When I’m referring to social networks, I primarily think of the social group concept, since it constitutes the starting point in the evolution of humanity. The power of any group comes from the relationships created between its members and from the distinctive interactions, which bring a plus value to the community.
Researchers have dragged the benefits of the social groups into one general term: “social capital”. According to World Bank, “social capital refers to the institutions, relationships, and norms that shape the quality and quantity of a society's social interactions. Increasing evidence shows that social cohesion is critical for societies to prosper economically and for development to be sustainable. Social capital is not just the sum of the institutions which underpin a society – it is the glue that holds them together.”
At the individual level, the social capital is represented by the relations between friends, neighbors, acquaintances, colleagues of studies and work. A social network is a map of the relationship between individuals, which indicates the ways they are connected by various social familiarity degrees, starting with casual acquaintances, until strong family ties.
Social networks analysis reveals the components of social networks: nodes (individual actors) and links (relations between actors). A factor of success for individual players is how the nodes communicate and the links complexity. A small network consisting of few people may be less useful than a complex network (with many players and ties). Open networks, with many individuals and weak links, have a higher probability of producing new ideas and useful opportunities of its members. Network’s actors can play the role of brokers, connecting two networks that are not related, process called “filling the structural holes” (Scott, John, 1991).
Virtual communities are the correspondent of social groups from real life in the online space. A virtual community is a group, whose participants share interests and ideas, tasks or common objectives, managing to develop personal relationships in a virtual space, exceeding the barriers of time, the geographical and organizational.
Virtual communities have developed due to the growth of Web 2.0 (see also Communities 2.0). The term of web 2.0 has become known after the first conference “Media Web 2.0” of O’Reilly, in 2004. Web 2.0 provides ways to use the web technologies, aimed to facilitate creativity, sharing information, and collaboration between users.
The most popular types of web 2.0 instruments are: wikis, blogs and microblogs, social bookmarking and networking services, news feeds, services for graphic/audio/video content sharing, services for creating content (Office 2.0). The most popular business networks are Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter.
Stowe Boyd (2005), an expert in social software, considers that the social instruments focus on creating, discovery, support and management relations. Online social communities (web sites, social software) have the following three functions: support for the communication between individuals and groups, support for social feedback (digital reputation) and support for social networks.
Which are the motivations to participate in these social networks? Peter Kollock (1998) describes in the book "The Economies of Online Cooperation: Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace" the three reasons for the participation in community activity:
1. Reciprocity expectation. A person is motivated to contribute to a group with valuable information when he has the perception of returned benefits. Ex: involved players in a group receive answers to questions faster than unknown participants.
2. Obtaining recognition. People want to be appreciated for their contribution.
3. Efficacy perception. Individuals are contributing to community development because they are acting in the effectiveness direction and because they perceived that their actions have an effect on the environment, on the group and on the inner personal image.
Marc Smith mention in his book, “Voices from the Well: The Logical oh the Virtual Commons: "Communion" (1992)”, that the fourth reason is the perception of belonging to a group.
The people seek in online social networks for information about others’ needs and for developing and maintaining relations, for exchanging documents, music, pictures, a.s., or to facilitate a meeting or telephone conversation.Other benefits are those related to the professional field, by finding a job and career development, promotion of business, information on topics in the expertise field. Online social networks are exposure, development and promotion spaces of personal or the company brand, by recommendations of acquaintances, friends and clients. The IBM’ CEO, Lou Gerstner, consider that: "the branding in a world of network will dominate minds of business for 10 or more years".
From the history point of view, the individual pass from the stage of self, to the group, then to social networks membership. “The Global Village”, proposed by Marshall McLuhan in 1962 is overwhelmed by the 2.0 Community and soon the new forms of social networks. We already hear rumors of new 3.0 Web! Therefore, let’s prepare for the new transition and begin to maximize the benefits of real life and virtual social networks.
