Social objects (photos, tweets, posts) mediate the ties btwn people…& are the reason why people affiliate w/specific others.~Jyri Engeström
I have been working lately on building specific social networks, pre-populated with members from other social networks that share very specific qualities. The work has been arduous but very interesting. After going through the Thousand True Fans process I outlined a few months ago, I have been working on discovering shared social objects (photos, tweets, posts) WITHIN tight-knit social groups.
The emergence of object-specific social networks is truly staggering. The World Wide Mind is merely a lobby in which conscious beings stand and peer out into the seemingly endless depth of mash-ups possible. A site like http://www.shelfari.com/ or http://www.last.fm can be divided into countless strata, specific networks bound together through shared love of social objects (books, quotes from books, fragments of poetry, songs, music videos, concerts).
A social network like StumbleUpon is a window INTO social objects and is organized around popular social objects. The genres within StumbleUpon ARE social networks unto themselves. http://www.stumbleupon.com
I was recently approached by a branding wizard to create a list of influencers related to a specific country. Related to the needs, desires, fears and problems within that country. As part of this work, I am assembling not only a list of influential individuals and organizations (tweeters, bloggers, offline influencers) BUT ALSO a list of social objects (photos, videos, music, tweets, blogposts) that tie the countrymen together, or could tie the countrymen together.
It’s about Influential individuals and organizations. AND it’s about the social objects that have held (and could hold) the attention of the populace.