Listening at a Social Network Site

Anywhere that folks congregate these days, we can’t help but listen. It’s an effort to tune them out. They follow us with their conversations and cell phones into the most remote places, bathrooms, airplanes, and elevators find me hearing about how Fluffy the cat is doing, when I really could care less about the information.

Social networking sites have sprung up in the virtual world to feed this apparent need folks have to feel “dialed up and plugged in.” I’m not sure where the data for this Social Networking graphic comes from but it looks like it works the way human nature does. So let’s start with the premise that there’s a valid study behind it.

The graphic shows that people at social network sites break into four quadrants or types. They divide first by their need to know about the world or friends, and they divide again by which group they want to share with. So the four quadrants become these:

Relationship Builders want to know and share with friends only. They want to go deep with very close friends. They’re probably hard to reach customers.

Social Networkers collect people and want to know everyone socially. They communicate in everyway, including anonymously. They want to be where the people are and the action is happening. They are consumers who are willing to pay for social entertainment at a premium price, even if it is fleeting and superficial.

Content Consumers consider close friends a priority, but they have an interest in everyone. They share their lives with friends and family, but enjoy reading about the lives of others. They use the Internet to find information and use the cell phone to stay connected to those close to them.

Content Creators have close friends at heart, but also enjoy feeling like an expert. The ability to publish their thoughts plays into their belief that their knowledge is worth something and worth sharing. They use the Internet for spreading their message and discovering information. Cell phones are for staying connected.

A blogger at a social network site would probably not bump into the Relationship builders. They would stay in their own social circle. To meet them one would have to get permission from someone within the circle to join the conversation.

If the blogger is looking for active listening would quickly sort the other three. The Social Networkers could very well contact the blogger within minutes of his or her arrival at the site. If the blogger has a product or service they need. It’s a lucky day for the blogger. They’re the buyers of all four quadrants.

The Content Consumers might check out the profile the blogger put up, but not leave a message. It would be permission for the blogger to follow them home. The blogger still might get the sale, but he would have to work a bit harder to make it happen.

The Content Creators could very well wait until the blogger contacted them. But the blogger could see right away who they. They are the ones who are trying to get the blogger to read their blogs.

Ah, but which would be the reader/customers the blogger is after?

It could be any or all of them. That’s where more listening comes in.

Liz Strauss