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1. RESEARCH & IDEAS
Understanding Users of Social
Networks
Published: September 14, 2009
Author: Sean Silverthorne
Many business leaders are mystified about won't work on my behalf. But here is where know," says Piskorski. "It's an easy way to see
how to reach potential customers on social LinkedIn comes in handy—there I can go and if anyone might be a better match." Again,
networks such as Facebook. Professor Mikolaj search through the network of my friends of online networks act as cover.
Jan Piskorski provides a fresh look into the friends and find the person I am looking for." Then came Twitter
interpersonal dynamics of these sites and offers Online social networks also can improve Piskorski says these findings do not hold for
guidance for approaching these tantalizing people's ability to use offline social networks as one network: Twitter.
markets. Key concepts include: "covers." This is very salient on LinkedIn. Looking at who uses Twitter, which restricts
• Online social networks are most useful There, people display a lot of information about users to 140-character messages, Piskorski and
when they address failures in the real their careers, which makes them available to student-researcher Bill Heil (HBS MBA '09)
world. headhunters and other employers as passive found that 90 percent of Twitter posts were
• Pictures are the killer app of social candidates. But they also establish relationships created by only 10 percent of users. This was
networks. with others to stay in touch with peers and to not surprising, he says, because the technology
• Women and men use these sites differently. make new contacts. This network allows them uses words without photos to communicate.
• Businesses shouldn't consider SNs as just to establish plausible deniability that they are "Only the people who are willing to put
another channel. not looking for a job, even if they are. themselves out there publicly in words to
Empirical evidence people who they may not know will use
With these general ideas of why people use Twitter. Some people will find this incredibly
If the ongoing social networking revolution these sites, Piskorski examined weblogs of appealing, others will find this too scary."
has you scratching your head and asking, "Why social networking sites (not LinkedIn) to see
do people spend time on this?" and "How can what people did when they were online. "I just "Women actually say
my company benefit from the social network wondered why people spend so much time on
revolution?" you've got a lot in common with these sites; what do they do?" things, guys give references
Harvard Business School professor Mikolaj Jan The biggest discovery: pictures. "People just
Piskorski.
to other things."
love to look at pictures," says Piskorski. "That's
Only difference: Piskorski has spent years the killer app of all online social networks. But the remarkable finding was the gender
studying users of online social networks (SN) Seventy percent of all actions are related to dynamics. According to the research, there are
and has developed surprising findings about the viewing pictures or viewing other people's more women on Twitter than men, women
needs that they fulfill, how men and women use profiles." tweet about the same rate as men, but men's
these services differently, and how Twitter—the Why the popularity of photos? Piskorski tweets are followed by both sexes much more
newest kid on the block—is sharply different hypothesizes that people who post pictures of than expected by chance.
from forerunners such as Facebook and themselves can show they are having fun and "That was stunning because on all these
MySpace. He has also applied many of the are popular without having to boast. other social networks you see the opposite,"
insights to help companies develop strategies Another draw of photos (and of SN sites in Piskorski says.
for leveraging these various online entities for general) is that they enable a form of Piskorski and Heil are now doing a follow
profit. voyeurism. In real life there is a strong norm up study to see whether this is because there are
Addressing network failures against prying into other people's lives. But no pictures on Twitter or because men and
"Online social networks are most useful online enables "a very delicate way for me to women say different things. Early results
when they address real failures in the operation pry into your life without really prying," the suggest that women create fewer links in their
of offline networks," says Piskorski. researcher says. "Harvard undergrads do it all tweets than men. "Women actually say things,
They can address some basic search the time. They know all about each other before guys give references to other things." But even
failures: "It's hard to know what my friends are they meet face to face. 'Oh, you're that guy that accounting for these differences, the researchers
up to, but online I can catch up with them did that internship in D.C. last summer.' " still saw differences between how men and
quickly." But they can also fix bigger search Piskorski has also found deep gender women are followed, perhaps pointing to a
shortcomings, such as those related to differences in the use of sites. The biggest usage fundamental representation of the role of men
establishing new relationships. categories are men looking at women they don't and women in society.
"If I am looking for someone who can help know, followed by men looking at women they "No one uses MySpace"
me with my start up, I would ask my friends if do know. Women look at other women they To continue on the issue of online
they know such a person, and if they don't, I know. Overall, women receive two-thirds of all representation of offline societal trends,
would ask them to inquire with their friends. page views. Piskorski also looked at usage patterns of
The problem is that those friends of friends "This was a very big surprise: A lot of guys MySpace. Today's perception is that Twitter has
don't always have an incentive to help, so they in relationships are looking at women they don't the buzz and Facebook has the users. MySpace?
COPYRIGHT 2007 PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE 1

2. HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL | WORKING KNOWLEDGE | HBSWK.HBS.EDU
Dead; no one goes there anymore. Tell a at a table with friends when a stranger pulls up
marketer that she ought to have a MySpace "You need to shift your a chair, sits down, and tries to sell you
strategy and she'll look at you like you have a something while you are talking to your friends.
third eye. mindset from social media You will not get far with a strategy like this."
But Piskorski points out that MySpace has to social strategy." "To be successful, you need to shift your
70 million U.S. users who log on every month, mindset from social media to social strategy,"
only somewhat fewer than Facebook's 90 "MySpace has a PR problem because its he continues. A good social strategy essentially
million and still more than Twitter's 20 million users are in places where they don't have much uses the same principles that made online social
in the U.S. Its user base is not really growing, contact with people who create news that gets networks attractive in the first place—by
but 70 million users is nothing to sneeze at. read by others. Other than that, there is really no solving social failures in the offline world.
So why doesn't MySpace get the attention it difference between users of Facebook and Firms should begin to do the same and help
deserves? MySpace, except they are poorer on MySpace." people fulfill their social needs online.
The fascinating answer, acquired by Piskorski recently blogged on his findings. To continue the earlier analogy, "You
studying a dataset of 100,000 MySpace users, is From social media to social strategy should come to the table and say, 'Here is a
that they largely populate smaller cities and Corporate marketers by and large struggle product that I have designed for you that is
communities in the south and central parts of with how to use social networking sites to reach going to make you all better friends.' To execute
the country. Piskorski rattles off some MySpace potential customers, says Piskorski, who on this, firms will need to start making changes
hotspots: "Alabama, Arkansas, West Virginia, advises companies on this subject. The problem to the products themselves to make them more
Oklahoma, Kentucky, Florida." is that execs think of online social networks as social, and leverage group dynamics, using
They aren't in Dallas but they are in Fort social media and treat it as another channel to technologies such as Facebook Connect. But I
Worth. Not in Miami but in Tampa. They're in get people to click through to a site. don't see a lot of that yet. I see (businesses)
California, but in cities like Fresno. In other It doesn't work that way. saying, 'Let's talk to people on Twitter or let's
words, not anywhere near the media hubs For one thing, findings show that people have a Facebook page or let's advertise.' And
(except Atlanta) and far away from those elite don't click through on advertising on social these are good first steps but they are nowhere
opinion-makers in coastal urban areas. networks. "A good analogy is to imagine sitting close to a social strategy."
COPYRIGHT 2007 PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE 2