How to win friends and influence people

'Social Networks' are not a new phenomenon. The term was first used in the 1950s by a man called J.A. Barnes, who was studying human relations in a Norwegian fishing village, and social network analysis has emerged as a key technique in modern sociology, anthropology, social psychology, information science and organisational studies.

The so-called rule of 150, states that the size of a genuine social network is limited to about 150 members and the 'small world phenomenon' is the hypothesis that the chain of social acquaintances required to connect one arbitrary person to another arbitrary person, anywhere in the world, is generally short. The concept gave rise to the famous phrase 'six degrees of separation' after a 1967 small world experiment by psychologist Stanley Milgram. He found that two random US citizens were connected by, at most, six acquaintances; other experiments suggest this is five on the internet.

SOCIAL NETWORKS AND THE INTERNET

Social networks and the internet were first considered in a book called Virtual Community by Howard Rheingold, published in 1993. It discussed a range of computer-mediated communication and social groups using chat rooms and electronic mailing lists (the web was obviously still in its infancy). It pointed out the potential benefits for personal psychological well-being, as well as for society at large, of belonging to such virtual communities.

Virtual communities are now considered a vital aspect of the Web 2.0 concept (the in vogue term being used for the next-generation stage of the internet), which depends upon social interaction and exchange between users online.

The first social networking website was classmates.com, which began in 1995. Other sites followed, including sixdegrees.com, which began in 1997; however, it was not until 2001 that websites using the 'circle of friends' principle started appearing. In these communities an initial set of founders send out messages inviting members of their own personal network to join the site, new members repeat the process, growing the total number of members and links in the network. Sites then offer features such as automatic address book updates, viewable profiles, the ability to form new links through introduction services and other forms of online social connections.

This form of social networking, widely used in virtual communities, became particularly popular in 2003, and flourished with the advent of a website called Friendster.com, which was one of the most successful at using this circle of friends technique. The popularity of these sites grew rapidly and by 2005 MySpace.com was getting more page views than Google, which had launched its own social network called Orkut in 2004. Yahoo! entered the fray with its offering Yahoo! 360 in March 2005, and in July 2005 News Corporation caught everyone off guard and snapped up MySpace.

A WORD OF WARNING

If you are over 30 then you will probably find many of these sites as incomprehensible as a petulant teenager – they are often unfathomable, tedious, boring, offensive, fickle and egotistical. Yet also, like teenagers, they can be original, funny, innovative, revolutionary and provocative. It is teenagers and twentysomethings (or the teen-minded) who are largely fuelling the extraordinary growth in these sites. MySpace membership, for example, grew 111% in the last six months and each member spent an average of 184 minutes per month on the site. So what are they doing, and why?

MySpace is essentially leveraging the angst of youth – social acceptability – it allows people to create their own online world through enabling anyone to build their own homepage free of charge. Members spend their time uploading their personal web pages with photos, blog links, video, musical tastes, checking out friends and leaving messages. On a social network site a teenager can micro-manage their persona and can be judged on factors other than clothes, weight and skin condition.

And it's not just a US craze. The Sheffield band Arctic Monkeys are reputedly meant to have risen from obscurity to celebrity, purely through 'word of MySpace' and MySpace says they already have 4 million UK members and climbing.

Other forms of social networking sites include Flickr.com and Youtube.com. Flickr is a photosharing site that popularised keyword 'tagging' of photographs to make them easier to find and share, and this site was sold last year to Yahoo! for a reputed $30 million. Youtube's traffic has soared in recent months as users flock there, upload, share, tag and comment on short video clips. We encourage you to go and use them as it's the only way you will get a feel for what they are about and what an extraordinary phenomenon they are.

MURDOCHSPACE.COM

But Mr Murdoch hasn't paid $580 million because he wants to help angst-ridden teenagers and, of course, MySpace is not really their space, it's in fact MurdochSpace. That's why the business model involves advertisers and media companies, many of which mimic the techniques used by individuals on MySpace and other sites such as Facebook.com, Friendster.com and Bebo.com, to create a buzz on brands and forthcoming movies.

If you want to see what an extraordinary online world it is, go to MySpace.com and search for Snakes on a Plane – a movie that has just been released, starring Samuel L. Jackson. The idea for this film captured hundreds of thousands of people's imaginations – video trailers, logos and rap songs all about Snakes on a Plane were created long before the movie was in production.

Burger King has recently sponsored a branded 'Have It Your Way' page on MySpace.com, where users can download free episodes of Fox's 24 and, through the page, Burger King plans to encourage users to chat about the show, upload their own content and download other shows for $1.99 each. The goal of Burger King's sponsorship is to give young internet users another reason to think about the Burger King brand and to marry that association to popular TV shows and entertainment.

Social networks have grown so fast that operators are struggling to come to terms with controlling content that might offend, and that means marketing through edgy social network sites involves some risk. MySpace has been in the hot seat after online predators have been found stalking teens via the site. In response, the company in March reportedly pulled 200,000 'objectionable' profiles from its network and was said to have increased policing of the site. And Google's Orkut, which has a fanatical following in Brazil, was recently asked by that country's government to shut down some communities, which it claimed were advocating violence and human rights violations.

THE BIGGER PICTURE

In 1938, aged 72, English writer H.G. Wells published a short book of essays and speeches entitled The Brain Organization of the Modern World; it lays out Wells' vision for 'A sort of mental clearing house for the mind, a depot where knowledge and ideas are received, sorted, summarised, digested, clarified and compared.' Wells felt that technological advances such as microfilm could be utilised towards this end so that, 'Any student, in any part of the world, will be able to sit with his projector in his own study at his or her convenience to examine any book, any document, in an exact replica.'

H.G. Wells demonstrated remarkable prescience of the internet and his concept of a 'world brain' has more recently been revived by others in the guise of the 'global brain'. The global brain is the name that has been given by a leading group of academics to the emerging intelligent network formed by all people on this planet, together with the computers and communication links that connect them. The idea is that, like a real brain, this network is an immensely complex, self-organising system, which processes information, makes decisions, solves problems, learns new connections and discovers new ideas. They propose it could play the role of a collective nervous system for the whole of humanity. No person, organisation or computer is in control of this system: its 'thought' processes are distributed over all its components.

Some might argue that social network sites are the precursor to this grand vision and undeniably, as the world becomes more connected, there will come a point at which the vast majority of the planet will be linked via the internet. If you are intrigued by this 'global brain' concept and you want to find out more then take a look at the website for the Principia Cybernetica Project (http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be).

SO WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

The social networking internet phenomenon is happening at such a pace that no one quite knows where it's going, and don't let anyone pretend to you that they do!

The only way to get a real feel for it is to get on the sites and take a look around.

These sites can be used commercially, but remember if you are mimicking the way individuals use a site, your brand is no longer in your control and good and bad things may happen. For example, the Burger King/Fox 24 MySpace pages contain an awful lot of chat about things people would like to do to Jack Bauer's daughter – most of which is pornographic. Is this something with which Burger King wants to be associated?

These sites are another challenge to how advertising agencies and marketers understand a changing consumer – a consumer who makes their own films, trailers, music, commercials, logos, blogs and is starting to shape brands as much as the marketing department.

If you are in any doubt that your brand's image is now being manipulated by forces beyond your control, go to Technorati.com, which tracks over 46 million blogs, and search your brand name – you may be somewhat surprised.

H.G. Wells' vision has come true with the development of the internet, and the idea of a global brain may not be science fiction after all.

This article featured in Market Leader, Autumn 2006.