Reti personali e reputazione online ai tempi della crisi economica: il caso dei foodblogger

The online personal networks of food-bloggers: the rise of amateur professionalism in times of economic crisis The spread of social media is creating new reputational mechanisms, even in professional environments. This paper focuses on “food-bloggers”, professional amateurs that act on the border between hobby and profession through an intentional investment on reputation. The main question here is relative to the potential use of this reputation within the same environment in which has been built, through the creation of new professions based on the Web, or exported in more traditional offline sectors. This research highlights an important difference between the popularity and the reputation of an actor. The paper also devotes a section to the study, through Social Network Analysis, of the personal networks of the most popular Italian food-bloggers on Twitter and Facebook. Different social structures emerge, at all levels examined. This paper is part of a larger project that will deal with the most highly reputed actors, and it will be replicated among different professional groups.