Social media matrix matching corporate goals with external social media activities

In this paper we introduce the Social Media Matrix, a practitioner-oriented instrument that supports companies to decide based on their corporate or communication goals which social media activities to execute. The matrix consists of three parts: 1. Social media goals and task areas have been identified and matched. 2. Five types of social media activities have been defined. 3. The matrix provides a structure to assess the suitability of each activity type on each social media platform for each goal. Whereas the first two parts can be generally used, the assessment must be conducted explicitly for an industry sector. A ready to use assessment for the German B2B sector has been exemplarily compiled from expert-interviews with practitioners and by reviewing concrete social media activities. The matrix is used as a basis for social media consultancy projects and evaluated thereby.