Chapter 1 - Introduction to Social Media and Social Networks

Abstract

This chapter focuses on use of social network analysis to study social media and social networks. Passionate users of social media tools such as email, blogs, microblogs, and wikis eagerly send personal or public messages, post strongly felt opinions, or contribute to community knowledge to develop partnerships, promote cultural heritage, and advance development. Social media are visible in the form of consumer applications such as Facebook and Twitter, but significant use of social media tools takes place behind the firewalls that surround most corporations, institutions, and organizations. The complex structures that emerge from webs of social relationships in social networks can now be studied with computer programs and graphical maps that leverage the science of social network analysis to capture the shape and key locations within a landscape of ties and links. Social network analysis is the application of the broader field of network science to the study of human relationships and connections. Network analysis can be focused on three separate regions of commerce: organizational network analysis, value network analysis, and influence analysis, which map loosely to internal, vendor, and consumer populations. In each segment, network analysis is a useful method for identifying choke points and positions of leverage, locating expertise, and enhancing innovation.