Thank you so much for having me. It’s really an honor to be here. My talk，as you can tell，will be in English because unfortunately I don’t speak Chinese. But，if you have any questions or need some clarifications please don’t hesitate to raise your hand and ask. And I’ll，you know，try to speak pretty slowly. Sorry for the English. So，today I’m going to be shifting gears from a couple of the previous talks to a big overview project about social media. So really，what this talk is about，is what is social media？And what does that mean？What does that term mean and how does it relate to what came before it and where it might be going？So that is what I’m going to talk about.

I’m working mostly from a book that I just wrote that’s coming out in November with Oxford University Press. It’s a very academic book. You might read it in your courses；It’s that kind of book. It’s a big overview of all of the research on social media in the social science from communication，psychology，sociology，a little bit of computer science. It’s a big overview of what we know from the research about social media. So I’m going to pull two chapters from that and talk about just three things.

I’d like to start out with a story. The story involves me. I was driving in the south of the United States in Tennessee，and it immediately started raining kind of like today，probably. So it looked kind of like this，actually I was driving in the interstate so it looked kind like this. It was kind of gross. So it was raining and raining and raining，and it started to flood. The water got higher and higher，and it was real a problem. You couldn’t drive on the road. So，I turned on the radio in my car，and I heard the announcer，the DJ，talking about roads，what roads were closed and what roads were open，and that is pretty standard in most radio programming. During an emergency like this you’ll hear information broadcast like that. But then the DJ took a call from somebody，and she asked how to get to the airport. She said，“Hi，I’m out at so and so farm，and I’d like to get to the airport. She had a Southern US accent”. And，I was sort of surprised by this. She wanted the DJ，the person in the radio，to tell her how to get to the airport，right？It’s kind of a personal service. I was kind of shocked at this. But the DJ，he wasn’t surprised. He responded immediately and said，“You take I-65，and exit so and so is closed and so just go around”，so he explained exactly how to get there. Then she hung up and somebody else called and said that they were out the fairgrounds and that it was flooded over there and that people shouldn’t drive over there. So，they called the DJ to tell him this and the DJ noted it and said thanks. This was all in the radio，the car radio. So that’s the story. So，what’s the point of this story right？The point，I would argue，that this is social media. That yes，it involves not a computer or a phone，but it’s the same type of process that we see. So I would argue that social media is a set of practices for communicating rather than dependent on a technology，and that’s the perspective of the book. So，I’ll just give you a couple of really quick examples. This is one of the first newspapers in the United States. This is what it looks like. It’s called Public Occurrences. It’s from 1716. The last page on the newspaper-it had four pages-the last page，was blank；there was nothing on it. Why was it blank？Well，people would come in and they would write news on the last page of the newspaper for people to read. And，it ranged from gossip to celebrity news to a rant about something. This was in 1716 in the United States，and those activities to you might sound very familiar from what we do online，in terms of ranting or gossip，or things like that. There are a lot of these examples that you could point to say that social media as a set of practices isn’t new. It’s actually quite old. Obviously it’s been facilitated by technology，but we’re starting to look at it in a new way.

So what is social media？I would define it as a set of practices for using media socially. The media could be a radio or could be a print publication and，of course，more often it’s a message board. The purpose of the book that I’ll be talking to you about very briefly today is to provide a well-rounded overview of social media for managers and students. So，how do you go about doing this？It’s been a large project but here’s sort of the way I broke it down，the outline. Basically，it’s divided into four parts，and this is really modeled after the way that people teach social media and the different topics. So，like I said，it is a much broader view than one narrow slice of talking about analytics or something. The first section is about messages. This is about the materials that help to communicate，so things like blogs，or message boards or social networking sites that kind of stuff would be covered under messages. Part two would be about people，the individual person. What do I get personally out of taking a selfie and posting it，right？Those are kind of questions that are discusses in part two，and there are a number，as I’m sure you’re all aware of psychological theories about the self and goals，of theories that have been applied to understand how individuals use social media. Part 3 is probably what we would most typically think about as the social media. There is a discussion of social networks and the basic concepts in network virtual communities. So the basic question of virtual communities is，how is a group of individuals different from a community？What makes a group of individuals more than just five people，but what social bonds actually make it community？Those are kind of questions that are in part 3. And then in part 4 there is a large overview of the culture and economics of social media. So how do business models change because of the introduction of tools and adoption of them and how is culture changed？In part 4 you’ll find a discussion of viral videos and how they spread from one person to another and things like that.

So that’s a big，big overview about what the book’s about. In the brief time. I will take you through part of chapter 2，which is the communications model，and then just a little bit of chapter 4 which is about measuring social media.

