Social Network - what is it?

For social networks to work online they must function the same way that social networks do offline. If you look at your own social network of friends and family, there are three basic requirements:

1. A real identity

Each of us has an identity that is easily recognized by our social contacts. This isn’t just our name and our ‘look’. It’s also what we do, where we live, what we think, and so on.

A lot of this is background information that we store in our heads or in some note form.

We continuously update our list of facts our contacts. As lives change, for example, addresses and phone numbers, friends, etc. we update our knowledge about them.

2. Easy communication

In real life social networks there is an easy-going form of communication.

We ‘open-up’ to different degrees to various people, and they to us.

We like to talk about ourselves, about other people, and about things that happen to us.

The conversations we have can be thought of as ‘micro-socializing’ – short sentences, glances, gestures, are all forms of short messages.

3. Easy filtering

In our social circles, there is an automatic filtering mechanism that works. We have an understanding among friends and acquaintances that says what can and can’t be revealed about other people.

Online social networks need to provide the same functionality to deliver value to their users. It is this functionality that makes it work. Paul Buchheit has summarised what good online social networks are able to do.