Exercising influence in social networks

I will readily admit that I'm an early adopter with a lot of social media and technology and because of that, my social networks have grown exponentially. For example when I first moved to Edmonton, I knew only a handful of people that I used to be friends with in high school and during my first undergrad. I was fresh to the city and really keen to get involved in my community ~ Twitter offered the best platform for me to network with the movers and shakers of Edmonton and get my name and face out there.

Fast forward two years ~ I had already been operating personally on Twitter and LinkedIn and I started to see opportunities where my workplace could be connecting with community partners through social media, helping to build our online presence.

It took a bit of time, and use of anecdotal evidence, but eventually I was given the green light to research and create social media profiles for work. As Kadushin discusses in Chapter 9 of the text, through diffusion of innovation, as an early adopter in our organization I had credibility to create and then influence others to join social media.

Kadushin calls this the "Two-Step Flow" of communications - how media influences influencers who in turn adopt the technology and in turn become influencers on others (p. 140). Influencers model desired behaviours with the hope that through their enthusiasm they can hook others into joining.

Kadushin also talks about how potential adopters of innovation and technology tend to imitate the previous adopters within social networks ( p. 138). He mentions how later on, adopters tend to jump on the "bandwagon" with their interest. Early adopters on the other hand, get into the social space early and evaluate how the technology fills their needs as they go.

I am now happy to say that after setting up our social media accounts, I'm now conversing and connecting with our researchers, staff, students and alumni. I am also fortunate to have a supportive dean who is keen to learn about social media and how she can model behaviour so others in the organization follow.