Inspired by a question posed by @gabyrosario on Twitter I found myself thinking that if social media is not about individuals, users or consumer, but about the dynamics inside groups and networks. If we are mammals in a herd (Mark Earls) and brands are “a collective perception in the minds of consumers” (Faris Yakob). Then the whole notion of using individuals as references for building or designing stuff on participatory platforms is useless.
If the goal of social media activities is to sow or game the dynamics of the collective, then we need to get better at understanding group dynamics rather than individual motivations.
Why do we still talk about individuals when it comes to Social media?
