Social network aggregation is the process of collecting content from multiple
social network service
A social networking service or SNS (sometimes called a social networking site) is an online platform which people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career content, interests, act ...
s into one unified presentation. The task is often performed by a social network aggregator, such as
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a social media management platform, created by Ryan Holmes in 2008. The system's user interface takes the form of a dashboard, and supports social network integrations for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube an ...
or
FriendFeed
FriendFeed was a real-time feed aggregator that consolidated updates from social media and social networking websites, social bookmarking websites, blogs and microblogging updates, as well as any type of RSS/Atom feed. It was created in 2007 by ...
, which pulls together information into a single location,
or helps a user consolidate multiple social networking profiles into a single profile.
Various aggregation services provide tools or
widgets to allow users to consolidate messages, track friends, combine bookmarks, search across multiple social networking sites, read
RSS feed
RSS ( RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized, computer-readable format. Subscribing to RSS feeds can allow a user to keep track of many di ...
s for multiple social networks, see when their name is mentioned on various sites, access their profiles from a single interface, provide "lifestreams," and so on.
[ Social network aggregation services attempt to organize or simplify a user's social networking experience, although the idea has been satirized in the concept of a "social network aggregator aggregator."
There are other related uses of social media aggregators, aside from simplifying the user's social networking experiences. Some aggregators are designed to help companies and individuals improve engagement with their brands by creating aggregated social streams that can be embedded into an existing website and customized to look visually intrinsic to the site. This allows potential customers to interact with all the social media posts maintained by the brand, without requiring them to jump from site to site. This has the benefit of keeping customers on the brand's site for a longer period.
]
Social network aggregators
Social network aggregation platforms allow members to share social network activities like Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
, YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
, Stumbleupon
StumbleUpon was a discovery and advertisement engine (a form of web search engine) that pushed web content recommendations to its users. Its features allowed users to discover and rate Web pages, photos and videos that are personalized to their ...
, Digg
Digg, stylized in lowercase as digg, is an American news aggregator with a curated front page, aiming to select stories specifically for the Internet audience such as science, trending political issues, and viral Internet issues. It was launch ...
, or Delicious, with other major platforms. Content appears in real-time to other members who subscribe to a particular community, eliminating the need to jump from one social media
Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...
network to another, trying to keep an eye on one's interests.
Social network aggregation systems can rely on initiation by publishers or by readers. In publisher-initiated aggregation systems, publishers combine identities, allowing their readers to see all aggregated content once subscribed. In reader-initiated systems, such as Windows Phone 7
Windows Phone 7 is the first release of the Windows Phone mobile client operating system, released worldwide on October 21, 2010, and in the United States on November 8, 2010. It runs on the Windows CE 6.0 kernel.
It received multiple large upda ...
People Hub and Linked Internet UI, readers combine identities, which has no impact on publishers or other readers; the publishers can still keep separate identities for different readers.
Technically, the aggregation is enabled by API
An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how ...
s provided by social networks. For the API to access a user's actions from another platform, the user must permit the social-aggregation platform by specifying the user-id and password of the social media to be syndicated. This concept resembles OpenID
OpenID is an open standard and decentralized authentication protocol promoted by the non-profit OpenID Foundation. It allows users to be authenticated by co-operating sites (known as relying parties, or RP) using a third-party identity provider ...
. In March 2008, ''The Economist
''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...
'' reported that social network service
A social networking service or SNS (sometimes called a social networking site) is an online platform which people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career content, interests, act ...
s are only just beginning the move away from "walled gardens" to more open architectures. Some sites are working together on a "data portability workgroup," while others are focusing on a single sign-on system called OpenID to allow users to log on across multiple sites. Historically, the trend from private services to more open ones can be seen across many Internet services from email and instant messaging to the move that early online service provider
An online service provider (OSP) can, for example, be an Internet service provider, an email provider, a news provider (press), an entertainment provider (music, movies), a search engine, an e-commerce site, an online banking site, a health site, ...
s made to become websites. The OpenSocial
OpenSocial is a public specification that defines a component hosting environment (container) and a set of common application programming interfaces (APIs) for web applications. Initially, it was designed for social network applications and d ...
initiative aims to bridge the member overlap between various online social network services.
Social network aggregators such as FriendFeed represent connections between people with directed graph
In mathematics, and more specifically in graph theory, a directed graph (or digraph) is a graph that is made up of a set of vertices connected by directed edges, often called arcs.
