I’m a visual person, so I want you to be too. With that being said, I think it’s interesting to look at the many different types of graphical examples of the social media space. The first graphic I want you to see comes from Lorna Li’s post on 6 Steps for Creating a Social Media Marketing Roadmap & Plan It’s interesting to note that her bubbles do not connect. They merely float around each other. Does that work for you?
The next is from Susan Scrupski’s post Circles of Expertise in 2.0 for Biz I like hers since they are interconnected, but I think that in some instances, that perhaps they should bleed over more.
Then we have Brian Soli’s Conversation Prism which is pretty cool since it doesn’t appear to have left out much. It reminds me of the NBC peacock though.
Next is Scoble’s Starfish Very accurate except for the sickly starfish. It looks more like a mutant glove.
Then there is my simple explanation of how the hot dog could be the center of the universe from a social networking standpoint. Chew on that, if you will. No comment on the public bathroom shade of blue I used.
And lastly, this one is pretty cool from Touchgraph Go there and type in “social media” to see a larger view.
Of course we could really dumb it down to a scrawled spiral and draw it on a napkin as well
Here’s one more submitted by one of my Twitter frinds, this one titled the new marketing ecosystem from Mullen Though it does look a bit like a Christmas ornament or some type of dangerous coral.
Which one works for you? or maybe there’s a better one? Flippant sarcasm aside, the point is that social media’s influence is far more reaching than anyone could have ever expected and the exciting news is that it’s only going to grow in depth and breadth.
Direct Marketing Observations 
I’m interested in how these models relate to an overall comms model – at the moment these don’t really show where social media sits in relation to the bigger picture, which is what I’m desperately struggling to get people to understand in my own business. There’s still such a strong sense that social media is something completely separate, where in my opinion it’s an opportunity to overarch every available comms channel – from face to face to events to DM to tie up how we talk to our various customers…if you see any models looking at this would be really interested to connect…
@mm it’s a great point but where social media sits may be right smack bad in the middle. We just don’t know it yet! The problem is, as you have alluded to, is that there is a definite ramp up issue coupled with a madd dash to educate. Once we get past that, you will see that social media will become a viable component within every marketing and media campaign.
Hi Marc,
I don’t disagree – like you think it’s a really key component to all campaigns – and maybe you’re right maybe it’s the starting point for all the other elements. Umbrella, or centre, or who knows what…will look forward to hearing more if you come across other models!
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