The 5 rules of communities
Why are social networks so popular? So addictive? So pervasive?
Social networks aren’t a new thing. They’ve existed in the real world since time immemorial. They are the very fabric of human existence. But the Internet has given them a powerful new dynamic. They are bigger, more connected and borderless, available to anyone with a computer.
To understand how social networks work online, we first need to understand how they work offline. According to Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler, two social scientists from Harvard, there are five fundamental principles to why communities form and how we find our roles in them.
Get ready to grab the heart of facebook and squeeze it.
RULE #1: WE SHAPE OUR NETWORK
Have you noticed the people you surround yourself with? They quite often have similar interests to you. In fact, have you ad guys ever wondered why you hang around with other ad guys and not bankers or male nurses? It’s because as humans we attract and are attracted to people who are like us, or who have similar interests. Chess Players hang out with other Chess Players. Hells Angels hang out with other Hells Angels. Moms hang out with other moms. And have you ever noticed that beautiful girls tend to hang around with other beautiful girls? This behavior is deep-rooted in our DNA. It’s called homophily, the conscious or unconscious tendency to associate with people who resemble us (the word literally means “love of being alike”).
On facebook, homophily is rampant. There are Groups where people with similar interests can hang out with each other. There are Causes which attract people with similar philanthropic affinities. And there are thousands of games that neatly cluster like-minded people. And it goes further than that. Ad guys attract other ad guys (my network of 500 plus is filled with people from the industry). And the same is true of people in other professions: the armed forces, banking and teaching. Teenagers only invite other teenagers. Which is why they become indignant when their parents and grandparents try to join. It’s not cool.
RULE #2: OUR NETWORK SHAPES US
Where we sit in a network has a direct influence on our work and social life. If we are at the center, then we are exposed to more connections, which can quite often lead to opportunities in the form of promotions or social status. If we are at the fringes of a network, then our connections are less and our opportunities for climbing the work and social ladders are diminished. Where you sit in a network can depend on various factors: your personality; your upbringing; your intelligence; your popularity and so on and so forth. We’ve all seen this at work in the office. Enter the young and newly promoted Account Manager who is at the center of the network. She waddles around smiling and talking to half the agency, including the admiring CEO. She’s confident and capable - and has great relationships with her people and her clients. Her future looks bright.
At the same time, we notice an older Account Manager. She’s been in the job for too long, with no hope of a promotion. She’s dour, unpopular (both internally and with clients) and feels she has been hard done by. The world owes her a living. She is at the fringes of the network. Her influence is low and her prospects for the future aren’t very bright.
On facebook, things are different. Although the real world can mirror the online world (think cyber bullying), the Internet provides an escape for those on the fringes. Everyone can be more connected. Just imagine the nerd who is ignored in school but who has a large following in technology forums. Because he can find like-minded people with ease, he can build up a network online and be at the centre of it. Imagine the effect this new-found connectedness has on peoples’ endorphins. It must give them an enormous buzz. Perhaps that is why social networks are so addictive.
RULE #3: THE PEOPLE AROUND US AFFECT US
Everyone is molded in a particular way. That’s because intrinsically humans have a tendency to influence and copy one another. The environment we live in has huge sway on how we talk, behave and think. As one Greek philosopher put it “Give me the boy and I’ll show you the man”. Which is why you have crime families, for instance. If you’re born into a family whose profession is burglary, your chances of following in their footsteps is almost 100% guaranteed. And you’re your chances of escaping that life are almost nil. But it doesn’t stop there. The chances of you being influenced (and influencing) go beyond family and birth. It occurs in our everyday lives, too. Students with studious roommates become more studious. Diners sitting next to heavy eaters eat more food. Men with sporty friends become more sporty.
On facebook, this effect is enormous. If an online friend starts sharing videos, guess what? You start sharing videos too - and not necessarily good ones, either. Have you seen some of the highest ranked videos on Youtube? There is some absolute drivel on there. The very act of sharing seems to have a greater influence in many ways than the quality of the content itself.
RULE #4: OUR FRIENDS’ FRIENDS’ FRIENDS AFFECT US
This is known as Hyperdyadic Spread. Or the tendency of effects to spread from person to person to person, beyond an individual’s direct social ties. Psychologist Stanely Milgram conducted a famous experiment that demonstrated this. He observed the behavior of 1,424 pedestrians as they walked along a fifty-foot length of street. He positioned “stimulus crowds”, ranging in size from one to fifteen research assistants, on the sidewalk. On cue, these artificial crowds would stop and look up at a window on the sixth floor of a nearby building for precisely one minute. There was nothing interesting in the window, just another guy working for Milgram. While 4% of the pedestrians stopped alongside a “crowd” composed of a single individual looking up, 40 percent stopped when there were fifteen people in the stimulus crowd. An even larger percentage of pedestrians copied the behavior incompletely: they looked up in the direction of the stimulus crowd’s gaze but did not stop. While one person influenced 42% of passersby to look up, 86% of the passersby looked up if fifteen people were looking up.
On facebook, hyperdyadic spread is the driver behind viral. Once a video reaches a certain tipping point (100,000 views in less than 2 weeks is the figure being bandied around), the epidemic nature of the web kicks in. Obviously, great content (like Cadbury Gorilla) helps to ignite the flames. But once the flames are in full flow, then they will sweep across the Internet like a brush fire.
RULE #5: THE NETWORK HAS A LIFE OF ITS OWN
Social networks quite often behave in a way that is neither controlled nor perceived by the people within them. A herd mentality takes over and the crowd takes on an intelligence all of its own. Consider the LA riots. The violence may have been started by a few, but the masses soon became wrapped up in it and ultimately a single organism burned and looted the city. There have also been instances at sporting events. Take the ‘Human Waves’ of the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. In this phenomenon, originally called La Ola, sequential groups of spectators leaped to their feet and raised their arms, then quickly dropped back to a seated position. The effect was quite dramatic (and has since spread around the world). A group of physicists studied the waves and found they usually rolled in a clockwise direction and consistently moved at a speed of twenty “seats per second”. Like groups of particles, groups of people seemed to spontaneously coordinate their actions in a regular way.
On facebook, you can start a movement with the right idea (it’s got to be big and sticky). But once it gains momentum, you can’t control it. That’s because it takes on a life of its own, just as we’ve seen from the examples in the offline world. Which is why so many clients are tentative about these sorts of programs. They are used to control and are fearful of letting go of it. In the future, they will have no choice. If you don’t give freedom to people on social networks, they will rebuff you. And the best way to do that is simply by NOT participating.
These 5 principles are based on intrinsic human behavior and are rooted in our genes. Apply these principles online and you can see how powerful they are. They unleash our potential to expand our lives, our influence and our communities. Social networks are not only here to stay. They will become the dominant force in media.
So addictive to me are friendfeed.com, facebook.com, twitter.com, emilcohen.com, youtube.com, google.com
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