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Social Media Strategy Framework by @rossdawson

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via rossdawsonblog.com

I like the Social Media Strategy Framework because it focuses on objectives. What do you want to achieve? Do you want to listen to potential customers or better engage existing ones? Would you like to identify influencers and other key players in your market? You surely can do all of that but not every tools fits every pupose.

The Conversation Prism by @briansolis and @jess3

via theconversationprism.com

The Conversation Prism nicely brings together tasks, tools and (corporate) uses of social media. The number of different ‘leaves’ gives you an idea of how many different uses there are. The logos within each ‘leaf’ represent the various tools you could use to get the task done. Are you working on the same business report with your colleagues from around the world or sharing personal photos with friends and family? Do you want to keep in touch with old colleagues or expand your existing network? Would you like to start publishing yourself as I do now 😉 ?

Social Media Revolution by @equalman


via youtube.com

Although I am sure many of you have seen this video before, I would still like to include it. I think it makes a good point: social media is here to stay. It represents a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. It changes how companies do business. I will talk more about this in the sections on ‘Knowledge Management, Collaboration and Learning’ and ‘The Future of Work’.

So, you’re doing research on social media. Sounds interesting . . .

. . . but what do you actually do?

This is a question that I hear very frequently. By writing this blog, I hope I can shed some light on the life and the daily work of a PhD student.

Right now I am in the process of narrowing down my research focus. Admittedly, there are a lot of people writing and talking about social media. Many of them call themselves experts 😉 Apart from the academic literature, I have looked at a number of presentations on slideshare and read even more blog posts. I will share the most interesting bits with you over the coming months. What intrigues me most is to see what kind of people write about the subject and what professional background they have. Legal professionals, for example, tend to view strengths and weaknesses of social media tools differently from people in the communications sectors.

These are the areas surrounding social media that I find particularly interesting:

  1. History/Evolution
  2. Knowledge Management, Collaboration and Learning
  3. Human Resources
  4. Psychology
  5. The Future of Work
  6. Legal Issues
  7. Social Network Analysis
  8. Social Capital
  9. PR/Marketing
  10. Analytics/Metrics
  11. Science

Over the next few days, I will introduce each of these themes separately and explain why I think they are relevant. I will also provide a few references for existing literature and mention the people, events and institutions I have come across so far. Is there an area that you think I have missed? Where do you believe social media has the greatest impact?