owning one. Rather, it's the idea that the Internet, in particular social networks, engender trust, and the more time you spend on them the more trusting you become. As the report put it, "The typical Internet user is more than twice as likely as others to feel that people can be trusted," with regular Facebook users the most trusting of all. "A Facebook user who uses the site multiple times per day is 43% more likely than other Internet users and more than three times as likely as non-Internet users to feel that most people can be trusted. " There's a good reason for this. Social Networking Affects Brains Like Falling in Love. The essence of affection. The cuddle chemical. In other words, oxytocin.This hormone, produced daily by your brain and mine, is the reason I'm on my back, trying to remain perfectly still inside a magnetic-resonance-imaging machine secreted in the basement of a cheerless building at the California Institute of Technology.
Even though I am cocooned by earplugs and noise-cancellation headphones, it's freakishly loud in here, a mix of jackhammer pulses and a hurricane whoosh of air. In other words, it's your typical MRI experience -- save for the Apple laptop bolted a couple of feet above my head, the mouse on my chest, and the unbearably sad video playing on the MacBook screen. I have volunteered for this, signing up to be a test subject for Dr. Love, aka Paul J. In a series of studies spanning nine years, Zak has changed our understanding of human beings as economic animals. But I didn't come to L.A. in search of love, or even a hug. The answers could have profound ramifications. Online Database of Government and Non-Profit Social Media Policies. Social Media Jobs and Salaries Guide. Data: Composition of a Corporate Social Media Team.
How are today’s social media teams structured? Ever wonder who’s behind those corporate Twitter and Facebook accounts? Think there’s more to it than an intern just tweeting haphazardly? This data, in the below graphic, is compiled from Altimeter’s recent survey to 144 global national corporations with over 1000 employees shows how today’s teams in 2011 are breaking down. This is the core team that operates the social media program within a corporation, often within corporate communications or a marketing function they will work with other business units. Finding: A Social Media Team Consists of Four Major FunctionsWhile the team size may vary, it’s important to understand the components of a team. Leadership Team: We found 1.5 folks are focused on leadership and vision, the most common title is the Corporate Social Strategist, and we published a research report discussing the aspirations and challenges of this Open Leader, and how they organize internally.
Spend Wisely. Finally, an Investment Roadmap for Social Business Buyers (Altimeter Report) Like all other Investing, Invest in Social Business based on Market Research. Just as you would invest in your personal finances based on your family size, age, and market conditions you should be spending in social business with the same industry knowledge. With limited budgets, the corporate Social Strategist (read report) faces a spending dilemma. In 2010, the average annual social business budget at enterprise-class corporations was a mere $833,000. Now, Altimeter Group is publishing spending and deal size averages based on social business maturity for corporations to finally benchmark and cross-check their own spending efforts. Follow These Three Steps:Take the Quiz: Identify how mature your company is in social business (it’s in the full report, or see the single pager)Adjust investments: Cross match how others are spending in your same maturity level, as well as the next phase in maturity for your program forecast.Share report widely with vendors, agencies, and internal staff.
Social Business: It’s like the Internet in 1997. Web Squared: Web 2.0 Five Years On - by Tim O'Reilly and John Battelle. Five years ago, we launched a conference based on a simple idea, and that idea grew into a movement. The original Web 2.0 Conference (now the Web 2.0 Summit ) was designed to restore confidence in an industry that had lost its way after the dotcom bust. The Web was far from done, we argued. In fact, it was on its way to becoming a robust platform for a culture-changing generation of computer applications and services. In our first program, we asked why some companies survived the dotcom bust, while others had failed so miserably. We also studied a burgeoning group of startups and asked why they were growing so quickly.
The answers helped us understand the rules of business on this new platform. From Google and Amazon to Wikipedia, eBay, and craigslist, we saw that the value was facilitated by the software, but was co-created by and for the community of connected users. Ever since we first introduced the term "Web 2.0," people have been asking, "What’s next? " It is all of those, and more. Your Social Media Success Toolkit: 10 Must-Have Resources. A determined soul will do more with a rusty monkey wrench than a loafer will accomplish with all the tools in a machine shop. ~Robert Hughes Hughes is right on the money. Sometimes I feel like we rely too heavily on tools and technologies to do the work for us, when the real truth about social media is that it’s not a media. It’s a human relationship. In our quest to provide the very best service to our clients, our agency has spent countless hours trying and testing every conceivable social media tool and technology.
Hootsuite. I just finished the Ironman Triathlon World Championships last Saturday. Eric Harr is the Founder & President of Resonate Social Media, a leading, integrated social media agency in San Francisco. Connect: Authored by: Eric Harr Eric Harr is the new Social Media Expert for CBS News and the Founder & President of Resonate Social. See complete profile. Is There Social Capital in a Social Network Site?: Facebook Use and College Students' Life Satisfaction, Trust, and Participation - Valenzuela - 2009 - Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. Abstract This study examines if Facebook, one of the most popular social network sites among college students in the U.S., is related to attitudes and behaviors that enhance individuals' social capital. Using data from a random web survey of college students across Texas (n = 2,603), we find positive relationships between intensity of Facebook use and students' life satisfaction, social trust, civic engagement, and political participation.
While these findings should ease the concerns of those who fear that Facebook has mostly negative effects on young adults, the positive and significant associations between Facebook variables and social capital were small, suggesting that online social networks are not the most effective solution for youth disengagement from civic duty and democracy. Moral panic is a common reaction to new forms of communication (Chalaby, 2000; Winston, 1986).
The advent of television spawned fears of mass escapism (Klapper, 1960; Pearlin, 1959). 5 Questions a Social Media Consultant Should Ask a Client. When consulting on a company's Social Media presence, we must first ask some questions of the company itself. Here are the 5 most important questions a Social Media Consultant should ask a client to deliver the best possible service. 1. What does the company want to achieve from their Social Media activity? Are they looking to increase sales, improve customer services, save money on customer engagement, create an outpost for customers to converse, break in to new markets etc. The objective must first be established so the Social Media Consultant can create a road map to get there. 2. Do they have an established online community already?
3.Where are their customers? For example I recently provided Social Media consultancy to a large Law firm. Are you dealing with a B2B client or a B2C client? 4. Its a good idea to do some research on successful campaigns or strategies implemented by similar businesses and offer an original twist on the idea for your client e.g. 5. Connect: Authored by: Social Media Report. What Is Web 2.0. By Tim O'Reilly 09/30/2005 Oct. 2009: Tim O'Reilly and John Battelle answer the question of "What's next for Web 2.0? " in Web Squared: Web 2.0 Five Years On. The bursting of the dot-com bubble in the fall of 2001 marked a turning point for the web. Many people concluded that the web was overhyped, when in fact bubbles and consequent shakeouts appear to be a common feature of all technological revolutions.
Shakeouts typically mark the point at which an ascendant technology is ready to take its place at center stage. The concept of "Web 2.0" began with a conference brainstorming session between O'Reilly and MediaLive International. In the year and a half since, the term "Web 2.0" has clearly taken hold, with more than 9.5 million citations in Google. This article is an attempt to clarify just what we mean by Web 2.0.
In our initial brainstorming, we formulated our sense of Web 2.0 by example: The list went on and on. 1. Netscape vs. Communication & Media Studies - Museum of Social Media: HOME.