Tag: social media

Book of the Month: The Business of Being Social

Daren Mansfield / / Book of the Month

CapturebbWelcome to the social media age! Well, it’s the first chapter in an engrossing read entitled ‘The Business of Being Social‘ by Michelle Carvill and David Taylor, and a friendly introduction to start this blog post. It’s the second edition, published last year, and covers every aspect of social media and ‘explains step-by-step how you can create a strategy for success’.  Why is it important? Social media is simply indispensable to any business, it (almost) goes without saying. The significant dates in technological innovation include telephones (1876), radio (1896), television (1925), and World Wide Web (1990) could be justifiably enhanced by social media being launched on:

5th May 2003 – LinkedIn

4th February 2004 – FaceBook

23rd April 2005 -YouTube

21 March 2006- Twitter

2007 marked The Apple iPhone’s arrival to herald the smartphone age. Other social networks include Google+, Pinterest and Instagram, alongside social messaging sites WhatsApp and Snapchat. These outflank all other media in their huge global reach. The figures are staggering: Facebook has over 1.4 billion active users, Twitter has 280 million, LinkedIn over 340 million, YouTube over 1 billion and Google+ around 300 million. Almost 2 billion people access social networks, and is estimated to rise to 2.44 billion in two years’ time. The book is interesting to read not only for those running a business, or a student studying the social media aspect of business, but for anyone interested, as I am, in this dynamic area.

The Business of Being Social (2nd ed) is available at 658.872 car on the 2nd floor of the Library.

 

 

EthOs e-theses online service from the British Library

Daren Mansfield / / Databases

Not many people may be aware of the incredible service that the British Library is now offering in terms of digitising theses across the UK and uploading them onto a database called EthOs. Fortunately the University of Lincoln does subscribe to this facility where you can download or order a copy, and we are proudly able to claim that some 350 of its PhD theses are available on EthOs.  These links can be easily be shared via a plethora of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc…

Capture social media tools

Capture ethos

We are hoping that Nono Wibisono’s recent PhD entitled ‘Destination image: perception, experience and behavioural intent in the context of West Java, Indonesia as a tourist destination’ is soon added to EthOs as it’s certainly worth reading. This thesis is currently being added to the University of Lincoln’s hard-copy theses collection on the ground floor of the Library, behind the issue desk. Whatever your level of study I find it a useful exercise to browse through a PhD thesis to appreciate the depth of a literature review, how the references are threaded together in a logical debate and learn how to write in an academic style, of which Wibisono’s is a fine example.

National UK Blog Awards

Daren Mansfield / / Academic Subject Librarians

The Business Librarian blog has been successfully up and running since August 2011 and at that time we looked for inspiration from a range of blogs, which included Judge Business School at Cambridge University and the University of Exeter’s business librarian blog. I found that their sophisticated use of information, graphics and selected feeds was definitely the way to go, but it’s a good idea to notice what blogs exist further afield.

Blogging is such an important phenomenon that the top bloggers from across the UK assemble for the National UK Blog Awards where the Virtual World is recognised. It’s worth checking out some of the nominated blogs to gain an insight into this form of social media and perhaps acquire some inspiration if you’re interested in the design, content and ideas behind some outstanding blogs. Though not on the list of nominations my personal favourite blog, or rather daily addiction, is Ian Dunt’s splendid politics.co.uk . From the nominated list it is worth looking at Kate Russell’s blog on ICT who was voted top blog in the individual digital and technology category this year.

http://www.blogawardsuk.co.uk/