Professor Robert Kozinets, who invented the technique of netnography, will give a talk at the University of Salford.
The professor at the University of Southern California developed the method in 1995 and has since become one of the world’s leading social media researchers.
“Netnography is a way to understand the tribes and cultures that online technology creates and engages, as more quantitative tools don’t provide a way to do that,” he explained.
“Complex social behaviors happen online, and netnography offers us a way to understand them that preserves their wealth. Having a tool like Netnography has proven very handy for business. Over 10,000 netnographies have been published, often on sensitive topics that people find difficult to talk about, such as sexuality, religion, or addiction, but which they share on social media. “
Netnography uses data to identify patterns and track connections as ideas and messages spread through social media.
“… It will be an important tool to understand the world better in the years to come. Social media isn’t going away, it’s just getting more important so we need to be able to understand it. For example, how has support for white supremacists grown online in America and other parts of the world?
“The way we use technology has changed and we can look at, for example, how people have used social media to tackle today’s challenges, such as the Covid pandemic,” he added.
His free online talk will be part of the University of Salford’s Tech Disruption series.