The following article explains how bbm is still an untapped social network:  http://www.marketing.fm/2009/04/29/blackberry-social-network-bbm/There is a very basic, and very useful, network that is created by a simple and popular technology: the BlackBerry. BlackBerry users are connected to each other by the BlackBerry Message, or BBM, service. Only BlackBerry users can be members of this network, and it acts similarly to text messaging,except that it is a faster technology and is exclusive to BlackBerry phones. It provides a feedback loop by informing users when the person they are chatting with is typing, and it sends messages instantly. BBMs are logged as a chat, rather than as a series of messages, and thus conversations are easy to track by users. Among BlackBerry users, BBM service is an almost religious activity. BBM service is included in the BlackBerry “data” plan that allows users to access their email and the internet, and thus is not charged on a message-by-message basis as SMS text messages are. This allows for long, extended BBM “conversations” that allow users to connect via their cell phones in a manner similar to instant messaging using a computer. Many BlackBerry users are loyal to their phones simply because of this service —hesitating to switch to a competitor, such as the iPhone, because they do not want to give up their BBM service. BBM users create their own unique networks with their lists of contacts, which is separate from their phone contacts and must be confirmed by both BlackBerry users via the use of a PIN that comes with each phone. Becoming a “BBM friend” with another BlackBerry user is a unique symbol of friendship and of networking, and for many people their network of BBM contacts is synonymous with their network of close friends and family. Mere acquaintances seldom exchange PINs or engage in BBM conversations.  The loyalty and close network that BBM creates can be used to effectively motivate cell phone users to switch to a blackberry to become included in the close BBM network.  This can be related to the discussions in class of clusters and adopters of certain behaviors.  Here, BBM users represent initial adopters that can spread blackberries throughout clusters and increase blackberry use by creating a cascade of adoptions.