In the autumn of 2009, a group of exchange students in the University of Applied Sciences of Utrecht got a task to make a research project on the current situation of Social Media. The group consisted of 5 people with really different backgrounds and opinions. Two Finnish, one Austrian, one Belgian and one Taiwanese put their heads together to explore the enormous world of Social Media. In this paper, Social Media stands for Online Social Media in other words: websites that allow people to communicate with each other, share opinions and ideas, public or semi-public profiles for the users and possibility to view those profiles. Most known examples of Social Media at this moment (2010) would be Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, flixter, LinkedIN, Tagged, Twitter and Plurk. There are hundreds and hundreds more of Social Media websites and each of them has its own purpose and idea. Some of them concentrate on one topic or subject and some websites are more expanded. Most of the Social Media websites give the opportunity to their users to upload pictures, videos and other data but the most important thing is that social media allow people to communicate ‘one-to-many and many-to-one’ and not as the old fashion media ‘one-way communication’ only.
Door de ontstellende hoeveelheid informatie en contactmogelijkheden op internet worden we op onszelf teruggeworpen. Het stelt ons voor de keuze wie we willen zijn en volgens welke waarden we willen leven.
For this exploratory study we aim to provide knowledge and insights concerning the processes of setting up, implementing and managing online communities as a part of the product/services offer of media companies. The goal is to increase their reach amongst target groups, to strengthen involvement with their audiences and to entice their audiences to participate. This information should help us to understand the many different aspects important for developing and managing online communities. The research question for this phase is: Which critical success factors play a role in the process of setting up and managing online communities using social media in order to activate and/or engage target audiences? In this exploratory first phase we looked into literature relating to general guidelines and critical success factors in setting up and managing online communities. These aspects include, communication and interaction options, functionalities for sharing information, the content structure given, the importance of socialization within the community, the policies used and the usability of the platform (Ning Shen & Khalifa, 2008).
