When Brian Solis introduced the first Conversation Prism in
2008, the world was a seemingly simpler place. There were 22 social media
categories, each of which had just a handful of brands. ("Video
agreggation" had only one brand: Magnify.)
Flash forward to 2013, and the latest Conversation Prism
(click here for the high-res downloadable version) has four additional
categories with at least six brands in each. Like other Conversation Prisms,
the data visualization attempts to illustrate the array of social media choices
available to marketers. Various channels are classified by their function to
the end user (i.e. "photos," "music" and "social
curation."
The net effect: While the 2008 chart looked like a flower,
the latest one resembles a kaleidoscope. Solis, principal analyst at Altimeter
Group and a prominent social media marketing expert, says redoing the chart
this time around has been instructive. "Things are changing so fast,"
he says. "We don't even realize [the landscape] is shifting."
The chart also points out that, for many, membership in the
social media ecosystem is fleeting. While some brands like Xanga, Kyte and
Utterz have disappeared, others that weren't around five years ago — like Path
and Banjo — are now among category leaders.
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