Social network research is back in the top of market trends

Facebook repeated the theory of Stanley Milgram (and Frigyes Karinthy) about „Small World”. The research was based on 720 million active users, which made it clear that we are now only four steps away from a person lives on any other part of the Earth.

This is really not that much, but it does not seem to be unbelievable. If Facebook was considered as a country, it would be listed just behind China and India in its population.

In order to raise the level of connectivity also Facebook made efforts with the help of the Bing web search engine.

This time the ongoing research databases were made up by the „likes” of Facebook users’ friends. The sites which were liked by friends of users, moved up on the hit lists. With the results obtained by SEO, the individual users can be tracked back. This method can provide more specific results than number-based lists, because the search itself is already influenced by human opinions and emotions. The result list is unique and customized because of the connection to the users’ own circle of friends.

You could say that connecting is now a way of life; the influence on others and connectivity are even more important than ever before. After all we are not solitary souls, we are part of others’ lives. – says Nicholas Christakis physician and social scientist.

Living in connections could also be interpreted as a kind of trend, and its adaptation requires to detect the influential individuals (key people) and monitoring the way of their communication.

Social networking systems provide excellent opportunities to spread important, public, or simply interesting information, ideas, opinions, etc... This is also their strength which can be capitalized not only in personal relationships but also in the business world. A simple example is the matter of websites. Presumably every organization and company is seeking to get ahead on hit lists. The search engine optimization and social media can significantly support this.

2012 market trends here. (4. The Connected World).