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One of the objectives of my Georgetown University course on Social Media in Business, Development and Government is to help the students learn how to use social media tools, how to use filters to make sense of social media, and how to research and curate news and knowledge using social media.
Here’s a simple six step guide to using social media to research any topic, let’s say “government 2.0″, for a beginner level social media user –
Step 1. Define a list of keywords related to your topic. For instance, for “government 2.0″, the relevant keywords can be “e government”, “government 2.0″, “open government”, “participatory government”, “social media and government”, “mobile and government”, “internet and government”, and “digital democracy” to start with.
Step 2. Search for blogs related to “government 2.0″ using blog search engines Technorati, Google Blog Search and Ask Blog Search. When searching, do enclose your multi-word keywords within “quotes” and do use the AND and OR functions to refine your searches. Google gives a list of the most relevant blogs at the top of the results. Technorati allows you to search by blog tags, post tags, or post content, and filter/ sort the results by “authority”. Technorati also gives you suggestions on related keywords in the sidebar. Ask lets you sort the feeds by popularity and also gives you a list of related feeds in the sidebar. Identify 10-20 blogs that you like and subscribe to them using Google Reader or Netvibes. If you find a foreign language blog that looks interesting, subscribe to it after translating the feed through Mloovi. Government 2.0 on Google. Government 2.0 on Technorati, Government 2.0 on Ask.
Step 3. Then, set up a “comprehensive” Google Alert for your keywords to track them in news, blogs and on the web. Subscribe to the alerts in Google Reader or Netvibes, by selecting the “deliver to feed”.
Step 4. Also search for your keywords on Delicious Tags and Twitter Search and subscribe to the results in Google Reader or Netvibes. Government 2.0 on Delicious. Government 2.0 on Twitter.
Step 5. Export the OPML file for your feeds from Google Reader or Netvibes, import it into PostRank, set the filters to “Great”, and export the filtered OPML file. PostRank scores each item in the feed based on how many people have engaged with the item by “creating, critiquing, chatting, collecting, and clicking” in response to it.
Step 6. Import the filtered OPML file into Google Reader or Netvibes and read only the most useful content for your selected topic.
For advanced users, here is a more detailed version of the process at ReadWriteWeb.
Here a public social media dashboard I have created for my class on Netvibes. The first column consists of posts and comments from the class blog and items I have specifically tagged for MSFS556 on Twitter and Delicious. The second column consists of my favorite blogs on social media and how it is changing, business, society and government. The third column consists of the PostRank filtered search feeds on social media.
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January 28, 2009 10:33 am
Interesting. What would be the benefits of using social media as a research source, rather than some other tool? What would I find that way that would be different or more valid than what I would find some other way?
January 28, 2009 10:58 am
@Kate: It depends on what you are researching. For some topics, like government 2.0, the best resources aren't yet on Google Scholar or research journals, but on blogs and Twitter. For other topics, like anti-consumerism, the most comprehensive resources may be in research journals and books, but the latest thinking is on blogs. In either case, social media is emerging as an important source of research, either in itself, or as a supplement to traditional research.
January 28, 2009 11:47 am
thorough, thanks. @Kate: Yeah, the research process is slow. There are other research networks online that sort of try to deal with the fact that the traditional routes are so slow. If you are looking for academic research, that is. I know one that exists for social science. Certainly not comprehensive, but you can check it out. It has working papers, etc. As Gaurav points out. Much of what research is coming out is being tried and tested publicly online. Some on blogs, others on sites such as this:
January 28, 2009 12:20 pm
Thanks. I got a good sense of the "how" from the post, and now I have a better sense of "why."
January 28, 2009 5:45 pm
@Kate. Good :) wow.. what I typed is filled with grammar errors. It barely makes sense.. haha. I guess that's what you get when you make a post before having your coffee in the morning. Anyhow, it is the message that matters!
January 28, 2009 8:56 pm
I would add LinkedIn to this list. Once, for a job interview, I was asked to present a case on investing in a specific unfamiliar industry in an unfamiliar company. By searching for these keywords on LinkedIn (as well as the local American Chamber of Commerce), I was able to find professionals working in this field, and then look more closely at their companies. Though I did not have the time to contact these individuals directly, looking at the industry from a personal perspective was incredibly helpful.
January 29, 2009 1:30 am
Clarification: by "company" I meant "country." This requires much more creativity...
August 21, 2009 7:29 pm
I’m new and felt the need to make a quick post to introduce myself. My name is Kevin and I came across this place by a fast search and wanted to just say hello. I would prefer to engage in future day discussions and look ahead to speaking with everyone.
My best hobby is http://www.squidoo.com/onlinecomputerrepair101 - computer repair
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Grad School Zone
UVA (Darden) MBA Admissions Deadlines for 2010-2011
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The University of Virginia's Darden School of Business recently published its application deadlines for the coming admissions season. Here they are, followed by our comments in italics:
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