It’s quite funny how the phrase and phenomenon of social media on the web has not really received a lot of anthropological attention. If anything is suitable to an such a study, one would think social media is just the meme. This idea is not only intriguing, it is also useful in gaining insight toward how to approach marketing over these networks. A look at some articles, such as These six articles represent more of a saturation bombing type of approach without a great deal of specific targeting.

Part of the perceived value of social media for marketers is the ability to find unique groups to target. Once located, applying the same saturation one-size-fits-all approach will not leverage the opportunity that these networks represent. It is more worthwhile to learn as much as you can about the group and address them in a manner that fits within the scope of their society. By the way, this is what the science of anthropology was designed to do. Perhaps it is useful to think of yourself as a corduroy jacketed, elbow patched wild haired professor who’s just slashed his way through the jungle and discovered a lost tribe who happens to have, still fresh in their minds, the location of a certain city of gold. Sure, you can cry national security, call in an air-strike, and when the smoke clears, perhaps the Tutupi volcano will explode and in the ensuing avalanche of mud and sacrificed virgins, lo, you’ll find that city, uncovered and sparkling under the lightning and muddy rain. …But you and I both know that won’t happen.

What you will have to do is make friends with the locals smoke their stash and learn to speak their language. They will have to make adjustments to you as well, eventually accepting your value proposition, but that will come later, sometime after you’ve donned your first ceremonial loincloth. So join the bison hunt, dance with the wolves, put some feathers in your hair and dig it.

Antropology can be overgeneralized and ultra-simplified into a set of concepts. These ideas are meant more as aspects of study when looking at a culture. The actual science can go as deep as you like, but your brief is only to get yourself integrated and as a member of a society contribute to it in a way that is financially reciprocated.

