Top 10 Social Media Research Articles: Do You Have the Tenth?

GAINESVILLE, Fla., Aug. 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The Institute for Public Relations' Social Science of Social Media Research Center (SSSM) has identified nine top social media research studies in the first half of 2013. To make this a true top 10 list, the Institute needs your help.

To suggest the study that you think is missing from the list, visit the SSSM website to explain your selection via a comment or provide a link (if for example, you have written a blog about the study you like). The research center's editors will then select the 10^th and final article, highlighting the study and the individual who contributed it.

This report aims to not only identify important research, but to generate conversation in which practitioners can absorb and contribute meaningful knowledge. Created by Dr. Donald K. Wright (Boston University), Dr. Marcia W. DiStaso (Penn State University) and Dr. Tina McCorkindale (Appalachian State University), it is available for free on the IPR website at http://bit.ly/17cBKwe.

The studies, relevant to public relations, were selected in no particular order based on rigor of methodology, sample size, findings and accessibility. Included are:

• "2013 Social Media Marketing Industry Report: How Marketers are Using Social Media to Grow Their Businesses" (Social Media Examiner; Michael A. Stelzner)
• "The Evolution of Social Business: Six Stages of Social Business Transformation" (Altimeter Group; Charlene Li and Brian Solis, with Alan Webber and Jaimy Szymanski)
• "The Demographics of Social Media Users—2012" (Pew Research Center; Maeve Duggan and Joanna Brenner)
• "Structuring a Social Media Team" (Ragan and NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions)
• "2013 Edelman Global Entertainment Study" (Edelman and MATTER; fielded by Edelman Berland)
• "2013 Fortune 500 Are Bullish on Social Media: Big Companies Get Excited About Google+, Instagram, Foursquare and Pinterest" (Dr. Nora Ganim Barnes,  Ava M. Lescault and Stephanie Wright; University of Massachusetts Dartmouth)
• "2013 CEO, Social Media & Leadership Survey" (BRANDfog)
• "Microsoft Survey on Enterprise Social Use and Perceptions" (Ipsos for Microsoft)
• "The Most Followed Brands on Twitter are not the Most Engaged: A Study of Top Brands on Twitter" (Evolve! Capital, Inc.; Dr. Natalie L. Petouhoff and Lisa M. Schwartz Social Business Builders; Commissioned by Nestivity)

The Institute for Public Relations (IPR) is an independent nonprofit foundation dedicated to the science beneath the art of public relations™. We focus on research that matters to the practice, providing timely insights and applied intelligence that professionals can put to immediate use. The IPR Social Science of Social Media Research Center (SSSM) is an interactive, comprehensive source for information about social media and its impact on public relations.

SOURCE Institute for Public Relations