What is Social Media?

Two weeks into my research project, the topic still needs a lot more narrowing down and focus. As a six month MBA project, we're encouraged to narrow it down as much as possible to make it manageable, however my concern was the (small) amount of literature out there on Social Media and its application to businesses. Our class was introduced to the power of the University of Auckland Library which absolutely blew me away, millions of dollars a year spent on subscriptions bringing the world of literature to your fingertips. Some preliminary searches on the Library website have turned up masses of information on Social Media so no issues there.

This week's class had a few students present their topics for others to offer ideas on how to investigate from different perspectives. Definitely a worthwhile exercise from my point of view, got lots of good ideas from the class on my topic. One simple but important question that was raised was "What is Social Media?", which I'm going to have to define for the purposes of my project. There seems to be many different definitions of Social Media, which differs from digital media and social networking and an important distinction I have to make is the difference between Social Media and traditional media. I'll also have to make a call on whether I include forms such as email as part of my definition of Social Media.

In terms of producing a research project of value, there seems to be a common target destination of "best practice" in Social Media. By this I mean, whether looking at the topic from a financial perspective (ROI for example) or an organisational behaviour perspective (change management for example), knowing what is "best practice" when developing and implementing a Social Media strategy is where great value lies. As a 2008 study by The University of Bath states in its conclusions on Twitter usage, "it does highlight the need to shift the emphasis of the research towards disseminating case studies of effective practice". Once I have defined Social Media, this area of effective practice is what I will be focusing in on.

Game on!

There seems to be a range of perceptions and stances regarding social media in the workplace: complete ignorance; a vague understanding; prohibition; and utter confusion to name a few. Where does it fit in? Do we need it? How would we use it? Should we ban it? WTFacewhat?

There appears to be two separate issues. Firstly, social networking applications and websites could be deemed a distraction to employees in their daily working lives, which could lead to poor productivity and the sacking of one’s bottom. Secondly, organisations could utilise these same applications and websites to promote their products and services, communicate with their customers and keep tabs on their employees.

There’s no doubting the power of social media but organisations seem slow, or wary in their uptake of the technology. Is there a demographic issue i.e. would a funeral home have a twitter account? Is there a stigma issue i.e. would a snooty law firm have a facebook page? Or is the technology simply moving too fast i.e. is the intelligence of our organisations too low, or more specifically, are the decision makers of our organisations still getting to grips with text messaging?

I’m going to dive into these issues and probably a whole lot more over the next six months, hopefully developing some insights that could offer some value to New Zealand businesses. But I’m going to need HELP because there’s not a lot of prior research out there. HELP! If any of this floats your boat or you know of some good examples from your business let me know - I’ll trade your info for beer, wine or coffee. Confidentiality is assured.

Right now, I need to email my lawyer regarding that last sentence.