Significance of Newsletter in Social Networks
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/19/technology/new-social-network-email-newsletter.html
This article talks about how mass newsletter has the ability to shape how people engage with the information around them. Sometimes referred to as “the world’s oldest networked publishing platform,” the newsletter is more appealing to many people as it can provide more personalized content. Recently, I have gone on a spree to unsubscribe from newsletters that I no longer had an interest in. However, it allowed me to see the value of having personalized content that I can actually care about in my email. As the articles mentions, we are now at a stage where we are shifting towards a private mode of sharing information. Having these private newsletters in which influencers/journalists can engage with their fanbase may even facilitate closer relationships among the members of a community. Social media giants like Facebook have also picked up on this trend, according to the article. An example of this is Mark Zuckerberg’s recent statement about Facebook’s focus being shifted from public posts to private conversations. This change of focus ties directly to the newsletter as the intent of newsletters is to provide private and personalized content.
Nowadays, many publication companies have been using newsletters to increase engagement and readership. A direct result of this is the strong ties being formed in these social networks. Unlike that of social media users, the users who engage with newsletters do not know which other readers of the newsletter are also engaging with the newsletters. However, they are similar in the way that they are all tied together by a central ego, the writer of the publication. Users who actively engage with newsletters publications can form strong ties with the writer. Even though there are also readers who only read the newsletters, they are still forming some sort of connection, most of which are weak ties. This is relevant to our class on social networks because we also talked about how 95% of Facebook users are in fact connected by the 5th degree of connection. I see the potential for newsletters to fully connect users of a community who are interested in mutual topics. Personally, I am part of two large communities and I have been actively engaging with the newsletters that are in my email. I envision that there will be a way for me to form strong ties with others through online discussions and forums. Eventually, many members of social networks will experience stronger ties amongst themselves.