This post is provided by our partner the Future Foundation, the leading consumer futures business.

The interesting thing about using networks as a way of looking at society is that they are fundamentally different from previous sociological models. This means that they can lead to new insights and powerful new ways of describing individuals and social change – as well as uncovering information about groups of consumers that might otherwise be invisible.  Take the below photo of a not-so-recent family gathering, for example.

Now, imagine that we have no concept of networks and I’m going through this photo telling you who all the individuals are. That’s my dad, over on the left, and my cousin to his right. He’s the son of my uncle immediately to my right, and his wife, over on the left again, who is standing in front of my older brother and behind my second cousin… on and on I go before your eyes glaze over and everything becomes indecipherable.

But network analysis allows us to abstract a little and, by concentrating on the links rather than the individuals, we can build a far more informative picture.

Rather than physical distance, we can now visualise something we can call social distance. In the original picture, my older brother was standing just behind my young cousin. Without any other information, we might expect this to indicate some degree of similarity. However, when we examine the network diagram, we can see that they are actually relatively distant – separated by four links.

Now, imagine this over a larger network. Geodemographic segmentations work on the assumption that people who share our postcodes are more similar to us than others – and they are fairly powerful tools. However, compared to physical distance, we can see from this example that social distance is clearly a much more important indicator of how interesting or similar another individual is to me.  In other words, friends of friends are more interesting than neighbours of neighbours.

We can see how powerful this is by looking at two groups of 25-34 year old, ABC1, male Londoners. Traditional market research would struggle to distinguish these groups from each other but we can already see some differences just by looking at them.

It seems clear that, despite their identical market research profile, these two groups are distinct and so will have widely different cultural and consumption interests.  While they probably overlap in terms of consumption in many areas – they will all need milk and toilet roll – they will differ in other respects. From the information we have here, their needs even for other basics such as petrol and razors differ widely. And even where they do overlap, the style of communication and the channels to which they are most likely to respond will probably vary.

This is the power of social distance. While these people are not very distant in terms of traditional market research categories, and probably not even in terms of geodemographics (most of them probably live with their parents), they are further apart in terms of social distance.  Social media allows us to analyse and understand these links and reach a more nuanced appreciation of the relationships between groups of consumers and the potential for more relevant and successful consumer engagement.

Matt Taylor is Head of Innovation at the Future Foundation, the leading international consumer futures business. This post is based on an extract from a presentation given by Nikhil Shah during his time as Head of UK Content at the Future Foundation.  Since our launch in 1996, we have worked to meet the strategic needs of businesses through the application of insight. We identify, measure and examine trends, attitudes and behaviours through the rigorous analysis of quantitative and qualitative research. Our robust programme of research provides businesses with the grounding and confidence to anticipate the likely impact of the evolving consumer environment and identify new market and revenue opportunities. Let us assist your thinking, guide your decisions and drive your profits.

For further information visit www.futurefoundation.net