Update 30th July 2010

I have now completed 10 full length interviews with marketing agencies, marketing managers and directors. All very illuminating primary research.

I have also researched more books and journals than I can count spanning a broad range of topics covering: social sciences, anthropology, homophily, psychology, socio-economics, globalisation, viral marketing, word of mouth marketing, consumer behaviour, Web 2.0, Semantic Web, tribalism, technographics, netnographics, network weaving, dissintermediation, codes of conducts, social media maturity models, enterprise 2.0 and a whole host of marketing theories etc etc etc. I have also written a taxonomy of online social networks. There is more to this social media stuff than we might think!

There is a lot of hype about the potential of social networks. Wikinomics, Groundswell, Here Comes Everybody, The Viral Buzz and so on. However, I am finding the reality is very mixed. There are some clear patterns emerging as to what social media marketing stratgies work, why some organisations use social networks to good effect and others don't.

I still need to interview more organisations, so please step up and gain the value from the research.

(All input is treated with strict confidentiality and under the Oxford University Code of Ethics).