Elsevier

Business Horizons

Volume 54, Issue 3, May–June 2011, Pages 241-251
Business Horizons

Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2011.01.005Get rights and content

Abstract

Traditionally, consumers used the Internet to simply expend content: they read it, they watched it, and they used it to buy products and services. Increasingly, however, consumers are utilizing platforms—such as content sharing sites, blogs, social networking, and wikis—to create, modify, share, and discuss Internet content. This represents the social media phenomenon, which can now significantly impact a firm's reputation, sales, and even survival. Yet, many executives eschew or ignore this form of media because they don’t understand what it is, the various forms it can take, and how to engage with it and learn. In response, we present a framework that defines social media by using seven functional building blocks: identity, conversations, sharing, presence, relationships, reputation, and groups. As different social media activities are defined by the extent to which they focus on some or all of these blocks, we explain the implications that each block can have for how firms should engage with social media. To conclude, we present a number of recommendations regarding how firms should develop strategies for monitoring, understanding, and responding to different social media activities.

Section snippets

Welcome to the jungle: The social media ecology

Social media employ mobile and web-based technologies to create highly interactive platforms via which individuals and communities share, co-create, discuss, and modify user-generated content. Given the tremendous exposure of social media in the popular press today, it would seem that we are in the midst of an altogether new communication landscape. The New York Times recently hired a social media editor (Nolan, 2009); the Catholic Press Association (2010) offers a webinar on how the church can

The seven functional blocks of social media

The framework we use (see Figure 1) is a honeycomb of seven functional building blocks: identity, conversations, sharing, presence, relationships, reputation, and groups. Each block allows us to unpack and examine (1) a specific facet of social media user experience, and (2) its implications for firms. These building blocks are neither mutually exclusive, nor do they all have to be present in a social media activity. They are constructs that allow us to make sense of how different levels of

Differences matter: The 4 Cs

It is difficult to stay abreast of the choices people have for social media platforms. It seems that new sites and services emerge every day, vying for the attention of individuals and communities online. When examining the social media ecology, it quickly becomes clear that many sites have struck a careful balance among the different blocks of the honeycomb. Some focus more on identity, some more on sharing, et cetera. None of today's major social media sites focus solely on just one block.

Final thoughts

Social media introduce substantial and pervasive changes to communication between organizations, communities, and individuals. This presents an enormous challenge for firms, as many established management methods are ill-suited to deal with customers who no longer want to be talked at; instead, customers want firms to listen, appropriately engage, and respond. Firms interested in getting serious about social media will find a useful tool in the honeycomb framework. By analyzing the seven

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