So, from an anthropological angle:
• Society – Depending on the social network you run into, you’ll find anything from a chaotic miasma (MySpace) to something quite a bit more exclusionary (LinkedIn). Generally, sites who’s members have made an investment in establishing a consistent and reliable profile are something that can be approached strategically. These groups are also quite a bit more vengeful of people step to them with a spam nozzle.
  The definition of society in this case, connotes culture and if you look at a social network that provides value beyond entertainment to it’s people, you will find a culture with rules and behavioral norms. For something as vast, sprawling and duct taped together as MySpace, a culture is difficult to define. Beyond that, it’s infrascructure does not facilitate the emergence of cultures. LinkedIn has an infrastructure that seems designed for a specific kind of culture and Twitter’s culture has kind of happened by chance and a growing understanding of what the medium is.
• Culture – Traditions and rules that are learned after joining. Obviously, the infrastructure has a say in how this emerges, but the most interesting aspects of a social network are the behaviors that emerge which are unique to that network. The culture of LinkedIn can be exclusive and has an element of screening involved. This is to ensure that your associates and network nodes to not eventually become an embarrassing liability to you. Twitter’s solution is to allow anyone to be followed but the option to follow back is at the user’s discretion. This makes exposure via association less of a risk. Therefore, a more lighthearted dialog occurs here where business, interests and daily mundane life can all become intertwined. In summary, one is more serious than the other and any kind of approach toward making a plug for your service, product or blog will necessarily differ. Before you risk your brand’s name, make sure to evaluate the culture of a given network and estimate the kind of response you will get for a given campaign.
• Language – In social media, this does not refer to spoken or written language, it refers to the format of the user posts and interactions. In something like microblogging, the language is a short 140 character message, with a shortened link, if appropriate. Knowing that the Twitter language has only 140 characters is important if you want to drive traffic. Make sure that tweet is a zinger. Build reputation by circulating other site’s links that are good and for those that are linked to your site add something like ‘Must see…’. In this way you’ve developed trust by being consistently good so that when you say ‘Must see…’ people will actually respond with a click. Messages, are typically what one is doing at the moment, what one has seen on the web, or an opinion on a current event. YouTube, is comprised of a video and a summary on that video. Responses to posts/uploads/tweets not fitting into the accepted format can be negatively recieved and can result in a ‘brand hit’.
• Values – What the group regards as good, bad, desirable and undesirable. There are some things that are almost universally viewed as bad and others that are almost universally viewed as good. Viagra seems to be negatively received almost universally, the natives threw that priest in the Tutupi Volcano years ago. The safest bet for many social networks is the ability to find or produce content that is valuable to other group members. In other cases, like LinkedIn the network values associations, those who have or can produce such contacts are heavily valued and this clout can be transformed into monetization.
• Norms – Rules for the interaction. This follows nicely from values. Norms on more leviathanic social networks like MySpace are poorly defined and enforced. Twitter will cancel accounts or people running spam bots. Other norms for higher value networks are a completeness of profile, interesting content, contacts that are also interesting and authority. In some networks, spamishness is not necessarily frowned upon if the value can be found in there somewhere. On other networks, even the slighest bit of self promotion results in brand damage. It is important to know what these norms are so that you can widen the spray or target the laser as appropriate. Before dismissing tight targeting and adherence to more restrictive norms, remember that playing by a harder set of rules and being able to communicate on that level is rewarded with a loyalty that turns into a dialog, possibly even an audience at the feet of the High Priest Robert Scoble.
• Status – Twitter is a prime example of authority. For a variety of reasons, some tweeps have followers in the tens of thousands. They are regarded as authoritative. In fact, Twitter as a network is considered to be authoritative since many of the tech, gadget, design and news worlds linkerati are regularly using the service. Alot of the stories coming from the service are breaking news. There are already a number of Twitter services and spin-offs designed to monitor and improve twitter rank. Naturally, from this monetization schemes have emerged under the assumption that highly rated accounts will be attracting al ot of viewers that are highly targeted. Friendfeed and Facebook rooms and groups also gain authority through the number of members in the room. Posting valued links and information in these rooms contributes to one’s status. Status is no joke either. As we all know, the king of the tribe spends all of his waking hours collecting tribute from the peasants who spend theirs digging in the dirt. In the hyper-connected, autonomous, networked, globalized bytescape of today, this hasn’t changed one bit.
• Role – What one’s function and purpose is in a society. Neophytes generally, spend alot of time observing and making mistakes. Gradually, people find their niche and develop their profile along those lines to whatever degree they desire. To raise status, role becomes important. The reason people gain status on social networks, and this represents a change over the days of the Lizard King Bonanotanga, is that the king really is wearing clothes. That is, Dvorak, Kawasaki ,Smashing Magazine and other high-octane tweeps really are producing valued content (Or at least linking to it). To gain status, then, a network member needs to define a role as some kind of authority and then deliver on this stated promise.
• Group – The whole point of social networks is to join, participate and benefit from the shared knowledge of groups. As an antho-monetization-pologist, it is your objective to determine where in the spectrum of work -> fun the group is situated and interact with it as such.
• Institutions – These are patterns of activity that commonly occur in the group. Posting photos, videos or links are such expected behavior that subtle changes to movements toward promotion can be accepted. People react very negatively to new features that are immediately taken over by attempts to monetize. Don’t let your brand become such creature. Wait until, acceptable monetization norms have emerged.
• Social Stratification – This is how strictly the different levels of status are delimited. On Twitter, your more than welcome to follow Thescobelizer but it’s unlikely that he’ll be responding to many of your @messages to him. Ways to get noticed are to emerge as an authority. It is important to be aware of which strata you fit into because contacting people of a like rank will increase the chances of interaction and recycling of your content.
• Race/Specialization Anthropology refers to race but in the social network context this refers to your specializations, or interests. These are the things that define your tribe and being fluent in that language/jargon will increase rate of response and therefore quality network presence. Someone who really does belong in a given specialization category will know which links and blog articles have already been cited on the social network streams and seek out other articles that respond to or expand on what has already been said.

And there you have it, a brief consideration of the social aspects of social media and how this relates to your various approaches to getting the interaction that provides value to the viewer/group member and traffic for you. Because we’re dealing with a technological medium, it is easy to forget that ultimately, we’re still talking about people and behavior patterns that are much more static. Hopefully, this article has given that aspect some proper attention.

Related posts:

1. Seven things that social media enhances and empowers. Multi-tribalism A person can now belong to more than...
2. Define Your Social Media Mix There are a lot of lists out there describing steps...
3. 10 Strategies To Drive Quality Traffic with Twitter Get Followers: Yes, obvious enough but many people are...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.