Social Network for Knowledge Workers
When it comes to understanding or discussing social products, I align myself with the Social Capital theory camp. This theory is heavily discussed by Julian Lehr and Eugene Wei. To further understand this concept, Tim Urban's metaphorical representation of how the human mind works can be helpful, as outlined in his article Religion for the Nonreligious.
When we do something, there's usually a hidden message we want to convey to signal our status. This is called signaling, which has three components:
Social networks are naturally effective at signaling distribution. They typically use different proof-of-work mechanisms to allow users to prove their signaling messages. For example, on Facebook, an interesting post with a combination of text, images, or external links can serve as proof-of-work. On Instagram, a creative image (originally square) and/or a short video can serve as proof-of-work. Additionally, metadata such as location can help boost the credibility of a message. Tools such as Instagram's image filters can also amplify signaling by making a message look more appealing.
The power of these networks lies in their ability to enable users to accumulate quantifiable social capital, such as followers, views, likes, comments, etc., by performing the proof-of-work tasks they have been designed for.
