Blogging and Other Social Media: Exploiting the Technology and Protecting the Enterprise

Citation

Stuart, D. (2010), "Blogging and Other Social Media: Exploiting the Technology and Protecting the Enterprise", Online Information Review, Vol. 34 No. 2, pp. 351-352. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684521011037061

Social media have fundamentally changed the nature of communication within and around organisations. Blogging and Other Social Media provides an introduction to the topic of social media for organisations that are new to the technologies and those already using social media.

The work is split into four parts. The first part consists of five chapters on blogs, from an introduction to blogging and how to create a blog, to getting the most from blogging and making it work for the organisation. This is followed by nine chapters on social media, with an introduction to social media followed by chapters on some of the different social media technologies that can be used by organisations (e.g. wikis, podcasts, social media aggregators). Part 3, on using social media internally, provide three chapters on the topic of enterprise 2.0. Finally, the last two chapters are on the topic of social media and the law.

The work is very much an introductory text, and with so many introductions to social media available there is little to recommend the first two parts. Even the structure is a curious choice: while blogging is one of the more established forms of social media, as an introductory text it would have made more sense to encourage a more integrated approach to social media. The early chapters have little new to say on social media, are overly simplistic, with few references for further reading. While the blogosphere is filled with interesting examples of blogs worthy of discussion, a list of some of the “main categories” and a detailed description of three particular blogs do little to convey the breadth and richness of the blogosphere. Further, the comparison of blogging platforms will do little to help a prospective blogger make informed decisions: “[Blogger] Blogs have a Blogger domain name” – I've personally used a Blogger with my own domain name for over two years; “[Moveable Type] has the widest variety of features” – whatever they may be.

The last two parts are of more interest because they provide information that is not so readily available elsewhere. The internal use of social media by organisations is generally, by definition, hidden from the majority of users. The topic of social media and the law has been given relatively little coverage, yet it is the topic on which the authors are most suited to write. Both parts would have benefited from being much longer, more detailed, and with more references.

There is little to recommend this text to the library and information science community. It is far too basic with little new to say. Any potential audience would do better to read works aimed at their specific community or providing more detail on a specific technology.