People have talked about the social 'ecosystem', as if it comprises distinct, intelligent consumers for a long time. But they’ve always overlooked one key fact: social-media networks are the heart of the ecosystem. They are holonic structures – individual, but acting as a whole. The creation of social media networks turned computers and smartphones into something amazing: doorways into a landscape, nourished by content and thriving on emotion expressed through the act of sharing. Sharing is the single most important activity that happens on social networks. Our physical computer networks are merely the substrate for a new meta-creature, the social organism. Sharing feeds the living organism, and a new form of social media creates itself in the process. Patrick Mulford will examine this social-media organism through the lens of biomimicry, where you can see the seven basic rules that facilitate life itself are remarkably similar to seven basic principles that drive social media success.