Cloud Talk

On his Web Strategist blog, social media expert Jeremiah Owyang asserted that despite having 300M members, "Facebook isn't the largest social network, email is". He makes his case on the basis that there are three primary features that define social networks -

1. Profiles to allow the expression of identity
2. Ability to connect to these profiles
3. Group sharing that creates a greater collective value than exists individually

If you agree with Owyang's blog post, the case for email as a social network becomes more acceptable. But whether you agree with Owyang or not, it's interesting to consider what essential attributes define a social network.

Here are a few additional attributes that I consider essential -

Discoverability of profiles - it's one thing to have profiles and to connect them, it's another thing to be able to discover new profiles. Without the ability to discover profiles, Facebook wouldn't have succeeded. If a user of the network cannot discover a party of interest, the value of the network diminishes immediately.

Visibility of relationships - Just like discoverability, visibility of relationships is vital to successful social networks. What I mean by visibiity of relationships is the ability for a participant in the network to see to some degree, how other members of the network relate to one another. Obviously, this is only to the degree that is permitted by individual members or by the social network system but I believe it's the part of the essential DNA required for the social network to thrive and grow.

Public accessibility - I know there are private social networks deployed internal to organizations but the essence of a social network is public accessibility. The degree to which the network is publicly accessible is a factor in the value derived from the network...which impacts the true effect of Owyang's third point - that the collective group creates additional greater value than the individuals. The fact that anyone can join Facebook or Twitter or Linkedin enhances the participant "stickiness" that comes with derived value.

So, how does email measure up as a social network? Especially on the points of visibility of relationships and discoverability of profiles, I believe that email doesn't quite meet the mark. What do you think?