The Sociology of Social Networking and Its Success

In the course of the past several weeks as I have been researching all the available tools social networking can actually provide, it occurred to me that the general marketing networks like Twitter and Ning.com provide has the potential to not only expand business; it has the potential to create it.

In a world where communication hinges on success, those of us who have entrepreneurial spirits, and those of us who don't, have a niche we can capitalize on. Social networking has become a phenomenon because of its individuality. Anyone can be social on the internet. Anyone can create business through social networking if the right tools are utilized. The question thus becomes, does your network actually work?

As a college student studying how these networks function and feed off one another, I have realized that there is a way to capitalize on social media if we understand human psychology and the sociology behind doing business with people we have never met, and may never meet in person. Social networking is a sociological phenomenon. Why? Because it disobeys the rules we typically adhere to on a day to day basis, and its growing exponentially. It's curious to me that many are attempting to discover how to break into this networking market. The rules to this game are very basic, but they are also very calculated. Networking is all about human interaction and relationship building. If you're good at this, who's to say you can't create a niche market? The variable in this equation simply results in how you develop those relationship and understand their needs.

If we can follow this trend in business, we can create other trends, and the glass ceiling disappears. The question thus becomes, what's the next trend and how do we find it? How do we create the next business? Largely, what I have discovered is that relationships become a key component, and are sometimes the only component to the next revolution in communication. If we can truly understand our network, and connect with it, I believe our chances of success will suddenly suddenly increase.