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Chapter 8 Social Media Information Systems
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Figure 8-3
SM Communities

then the SM site would have 100 * 100, or 10,000, second-tier members and 100 * 100 * 100,
or 1 million, third-tier members. However, that statement is not quite true because communities
overlap; in Figure 8-3, for example, User 7 belongs to Communities C and E. Thus, these calcula-
tions reveal the maximum number of users, as opposed to the actual number.
How the SM site chooses to relate to these communities depends on its goals. If the SM site is
interested in pure publicity, it will want to relate to as many tiers of communities as it can. If so,
it will create a viral hook, which is some inducement, such as a prize or other reward, for pass-
ing communications along through the tiers. If, however, the purpose of the SM site is to solve an
embarrassing problem, say, to fix a product defect, then it would endeavor to constrain, as much
as it can, the communications to Community A.
The exponential nature of relationships via community tiers offers organizations both a
blessing and a curse. An employee who is a member of Community A can share her sincere and
legitimate pride in her organization’s latest product or service with hundreds or thousands of peo-
ple in her communities. However, she can also blast her disappointment at some recent develop-
ment to that same audience or, worse, inadvertently share private and proprietary organizational
data with someone in that audience who works for the competition.
Social media is a powerful tool, and to use it well, organizations must know their goals and
plan accordingly, as you’ll learn.
SMIS Components

Because they are information systems, SMIS have the same five components as all IS: hardware,
software, data, procedures, and people. Consider each component for the roles shown in Figure 8-4.