Chapter Two，the basic question of social media is how is it different from interpersonal communication，from that talking to someone just one on one？And how is it also different from mass media，where you would watch TV or read newspaper？Basically social media is right in the middle. It’s in between dyadic，one to one，and one to many. It’s kind of personal，but it’s also public，and it’s smaller than the typical mass media audience. So let me give you an example. You guys know Oprah？So Oprah is a celebrity in the US and she is very popular. She has this friend named Gayle，and she is her best friend. They use Twitter to talk to each other. So her friend Gayle has this show What she is doing. So Oprah tweets to Gayle “GOOD LUCK TODAY”. So it’s a one on one thing，but it’s not just a one on one thing because everybody can see their conversation. So this is very typical of the communication model in social media. From the research there are three types，it’s not dyadic，or if it is dyadic it also has this third component. It’s two way，so not only does Gayle speak to Oprah but Oprah also speak to Gayle. Not only does Delta，the airline，tell me something but I can also have the platform that I can tell the company something. So，communication is two way，and it’s relatively user-controlled. So it’s unlike mass media where the advertiser can’t really control the message.

So basically the old model looks like this，as I’m sure you’ve seen. We don’t have the one way route of communication，but rather we have communication flowing between number of different nodes in a network. So what that means is that a company is just one node among many，so they no longer control of the message as they once did. So that’s sort of what the communications model looks like and some people have talked about the media ecology. I won’t go into it in great depth. We can think of the media as an ecosystem just like this forest here. So there is a big tree and the brushes and all of those elements might represent different kinds of platforms. So it might look at this.

That brings us to affordances，which I’m not going to spend a lot on. I can send you something if you want to read about affordances. Affordances is basically the study of how the material or digital environment affects what we can do with technology. So for example，on some social networking sites you can follow someone but they don’t have to follow you，right？So it’s a one-way connection，whereas on other sites the relationship has to be reciprocal. That kind of technical structure has implications for the way people use the tool. So，for example，in that first kind of network where its just I can follow you，but you don’t have to follow me，that allows for celebrities to gain a very large following，and to gain a lot of power，more power than if the network required two way relationships. So that’s an example of why I think affordances are important in linking what designers make with how people use the tool. And it also has some really important implications for measurement，which it sounds like is a topic of interest.

I’m now going to turn to measuring social media，and these are very broad remarks. It’s what I found in summary from looking at a lot of the research. How do we understand measuring at a theoretical level？The first thing I think to understand is that we are measuring is an attention economy. Unlike a money economy where we track money，an attention economy is an economy where we track attention or attention’s value. The idea is that because the information is so plentiful there is so much of it now，our attention，our own individual brain’s attention，is really scarce compared to that large amount of information. Our attention becomes to have value. So that I think is one important concept theoretically for guiding our measurement of social media. What we see is that people are trying to measure how people allocate their attention. The other important concept that I’ve come across that I think is really interesting is the idea of the filter bubble. A filter bubble is basically the idea that the contact we receive is really personalized so we can segment a user and say she is interested in cosmetics and celebrities and tabloids. And that is really great for targeting the user，but it also can be limiting. So，for example，what she if she wants to know something about a recent scandal in government，and she tries to look that up. Well，in some cases，people can be redirected through a filter mechanism to particular content. So that I think has important implications not only from the stand point of public perception but also a user perspective because people will get locked into these paths. Say，for example，a competitor will have trouble breaking through that path，if you want to think about it strategically. That’s a second concept that I have found to be important in measurement.

And then conversion attribution. We all know what conversion is. So，there’s sort of a path from attention. You have someone’s attention but then you have to engage them in some way，and then you have to measure conversion. Do they purchase？Do they vote？And that seems pretty easy，right？But then think about it like this：so how do you actually track the process from getting someone’s attention all the way to making the purchase？There are many different contacts with many different notes. We tend to think of it linearly because that’s the way we’ve always thought about it，but its actually a lot more complicated when it comes to measurement. And so that’s where we can see the communications model really have an impact.

So，you know，as you all read about big data，it’s impacting a lot of the ways that we think about measurement and the possibilities for measurement. But，there is a lot of variety in the type of data we can get，such as online and offline sets of data. The data comes really quickly and instantly. There’s some really interesting work on the idea that devices automate their own data，so you know your phone can tell a company where you are. It automatically generates data，and that just means there is even more of it because all of these devices are creating the data. What’s interesting about that，then，is that you have the attention economy problem not just on consumer end，but also on the company end，where companies are trying to deal with the overwhelming amount of data.

So that is the little bit of what is in chapter four，very briefly. I just wanted to summarize some of what I talk in the book. First of all，social media is not tied to a particular platform or technology. There are all sorts of theories for understanding the way that people communicate socially that we can use for understanding what people do online，and that’s really great because then we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. For example，you can use a theory of self，or self-presentation to understand what it means to take a selfie. Secondly，affordances，the actual capabilities of technology，determine how its measured，and so I think as we sort of go down the path of wanting to measure and track users’ behavior，but we tend to measure what we can measure and not step back and think，“well what would we really like to measure and how could we set up an infrastructure for measuring something that is more meaningful than a click”？And lastly，as I illustrated back here，there was a pyramid，where we start with a bunch of data but then we have to make that into information. Then we have to make that information into insight. And to do that we really need theory and ideas more than ever.

That’s it. Thank you！