The SNCR Year in Review
As we begin 2008, we’d like to reflect on the past year, and thank our Fellows and members for their participation and support of the Society for New Communications Research. Thanks to you, we enjoyed a great deal of activity, progress and growth during the past year!
The Society welcomed several new Fellows and Senior Fellows as well as many new individual and corporate members in 2007. We held another successful New Communications Forum last March – our third annual event – which was attended by nearly 450 participants. We also published another issue of the Journal of New Communications Research as well as New Communications Review. The Society’s Best Practices Committee developed three new Best Practices Tip Sheets: one on corporate social media policy development, one focused on corporate blogging best practices and one on understanding how to embrace consumer-generated media to collaborate with customers and successfully achieve co-ownership of the brand.
This summer the Society launched an Education Program to bring guest lecturers, seminars and advice about curriculum development by the Society’s Fellows to colleges and universities. The SNCR developed this program to address the fact that communications professionals and educators alike are facing the shifting paradigm to new communications and social media, but often without the latest information related to research, industry trends, case studies and best practices. The SNCR Education Program was designed to bridge this gap and provide valuable education and training opportunities to educators, students and communications professionals seeking continuing education. The Society’s Fellows have provided a wide range of guest lectures and seminars, special workshops and classes to meet the needs of colleges and universities that want to supplement their core curricula with content that addresses new communications tools and technologies, new media, Web 2.0 and developments in social media. Classes and lectures are available online (sponsored by WebEx) as well as via face-to-face instruction. In addition, the Society advises faculty in Communications, Public Relations, Marketing, Advertising, Journalism and Business departments on curricula development to address these topics.
In addition, several of our Fellows published new and important books, and many of our Fellows conducted groundbreaking research focused on new communications tools, technologies and emerging modes of communication, and their effect on traditional media, professional communications, business and society. In the beginning of 2007, we collaborated with SNCR Senior Fellow Joseph Jaffe to conduct the primary research for his book, Join the Conversation. In the second half of the year, we were honored to receive our first research grant from the Institute for Public Relations and Wieck Media to conduct a study entitled “New Media, New Influencers and Implications for the Public Relations Profession.” The study was conducted by a team of five SNCR Fellows including John Cass, Joseph Carrabis, Paul Gillin, Richard Nacht and Greg Peverill-Conti, with the assistance of our Newhouse School intern, Shayna Kim. The team shared their initial findings at the Society’s 2nd Annual Research Symposium in Boston in December.
Several of our Senior Fellows also conducted independent research studies and research projects on behalf of our corporate members, the results of which they also shared at the Society’s Symposium. These included a study by Dr. Nora Ganim Barnes which compared data collected from 453 colleges and universities to other new studies on the Inc. 500 and other companies, as well as America’s largest charities to provide insight into the current state of social media adoption in the U.S. In another study, Senior Fellow Joseph Carrabis examined how the language and tone of the communication in blogs suggest power relationships and determine patterns of influence. And, finally, Senior Fellow Shel Israel undertook the SAP Global Social Media Survey in which he conducted more than 50 interviews with people in 20+ countries on five continents.
In November we celebrated the Society’s 2nd anniversary, with a small reception and 2008 Preview event hosted by Voce Communications in Palo Alto, California. We concluded our year with our first open call for Fellowship applications and our 2nd annual Research Symposium and Awards Gala, which took place in Boston in early December. We were overwhelmed by the number and quality of applications we received from prospective Fellows – more than 40 from around the world. We were also delighted by the number and diversity of awards submissions – more than 100 from 10 countries representing a diversity of initiatives and media types from individuals and a wide range of organizations, including Cisco, Coca-Cola, Dell, GM, Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, IBM and many others – and through this process it became obvious to us that social media has come of age in the enterprise.
And, in case you haven’t noticed, we have a new website, so check out http://www.sncr.org!
It has been a full, busy and exciting year indeed. And, we have an equally busy and exciting year planned for 2008. Very shortly we will announce our 2008 Fellows. They will embark on many exciting individual research and education initiatives. In addition, they will lead on some groundbreaking research studies on behalf of our corporate members and Vendor Council members.
In addition, the Society will soon release the latest edition of the Journal of New Communications Research and has issued a call for papers for its Spring/Summer issue. And, in April we will hold the New Communications Forum 2008. Please join us! Now in its fourth year, New Communications Forum is the premier conference that brings together thought leaders and decision makers from around the globe to discuss the impact of social media and new communications on media, marketing, journalism, PR and advertising, business, culture and society. NewComm Forum is not a typical conference. The Forum provides an in-depth, hands-on exploration of the future of communications. In its short history, it has come to be known as one of the world’s leading conferences focusing on the latest trends in new emerging media and communications platforms.
Later in the year we will hold our first Fellows Retreat, and will of course hold another Research Symposium and Awards Gala in fall 2008.
We look forward to having the opportunity to continue to support the work of our Fellows as they research, educate and publish their discoveries, and we look forward to serving our individual and corporate members with unparalleled insights into how they can best utilize the latest developments in media and communications. If you’re not yet a member of the Society, we invite you to join us! We are always seeking to expand our membership and build a global virtual community of individuals and organizations who are involved and interested in new communications. Joining the Society provides you with many educational benefits and enables the SNCR to continue its ongoing research, publication and education initiatives. Ultimately, your participation helps us all to better understand the impact of new communications tools, technologies and emerging modes of communication, and their effect on traditional media, professional communications, business and society.
We thank you for your support and participation in the Society for New Communications Research and wish you a great 2008!
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