Definition
In formal terms, a directed graph is an ordered pa ...
s. They adopt the following approach, rather than a friending one, where "A follows B" does not imply "B follows A." Each account is then represented by a node
In general, a node is a localized swelling (a "knot") or a point of intersection (a vertex).
Node may refer to:
In mathematics
*Vertex (graph theory), a vertex in a mathematical graph
*Vertex (geometry), a point where two or more curves, lines, ...
whereas the following relationship is represented by an edge
Edge or EDGE may refer to:
Technology Computing
* Edge computing, a network load-balancing system
* Edge device, an entry point to a computer network
* Adobe Edge, a graphical development application
* Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed by ...
. The relationships between these nodes appear to be linked to their age and their sphere of influence. The nodes which have joined the network most recently get less influence than older ones. Therefore, on social network aggregators, new nodes tend to connect to nodes with high degrees.
A social media aggregator is a tool that helps users to discover and curate content from social media platforms into a single feed and gives them the option to display this feed across all marketing channels. Social media aggregators gather or "aggregate" existing social media posts from several social networks and combine them into a single feed. This social media feed then can be displayed on a website. While other types of media aggregators draw from many different sources and brands, a personal social feed aggregator, like ''Juicer'', pulls content from social media accounts you own. You can find free social media aggregators as well as paid options that offer more features.
First social network aggregators
Historically, media aggregators have always existed. For example, journalists summarizing numerous pieces of information, and trying to synthesize relevant content from many sources in an understandable way. The purpose is to provide understandable information for everyone about more or less complex topics, so that people will not have to spend hours finding and analyzing news from all around the world. Moreover, it was also an aggregator for job listings and other types of ads" \n\nads.txt (Authorized Digital Sellers) is an initiative from IAB Technology Laboratory. It specifies a text file that companies can host on their web servers, listing the other companies authorized to sell their products or services. This is des ...
.
Collecting data in social network aggregation
Performing social network aggregation requires a large range of data. First, the relevant content related to a topic and then the information about the profiles that have been reached by the content. The added value of social network aggregation is to analyze the data. They provide a correlation between the audience profiles (preferences, interests, age, location...) and the type of content. However, collecting such data may be difficult. Databases of social networks vary and may change during some updates.
Applications in marketing
Social network aggregators are a powerful tool in marketing
Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...
. They appear to be an efficient way to have an organized view of the content to get a better insight into the market. The need for them is real: a study provided by eMarketer
eMarketer is a subscription-based market research company that provides insights and trends related to digital marketing, media, and commerce.
History
eMarketer was founded in 1996, and is headquartered in New York City. 93 percent of the co ...
, shows that 43% of marketers complain about a significant lack of time to find relevant content for their business. Social network aggregators grant features to share your own content on many social media platforms to reach as many people as possible. That way, social network aggregators become a productivity enhancement tool.[
]
Overlap between multiple social-network services
The attraction of social network aggregation comes from the fact that some users tend to use multiple social networks; they have accounts on several social networking sites. In November 2007, Alex Patriquin of Compete.com
Compete.com was a web traffic analysis service. The company was founded in 2000 and ceased operations in December 2016.
Services
Compete.com provided two categories of information:
*Site Analytics
: a free service, where the user can enter any ...
reported on the member overlap between various online social network services:
A study conducted in 2009 of 11,000 users[
]
reported that the majority of MySpace, LinkedIn
LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job se ...
, and Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
users also have Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
accounts.
See also
* Crowdmapping Crowdmapping is a subtype of crowdsourcing by which aggregation of crowd-generated inputs such as captured communications and social media feeds are combined with geographic data to create a digital map that is as up-to-date as possible on event ...
* List of social networking services
A social networking service is an online platform that people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career interests, activities, backgrounds or real-life connections.
This is a li ...
* Social media
Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...
* Social network
A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for an ...
* Social network consolidator
* Social networking service
A social networking service or SNS (sometimes called a social networking site) is an online platform which people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career content, interests, act ...
* Web 2.0
Web 2.0 (also known as participative (or participatory) web and social web) refers to websites that emphasize user-generated content, ease of use, participatory culture and interoperability (i.e., compatibility with other products, systems, and ...
* Social bookmarking
Social bookmarking is an online service which allows users to add, annotate, edit, and share bookmarks of web documents. Many online bookmark management services have launched since 1996; Delicious, founded in 2003, popularized the terms "social ...
Notes and references
{{Social networking
Social networks
Social network analysis
Social systems
Self-organization
Social bookmarking
News aggregators