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Social Media Entrepreneurship Resources (view source)
Revision as of 13:34, 21 September 2020
, 13:34, 21 September 2020no edit summary
{{Project
|Has project output=
|Has image=
|Has title=Social Media Entrepreneurship Resources
|Has owner=
|Has start date=
|Has deadline=
|Has keywords=
|Has sponsor=McNair Center
|Has notes=
|Has project status=Complete
|Is dependent on=
|Does subsume=
}}
==See Also==
*[[Social Media Project]]
*The McNair Center researchers' [[Social Media Project | admin pages on the social media project]]
=Twitter=
==Exploring the Startup Twitter-Sphere==
Identifying promising new startups and entrepreneurship-related organizations should be a straight-forward feat on social media sites, such as Twitter. However, the process of finding these entities is much more indirect that one would like. Searching for companies that are quickly gaining followers or widely talked about on Twitter is not a feature readily available on the site itself; Twitter’s search capabilities only allow queries by popular hashtags or keywords and not by account metrics. This makes it very difficult to locate startups that are relatively new (because they tend to have such small spheres of influence) or find out about popular entrepreneurship events until after they have already gained enough posts to be luckily awarded a position in Twitter’s “trending” hashtags list. For example, we were not aware of KPCB’s Entrepreneurship Conference until we read their popular Twitter post with a link to their 2015 Internet Trends Report from the conference.
Moreover, the accounts with the most followers are not necessarily providing the most useful content. Rather, they seem gain followers just from the fact that they are famous entrepreneurship entities. In the case of VC firms, for instance, the firms with the most lucrative investments tend to gain the most followers. It seems that users follow these VC’s because they post interesting news about their investment companies and not necessarily because they have anything useful to say about the entrepreneurship field itself. In fact, many of the highly followed VC firms don’t tend to have very many retweets or favorites on their posts, signaling that people might be following the firms just because they admire them and not for the value of their content.
In contrast, news agencies dedicated to business and entrepreneurship, such as Businessweek, Forbes, Fortune, and Wall Street Journal, seem to churn out the most useful content about entrepreneurship on Twitter and gain thousands of followers. However, because these agencies are not focused solely on entrepreneurship, they may not be the most reliable users to investigate for our purposes.
Therefore, there must be a more efficient way to map out the Startup Twitter-sphere without relying on individually searching hashtags and keywords. Perhaps using a search filter software, such as the Private Company Performance Metrics by CB Insights, will make searching and identifying trending organizations much easier. This metrics tool is free to use and promises to make Twitter data mining more efficient, with its measurements of website traffic, social media “chatter”, media attention, mobile app data, and hiring activity.
==Social media management systems: Which to choose?==
Our team is considering incorporating a social media management system for the McNair Center for Entrepreneurship. We have been looking at two possible candidates: Hootsuite or Buffer.
Hootsuite is a platform to “automatically discover, schedule, and post content”. It also has the capability to search keywords to track leads and monitor conversations. All of the social media platforms can be managed via the Hootsuite software, allowing for easy management across sites. Buffer is like Hootsuite, in that it allows for queued post scheduling at the “best possible times” across the following platforms: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest. In addition, it allows teams of workers to all coordinate the same accounts, with the ability to change permissions and contributions. Buffer also has new features, in which users can design their own images, upload videos, and upload photos. It does not, however, give users the ability to monitor conversations. Both Hootsuite and Buffer offer data analytics across social media platforms, and both offer Chrome plugins to quickly upload posts without having to change browser windows.
It seems that both systems are good options when it comes to managing social media. However, it seems that Hootsuite may be more geared towards managing social media conversations about one’s own business or organization before they get out of hand. It is less of a tool for social media research and more for managing PR. Further, Hootsuite lacks the ability to post photos on Twitter as image previews instead of links. Buffer, on the other hand, allows for thumbnail images on Twitter. Buffer, therefore, seems to be a better option at only $10 per month for unlimited posts per day.
==Events/Trending==
