Updated September 29, 2011 to reflect major changes to media trends since original publication – by Eric Van Buskirk
In a local marketplace, what is the bigger predictor of social networking use? Is it industries, or disciplines such as operations management, SEO, HR, or marketing? By using a word cloud we can visually digest data from online sources about organizational needs and wants, as well as industry and sector characteristics. My research was conducted with the expectation that high tech and higher education, as well as many large disciplines and departments in organizations, would dominate the search for social media trends.
The data was aggregated by Indeed.com, the best agregator of current employment listings. In a search of postings from dozens of opportunities, I weighed the number of times a word appears among the ten web pages of results for a search of“social media,” all within 15 miles of Center City, Philadelphia. Each of those listed have four line descriptions of the openings on their the website. The raw data includes 50 listings — over 4500 words.
The positions were online August 15, 2011 and go back no more than three weeks. The results tell us what skills and interests are required of candidates. They show forward looking trends, since companies want skill-sets that are lacking in their organizations. Words appearing in job descriptions indicate what is needed by an organization in the future and where they see growing importance. A picture is worth, well, over 4500 words, so there are many other conclusions you can draw. Please do post your comments, and check out @ericvanbuskirk‘s Twitter feed to take part in the conversation.
Here are the results in table format for the top 30, and bellow is the graphic of top 105 popular related words.
Rank | Occurance | Term |
1 | 78 | marketing |
2 | 63 | manager |
3 | 44 | new |
4 | 37 | Comcast |
5 | 32 | Communications |
6 | 32 | strategy |
7 | 31 | com |
8 | 29 | University |
9 | 28 | digital |
10 | 25 | experience |
11 | 24 | Coordinator |
12 | 23 | Develop |
13 | 23 | media |
14 | 23 | year |
15 | 22 | including |
16 | 22 | Director |
17 | 21 | use |
18 | 20 | Executive |
19 | 20 | Working |
20 | 19 | Sales |
21 | 18 | Relations |
22 | 18 | Services |
23 | 18 | area |
24 | 17 | igns |
25 | 15 | Public |
26 | 15 | mobile |
27 | 15 | online |
28 | 14 | Recruiter |
29 | 13 | advertising |
30 | 13 | production |
Terms such as social, block, PA, day, media, Philadelphia, and job needed to be excluded because they skewed results: some for obvious reasons, and others because they were a factor of how indeed.com provides information, rather than what organizations are seeking.
Interesting results from the top five which shed light on social media trends:
With each of these a discipline using digital social networking (marketing), a level of expertise (manager), an organization (Comcast), and a general descriptive term that beats out others. Interestingly, health, medical or pharma industries are missing. By contrast, University stake-holders have strong affiliation– an edge in leveraging online communications.
Students, parents, professors, and alumni are highly likely to engage with higher education institutions. Employees or customers of other major industries in Philadelphia are less likely to communicate about products like prescription medications and health services: they’re not quite as “sexy.” An analysis of social media activity in Los Angeles would likely find a high occurrence of entertainment companies and industries. Miramax Films employs only 425 people, for instance, and has 61,586 followers on Twitter, and follows 227 as of September 29, 2011 (@Miramax). The background on their profile page is for a new release of Pulp Fiction with a picture of Uma Thurman that gained a cult following over the last decade. Compare Genzyme (@Genzyme), with a $20.1 billion capitalization, headquarters in Boston, and a large presence in Philadelphia: they follow 64 and have 3,114 followers.
After the top ten, other correlations with weighted results are equally fascinating. Relations come from the two word term “public relations.” Sales, communications, and advertising typically fall within marketing. Recruiter is high up, but other terms are not dominant enough to make HR nearly as significant a discipline. For expertise level, coordinator, director, and executive all fall far below manager. Clearly, there is a need for expertise– not enough to put someone in a senior management role, but also not so little as to slot them as a coordinator with little knowledge.
What is predominant, but not in the top
After the top ten, other correlations with weighted results are equally fascinating. Strategy caught my attention. It requires collaboration with many peripheral teams. It’s established that experts with generalists skill sets are best suited. What’s missing is a sign of individuals needing tactical or operational expertise.
With each of these we see a discipline in an organization using social media (marketing), a level of expertise (manager), a company, and a general descriptive term that beats out others. In place of these, some of the others that appear less might dominate. While there are general terms that appear most, such as “com,” “working”, and “services,” there are others that stand out.
Relations come from the two word term public relations; and sales, communications, and advertising typically fall within marketing. Recruiter is high up, but other terms are not dominant enough to make HR nearly as significant as a discipline. Recruiter is high up, but other terms are not dominant enough to make HR nearly as significant as a discipline. For expertise level, coordinator, director, and executive all fall far below manager. Clearly, there is a need for expertise– not enough to put someone in a senior management role, but also not so little as to slot them as a coordinator with little knowledge. As for organizations, Comcast clearly dominates, and there is no surprises there.
Strategy caught my attention. It requires collaboration with many peripheral teams. We’ve heard the trend in sociable media is that individuals with generalists skill sets are best suited. What’s missing is a sign of individuals needing tactical or operational expertise.
With each of these we see a discipline in an organization using social media (marketing), a level of expertise (manager), a company, and a general descriptive term that beats out others. In place of these, some of the others that appear less might dominate. While there are general terms that appear most, such as “com,” “working”, and “services,” there are others that stand out.
Social Media Trends: seismic changes in the past 90 days.
Remember I said the data is very forward looking. It remains relevant today and I’m confident similar research would show little change. Another 90 days and the picture will change. Since mid-August, Google’s acquisition of Motorola pointed to further movement of group communication away from personal computers and laptops towards mobile devices. If Google plays its cards right, it will compete more directly with Apple by being an EOM that runs its own software. Facebook shook the media world with the biggest changes to its website since the original launch, and the changes may not get full buy-in from users. Amazon’s new product launches yesterday will have a profound impact on media consumption over the next year. Next fall insiders say their follow-up tablet will integrate far more social sharing and be a full frontal threat to the iPad.
Recent events are exciting and moving faster then the speed of light. The rest of the year will see less rapid change, I’m confident. But everyone was quite sure nothing could move faster than light, and look what’s happening in the world of physics.
Copyright © 2011 – Original research and trend analysis by Eric Van Buskirk.All Rights Reserved.