Name: Shaun Cain

Module: Social Media Use in Organisations

Student number: 21052217

MA Professional Communication Programme

Coursework cover sheet

Student details Student name Student number Course name First enrolled Year of course Return address Shaun Cain 21052217 MA in Corporate Communication January 2012 2 19 Millbrook Gardens, Chadwell Heath, ROMFORD, Essex, RM6 6RP socain@yahoo.com

Email address Coursework details Module title Question answered (in full)

Social Media Use in Organisations

1. Identify a network to which you belong or that you are interested in. Nodes in your network can be: people, or websites, or organisations. 2. Describe this network using the relevant terminology (ie nodes, relationships, centrality/peripherality, clique, etc)

3. Comment on the value of using Social Network Analysis

to describe the network (ie what have you learnt from applying SNA? What benefits and limitations can you see in using this technique?)

Assignment word count Additional material enclosed? Date sent to SHU Administration Date received Date returned

800 words (excluding front/back matters)

No 28th May 2013

Name: Shaun Cain

Module: Social Media Use in Organisations

Student number: 21052217

In this assignment I will identify a social network to which I belong, describe it using relevant terminology and comment on the value of using social network analysis (SNA) to describe this network. Introduction Information technology has revolutionised human interaction since the emergence of the internet. While the email is still popular, continually evolving social media or Web 2.0 tools have been adding more interactive dimensions. Social media or Web 2.0 refers to internetbased tools that facilitate dialogues between people (Brake, 2009).

Social media tools The more common Web 2.0 applications include blogs, Twitter (micro-blogging), Facebook, YouTube (video sharing), Diigo, LinkedIn and others that allow the sharing of user-generated content. Safko & Brake (2012) described these as a social media eco-system.

Social networking Each social media tool allows individuals to form online communities called social networks. These are social structures made up of individuals (or organizations) called nodes, which are tied (connected/related) by one or more specific types of interdependency such as friendship, common interest and knowledge as in Figure 1.

Figure 1: A social network map (adapted from Dr. D. Gruber, 2012)

Name: Shaun Cain

Module: Social Media Use in Organisations

Student number: 21052217

The unit of interest in a network is the combined sets of actors and their relations (OReilly, 2005). The actors or nodes are represented with points and relations or ties with lines, as are depicted by the Figure 1 socio-gram.

LinkedIn I will base this essay on the social network, LinkedIn, because I use it more often than any other, therefore my knowledge of it will aid me in this assignment. LinkedIn is a businessrelated platform for professional networking. Users maintain a list of contact details for their connections.

Kelly & Autry, 2010 indicated the relationships between the LinkedIn actors can vary considerably. But, Social Network Analysis, (SNA) can be used to gain important sights into the creation and functioning of the members and their connections in a social network. SNA provides tools for identifying the structural, relational and individual properties of sets of relations. It maps and measures the arcs and the flows of information between a networks nodes.

8 4

1 6

3
7 5 2

Figure 2: Shaun Cains professional network on LinkedIn

Name: Shaun Cain

Module: Social Media Use in Organisations

Student number: 21052217

After mapping my contacts, LinkedIn described my network as complex with many nodes from various relationships, and this makes it difficult to analyse. However, it can be seen that Node 1 (Shaun Cain) is the most socially powerful with the highest degree of centrality having over 600 ties. Roberts and Roach (2009) observed power within network structures often comes from the degree to which a member is at the centre of many relationships and not their social status outside the network. Therefore, information flows will generally pass through Node 1 to get the other nodes and vice versa. So, it is easier to for Node 1 to connect with and transfer relevant information between the nodes to advance the networks objectives (Howard, 2010).

Node 7 is the most peripheral with just a small number of linking contacts while Node 2 has the highest betweeness centrality linking the inner clusters. The extent to which a node lies between other nodes in the network (betweenness Fig 3) is a key element in the network structure. It takes into account the connectivity of the node's neighbours by giving a higher value for nodes which bridge clusters (Poynter, 2011). From the Figure 2 map, it doesnt appear that there are any cliques.

Fig 3: The key properties of a social network (adapted from Dr. D. Gruber, 2012)

Meanwhile, some network methods focus on two actors and their ties (dyads), three actors and their ties (triads) and subgroups of individuals or entire networks. But, the shape of a network helps determine its usefulness to members. Larger and more open networks, with many weak 4

Name: Shaun Cain

Module: Social Media Use in Organisations

Student number: 21052217

ties and social connections (Figure 2), are more useful to their members. This is because they are more likely to introduce new ideas and opportunities to their members than smaller, tighter networks (Papacharissi, 2009). It therefore means that it is better for individual success to have connections to a variety of networks rather than many connections within a single network. Similarly, individuals can exercise influence or act as brokers within their social networks by bridging two networks (filling structural holes) that are not directly linked (Wasserman, & Faust, 1994).

Meanwhile, the benefits in using SNA to describe networks are that it is easier to see how social networks, and by extension organizations, are run and the degree to which individuals within them succeed in achieving their goals. Also, SNA shows how network can also be used to measure social capital or the value that an individual gets from the network.

Contrastingly, SNA lacks the means to explain the motivations of actors and the meaning of the relations they establish and maintain. Also, the connections within a network can be influenced by other factors that are neglected by SNA, like invisible links, offline ties or the interaction between offline and online ties. Finally, SNA is not able to fully describe and reveal the network and the cause of its effects since it is continuously growing in membership.

Name: Shaun Cain

Module: Social Media Use in Organisations

Student number: 21052217

REFERENCES Donelan, H, Kear, K & Ramage (2010) Online Communication and Collaboration: A Reader. UK: Routledge Gruber, Dr. D. (2012) Introduction in Social Network Analysis. Theoretical Approaches and Empirical Analysis with computer-assisted programmes. http://demo.st-peter-

files.digitalkombinat.net/Dateien/Dr._Denis_Gruber__Introduction_in_Social_Network_Analysis.ppt [Accessed: 25/5/2013] Howard, T.W (2010) Design to Thrive: Creating Social Networks and Online Communities that Last. USA: Elsevier Science/Morgan Kaufmann Kelly, A.R & Autry, M.K (2010) A Humanistic Approach to the Study of Social Media: Combining Social Network Analysis and Case Study Research. http://www.academia.edu/820163/A_Humanistic_Approach_to_the_Study_of_Social_Media_ Combining_Social_Network_Analysis_and_Case_Study_Research [Accessed: 1/5/2013]. O'Reilly, T (2005) Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software USA: O'Reilly Media, Inc http://www.oreillynet.com/lpt/a/6228 [Accessed: 10/5/2013] Papacharissi, Z (2009) The virtual geographies of social networks: a comparative analysis of Facebook, LinkedIn and ASmallWorld. http://tigger.uic.edu/~zizi/Site/Research_files/VirtualGeographiesFacebook.pdf [Accessed: 24/5/2013] Poynter, R (2011) The Handbook of Online and Social Media Research: Tools and Techniques for Market Researchers. West Sussex, UK: Wiley. Roberts, S.J and Roach, T (2009) Social Networking Web Sites and Human Resource Personnel: Suggestions for Job Searches. Business Communication Quarterly 2009; 72; 110 http://www.angelaeaton.com/Classes/4366/Roberts%20and%20Roach%20Social%20Networki ng.pdf [Accessed: 1/5/2013] Safko, L (2012) The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools and Strategies for Business Success 3rd Edition. USA & Canada: John Wiley & Sons Wasserman, S. & Faust, K (1994) Social Network Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.