Chapter 4

In Chapter 4, I learned a lot about the different types of social communities that exist amongst each other.  In each separate community, the social media interactions are similar but different at the same time.  Each online community is built on an individual foundation of certain information, which is what makes them all so unique.  Within these foundations, lots of ties within nodes exist.  Within these nodes, it is made possible for ideas and information to be exchanged back and forth between multiple resources.  These types of communities revolve around conversations and the exchange of thoughts and ideas.  In these communities, they abide by their own set list of rules, and each person has a special job in the participation of the membership of the community.  Overall, these people are able to come together socially in a civilized manner to exchange information with one another.

Overall, I think that the chapter was very educating and interesting.  I got a good sense of what a social community is.  By giving several well known examples of social community websites throughout the chapter, it helped me to more fully understand what a good example of a social community would be because I was able to compare these sites to the descriptions in the book.  If the chapter had a weakness at all, I would have to say that some of the definitions could have been explained and exemplified a little better, making the readers have a better sense of understanding when discussing the terms.

Of all of the new terms introduced to me in this chapter, a few specific ones stuck out to me.  I always new that there were several types of different power levels within communities.  However, I did not know that these power levels also existed in social communities and that there were so many of them.  These power positions include:
reward power: one's ability to provide others with what they desire
coercive power: the ability to punish others
legitimate power: organizational authority based on rights associated with a person's appointed position
referent power: authority through the motivation to identify with or please a person
expert power: recognition of one's knowledge, skills, and ability
information power: one's control over the flow of and access to information

Out of all of my Facebook friends, I would have to say that a large majority of them are weak ties.  I have some of 4000 friends.  Out of all of these, the ones that I most regularly keep up with are: my family members, my friends, and my boyfriend.  I have a huge family who constantly posts things to me on Facebook, as well as a large group of friends.  Most of the things I see on my newsfeed are posts from friends of mine that I have not seen or talked to in years.

On my twitter account, one of the accounts related to fashion that I most keep up with is the Free People account.  They constantly post tweets consisting of links and pictures related to their newest designs and collections.  Whenever posting a new design, they always come up with a clever hashtag to go along with it, for example: #FPsweaterweather, #FPfallclogs, #FPautumnanarchy.  Whenever followers see these new trends and their hashtags, they began to share them if they like the trend, therefore spreading the word to other potential consumers. 

Overall, this chapter was very educational in the means of informing me exactly how social communities work and function.  By learning more about each individual part within each different social community that exists, I will now be able to more fully participate in these communities for my own business advantage in the future.