More National Social Media Insights from UMass Dartmouth Expert Dr. Nora Ganim Barnes

Posted on November 24, 2009 by Jennifer Brady

UMassOnline Jennifer Brady Dr. Nora Ganim Barnes is a Chancellor Professor of Marketing and Director of the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. We’ve featured her, and her groundbreaking social media research findings, here before. Here’s one from September, 2008, and here is another from January, 2008. Now, more recently, based on a new three-year research project involving more than 100 of the nation’s fastest-growing companies, she’s gaining even more attention for her latest findings. More specifically, here’s a mainstream media story by Jay Pateakos of The Herald News about Dr. Barnes and her latest insights.

Any online college student should be interested in these findings. For one thing, they validate that corporations are using many of the same social media tools being used in online education. This means graduates will show up to work already familiar with how and why social media works. Secondly, it seems not all social media tools are gaining in popularity equally. Dr. Barnes’ findings show that use of online video, wikis and podcasting is in decline.

But more than just the raw data that many surveys present, a hallmark of Dr. Barnes’ research – and the presentations I’m been privileged to hear in person – is her analysis of what it all means and why. Here, for example, is her insight into why corporate America is backing social media in a big way:

Social media is the only thing I know that you can talk to a customer 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, a portal created between a consumer and a provider that allows constant and open discussion,” said Barnes. “If there is a problem, it can be immediately taken care of, making it easier to to [sic] address issues. Consumers like it and businesses like it because things don’t fester. Social media allows things to be handled quickly.