Wednesday May 26, 2010 BiRG Lab Meeting - Chelsie Phillips opened her presentation on “Social Media” (SM) defining the term as,
“A type of media that is based on conversation and interaction between people online”
An interesting analogy Chelsie used in how social networking sites are structured was the term “Military Squad Style” referring to how friends and family form a “social squad” or in contrast you also have very large network of people” (in following the analogy; a brigade = 4K-5K, division = 10K-30K). Chelsie added that the “transitivity levels” could differ (…if the relation holds between a first element and a second and between the second element and a third, it holds between the first and third…).
Using terms such as; “information indigestion” (too much information not enough time), “Homophily” (associate with others that resemble themselves), and “productive” (citing the example in the reading of Sally Supermarket) and arguments such as; strengthening relationships with friends or business associates regardless of distance, The Search Engines and SM Battle, “the power of the few to the power of the many” Chelsie builds the case for SM popularity.
Chelsie points out that not only the print media but businesses in general need fight back strategies that will compete with Bloggers, on-line magazines, viral posts/plants, and “free information”.
Chelsie reported that Barack Obama used SM in his presidential election campaign tapping MySpace, LinkedIN, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and offering supporters the web site mybarackobama.com.
