Social Capital and Friend 2.0
What is the meaning of a friend in the digital space? Does the definition of a friend change from one social network to another? Is a friend on Facebook any different than a MySpace friend? The value of user connections vary from one social network to another, which ultimately impacts social capital building strategies.
Let’s first examine the differences between two similar social networks. In the past year, there has been enormous growth in Facebook, whereas MySpace has fallen flat. In December of 2008, Facebook and MySpace were toe-to-toe with 59 million users, according to Compete.com. As of July 2009, MySpace had 59 million users, while Facebook more than doubled theirs, totaling 123 million users. What led to this tremendous growth?
What is the fundamental difference between the two networks–leading one to success and the other to stagnate? We believe it has to do with the value of social capital. Social capital is the connection with and between on and offline networks. We posit that an emphasis on social capital has given rise to Facebook and the value of an online friend has increased many-fold.
Facebook tears down many of the structures that defined MySpace
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