The Purpose Factors
The emergence of social networks has millions of individuals adopting the medium faster than any other previous technology.
Relationships are being formed, millions upon millions of conversations are exchanging, thousands of new applications are being added and every week new networks are being released tempting the masses to join for whatever purpose.
The ingrained hype of networks has individuals flocking to the medium but what seems apparent is that many individuals have yet to clearly define their purpose in a network.
How you define your purpose in networks defines your destiny.
Your perspective on the purpose influences how you invest your time, what networks you will join, use your talents, and the value you create with your relationships.
The purpose of becoming part of social networks starts with you and your life.
If asked how you picture your life in a virtual community what image comes into your mind? That image is a metaphor of your purpose.
It’s the view of your life in a virtual community that you hold, consciously or unconsciously, in your mind.
It’s your description of how your virtual life works and what you expect from it.
People often express their metaphors through physical world expressions, i.
e.
cloths, cars, house etc, however in the virtual world your metaphors are expressed through network identities, groups, communications and connections to others.
Our image in the virtual world attracts affinities to others with common images thus forming connection points which facilitate relations.
Consider how most networks are organized.
The segmentation of profile identities is driven by a set of category choices which appear to be location, industry, job titles and affiliations.
Subsequently we make decisions on which groups to join, what communities to participate in and what people to connect with.
Following these affinities we begin to exchange communications that creates yet another data point which begins to shape the interpretation of an individual purpose.
Collectively these data points create a pathway of interpretation as to metaphors which shape our virtual life.
The activities in social networks today provide aggregated data as to purpose definitions for operators and marketers.
It is from this data that operators create future value propositions which they make assumptions as to functions and features that will attract the masses, drive traffic and ultimately increase their advertising and/or subscription revenue.
It is a science of study aimed at influencing the “swarms” with functions and features that provide return for the operators and markets.
The critical shift which will facilitate the emergence of a relationship economy will be when individuals step back from the hype and define their purpose in using social networks to reach individual objectives that have affinities to economic and social gains.
A rational purpose for individuals is one defined around a return on their investment in time spent using social networks for individual purposes.
We must begin to ask ourselves what is our purpose in networking and is our investment in social networks creating appropriate returns? What say you?
Relationships are being formed, millions upon millions of conversations are exchanging, thousands of new applications are being added and every week new networks are being released tempting the masses to join for whatever purpose.
The ingrained hype of networks has individuals flocking to the medium but what seems apparent is that many individuals have yet to clearly define their purpose in a network.
How you define your purpose in networks defines your destiny.
Your perspective on the purpose influences how you invest your time, what networks you will join, use your talents, and the value you create with your relationships.
The purpose of becoming part of social networks starts with you and your life.
If asked how you picture your life in a virtual community what image comes into your mind? That image is a metaphor of your purpose.
It’s the view of your life in a virtual community that you hold, consciously or unconsciously, in your mind.
It’s your description of how your virtual life works and what you expect from it.
People often express their metaphors through physical world expressions, i.
e.
cloths, cars, house etc, however in the virtual world your metaphors are expressed through network identities, groups, communications and connections to others.
Our image in the virtual world attracts affinities to others with common images thus forming connection points which facilitate relations.
Consider how most networks are organized.
The segmentation of profile identities is driven by a set of category choices which appear to be location, industry, job titles and affiliations.
Subsequently we make decisions on which groups to join, what communities to participate in and what people to connect with.
Following these affinities we begin to exchange communications that creates yet another data point which begins to shape the interpretation of an individual purpose.
Collectively these data points create a pathway of interpretation as to metaphors which shape our virtual life.
The activities in social networks today provide aggregated data as to purpose definitions for operators and marketers.
It is from this data that operators create future value propositions which they make assumptions as to functions and features that will attract the masses, drive traffic and ultimately increase their advertising and/or subscription revenue.
It is a science of study aimed at influencing the “swarms” with functions and features that provide return for the operators and markets.
The critical shift which will facilitate the emergence of a relationship economy will be when individuals step back from the hype and define their purpose in using social networks to reach individual objectives that have affinities to economic and social gains.
A rational purpose for individuals is one defined around a return on their investment in time spent using social networks for individual purposes.
We must begin to ask ourselves what is our purpose in networking and is our investment in social networks creating appropriate returns? What say you?
