Monday, March 23, 2009
Is social media an industry? Sometimes yes, but mostly no
This is an edit of my response to “Is Social Media an Industry?” on mashable
I was surprised to see that nearly 70% of people who voted in an online poll believed that social media was an industry. To my mind, the answer is both yes and no, depending on how you conceptualize “industry” and “social media.” First, there is the issue of the impetus for the question. Just because many people are interested in it, that doesn’t mean it is an industry. There is no established measure of how Google search terms relate to the size of industries, although increased searches do correlate with general interest by individuals.
Social media could be considered an industry for non-market information economies, of the type Yochai Benkler identifies as being critical for the success of the Internet and vastly different from market economies. For instance, social network sites could be considered an industry, as they quite literally build on and trade in social interactions. However, they are poorly, if at all, monetized.
More generally speaking, in market economies, I would argue that the vast majority of applications for social media are not related to a specific industry, but instead are tools used by various industries. Social media (plural: blogs, Twitter, SNSs, etc.) are not an industry. Also, industries are not defined just by popularity, but by the products they create and professionals they involve. "Social media" is a rather ambiguous term used to describe a collection of (mostly) online technologies that rely on connections between people to operate. These technologies are quite disparate, and often individuals and companies use them for entirely different purposes.
In this sense, social media are a vehicle for other industries, such as advertising, journalism, and software development. Each of these industries has very specific products and practices. Social media are integrated on various levels across these industries, but alone, they don’t amount to very much. Social media are tools for various industries, but are typically not their own industry.
I was surprised to see that nearly 70% of people who voted in an online poll believed that social media was an industry. To my mind, the answer is both yes and no, depending on how you conceptualize “industry” and “social media.” First, there is the issue of the impetus for the question. Just because many people are interested in it, that doesn’t mean it is an industry. There is no established measure of how Google search terms relate to the size of industries, although increased searches do correlate with general interest by individuals.
Social media could be considered an industry for non-market information economies, of the type Yochai Benkler identifies as being critical for the success of the Internet and vastly different from market economies. For instance, social network sites could be considered an industry, as they quite literally build on and trade in social interactions. However, they are poorly, if at all, monetized.
More generally speaking, in market economies, I would argue that the vast majority of applications for social media are not related to a specific industry, but instead are tools used by various industries. Social media (plural: blogs, Twitter, SNSs, etc.) are not an industry. Also, industries are not defined just by popularity, but by the products they create and professionals they involve. "Social media" is a rather ambiguous term used to describe a collection of (mostly) online technologies that rely on connections between people to operate. These technologies are quite disparate, and often individuals and companies use them for entirely different purposes.
In this sense, social media are a vehicle for other industries, such as advertising, journalism, and software development. Each of these industries has very specific products and practices. Social media are integrated on various levels across these industries, but alone, they don’t amount to very much. Social media are tools for various industries, but are typically not their own industry.
Labels: facebook, MySpace, SNS, social media, social networking
