The emergence of converging communities via Twitter

Abstract

Social networking site (SNS) communities emerge from socialization, when groups of people empathize and discover similarities between themselves. These communities are not defined by the place or the account but by people and participation. We validate a conceptual framework of how communities form and grow via SNS from ethnographic research of an online group that has emerged from converging social networks on Twitter. We define layers of use, the roles individuals adopt in these emerging communities, and their strategies for co-existence. This is underpinned by an exploration of how groups transition from interest-driven origins to supporting friendship-driven interactions