The document discusses conducting online milieu studies using Pierre Bourdieu's milieu approach to analyze social networks. It describes administering a questionnaire at the Re:Publica10 conference and on Twitter to study participants' online usage behaviors, personal backgrounds, and preferences. The results showed similarities among dedicated user groups and a need for refining the questionnaire through workshops and wider pre-testing before conclusions can be drawn about defining online milieus.

1. ONLINE MILIEU STUDIES
AN APPROACH FOR REVIEWING SOCIAL NETWORKS WITH THE
MILEU APPROACH FROM PIERRE BOURDIEU
by Knut Linke, University of Latvia, at the International
Conference:
CURRENT ISSUES IN ECONOMIC AND MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
10-12 NOVEMBER, 2011, RIGA, LATVIA

2. Index
 Approach
 Questionnaire
 Re:Publica10 & Twitter
 Learnings
 Conclusion

3. The Approach - 1
• Market segmentation: defining and subdividing a
large homogenous market into clearly identifiable
segments, where each segment has similar needs,
wants or detailed demand characteristics.
• Milieu approach: Combination of the different
approaches (geographical, personal, behavior, history)
• First used by Durkheim in 1895 to distinguish groups
on behavior and to define sub systems [1].
• Includes the habitus definition from Norbert Elias [1].

4. The Approach - 2
• Existing approach from Pierre Bourdieu [2]:
26 sections of questions to cover the personal
and family history as also preferences in
purchasing and behavior.
• Based on capital and behavior
• Milieus != social classes
• Milieu can be moving for younger people, based
on their personal development
• Active used in Germany from marketing
companies like Sigma [3] and Sinus [4].

5. Re:Publica10 & Twitter
• Re:Publica10: Internet conference in
Germany [5], randomly selected
participants, request for the Internet and
Twitter usage behavior
• Twitter: started 2006 [6], >200m users,
micro blogging network [7], ~ 16.7m
German Tweets per month, mainly
younger/male users [8].

6. Questionnaire
• Survey: motivation for the online usage, personal
background, and place of living, preferences for
transportation, family situation, personal
professional background, and professional
background from their parents was researched.
• Proceeded with 10 participants as interviews
• Direct extension of additional questions
• No direct information about the target of the
interviews were provided
• Support during the process of question was
necessary to explain that no answer is wrong

7. Learnings - 1
• Differentiation between business and private
communication
• Prefered communication tool for different usages
• Motivation for interaction
• Self-positioning within the network
• Understanding of the term privacy
• Communication into the network or only to
friends
• Mobile usage/GPS

8. Learnings - 2
• Additional space for personal feedback
and additional information
• Area of living
• Why does a person actively use a product or
service
• Preferences in social networks
• Focus on features or friends?
• Definition of drivers for milieus

9. Learnings - 3
• Pre-test of the enhanced questionnaire
will be necessary
• group of 30 people to determine issues in the
understanding of questions
• additional information for the answering of
questions

10. Conclusion
• Usage behavior seems to be similar for dedicated
user groups
• Focus on heavy users will influence the results
(wide spreading will be necessary)
• Evaluation of the participants from online
surveys will be necessary
• Workshops for the extension of the questionaire
will be necessary

11. References-1
• [1] Emile Durkheim: Die Regeln der soziologischen Methode, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt on the Main, 1984 [P. 254].
• [2] Pierre Bourdieu: Die feinen Unterschiede - Kritik der gesellschaftlichen Urteilskraft, Suhrkamp Verlag, 1982 [P.
912].
• [3] Sigma: Sigma Milieus in Deutschland, Sigma - Gesellschaft für internationale Marktforschung und Beratung,
http://www.sigma-online.com/de/SIGMA_Milieus/SIGMA_Milieus_in_Germany/, 08/13/2011.
• [4] Sinus Milieus: SINUS Market- und Sozialforschungs mbH, <http://www.sinus-institut.de/loesungen/sinus-
milieus.html>, 08/14/2011.
• [5] Jan Trißler. Re:Publica XI: Vorschau auf Highlights der Internetkonferenz, t3n, Hannover, 04/08/2011,
<http://t3n.de/news/republica-xi-vorschau-highlights-internetkonferenz-305002/>, 08/302011.
• [6] Patel 2011 Raj Patel: Odeo Releases Twttr, Techcrunch, San Francisco, 15.07.2006,
<http://techcrunch.com/2006/07/15/is-twttr-interesting/>, 09/072011.
• [7] Shiels 2011 Maggie Shiels: Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey rejoins company, BBC, London, 03/28/2011,
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12889048>, 09/07/2011.
• [8] Thomas Pfeiffer: 480.000 Twitternutzende im März 2011, Webevangelisten.de, Haar, 04/04/2011,
<http://webevangelisten.de/480-000-twitternutzende-im-maerz-2011/>, 04/18/2011.

12. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION