Q. What about social media consultants or any other external influencers who try to guide social media strategies for businesses? How should they use this?
A. What I’d like to see is people use it not just as a demonstration of how big this landscape is but use it to help people understand how to bridge what they already do to what this map represents. This can’t just be a demonstration of how large the landscape is and why people need to get involved, period. Consultants and their clients need to go through and listen to each of the networks and see if there is value there; see if they can find the places where they should fit within each of the respective communities.
The Conversation Prism, as well as Solis’ e-book “The Essential Guide to Social Media” are free for use and, according to Solis, a complementary fit for companies trying to determine how, when and if they should enter the social Web.
(Brian Solis, Conversation Prism and social map images provided by Brian Solis, CC 2.0)