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300+ Social Media Research Topics

Social media has become an integral part of our lives, and it has transformed the way we communicate, share information, and interact with each other. As social media platforms continue to evolve and gain popularity, they have also become a rich source of data for researchers. Social media research is a rapidly growing field that encompasses a wide range of topics , from understanding the psychological and social effects of social media to analyzing patterns of user behavior and identifying trends in online conversations. In this era of data-driven decision-making, social media research is more important than ever, as it provides insights into how we use and are influenced by social media. In this post, we will explore some of the most fascinating and relevant social media research topics that are shaping our understanding of this powerful medium.

Social Media Research Topics

Social Media Research Topics are as follows:

The effects of social media on mental health
The role of social media in political polarization
The impact of social media on relationships
The use of social media by businesses for marketing
The effects of social media on body image and self-esteem
The influence of social media on consumer behavior
The use of social media for education
The effects of social media on language use and grammar
The impact of social media on news consumption
The role of social media in activism and social change
The use of social media for job seeking and career development
The effects of social media on sleep patterns
The influence of social media on adolescent behavior
The impact of social media on the spread of misinformation
The use of social media for personal branding
The effects of social media on political participation
The influence of social media on fashion trends
The impact of social media on sports fandom
The use of social media for mental health support
The effects of social media on creativity
The role of social media in cultural exchange
The impact of social media on language learning
The use of social media for crisis communication
The effects of social media on privacy and security
The influence of social media on diet and exercise behavior
The impact of social media on travel behavior
The use of social media for citizen journalism
The effects of social media on political accountability
The role of social media in peer pressure
The impact of social media on romantic relationships
The use of social media for community building
The effects of social media on gender identity
The influence of social media on music consumption
The impact of social media on academic performance
The use of social media for social support
The effects of social media on social skills
The role of social media in disaster response
The impact of social media on nostalgia and memory
The use of social media for charity and philanthropy
The effects of social media on political polarization in developing countries
The influence of social media on literary consumption
The impact of social media on family relationships
The use of social media for citizen science
The effects of social media on cultural identity
The role of social media in promoting healthy behaviors
The impact of social media on language diversity
The use of social media for environmental activism
The effects of social media on attention span
The influence of social media on art consumption
The impact of social media on cultural values and norms.
The impact of social media on mental health
The impact of social media on mental health.
The impact of social media on body image and self-esteem.
The use of social media for political activism and social justice movements.
The role of social media in promoting cultural diversity and inclusivity.
The impact of social media on romantic relationships and dating.
The use of social media for customer service and support.
The impact of social media on mental health and well-being among young adults.
The impact of social media on political polarization and partisanship.
The use of social media for health communication and behavior change.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards vaccination.
The impact of social media on political participation and civic engagement.
The impact of social media on political polarization and echo chambers.
The use of social media for political campaigning and the manipulation of public opinion.
The role of social media in shaping public attitudes towards vaccination and public health.
The impact of social media on news consumption and trust in journalism.
The use of social media for promoting sustainable fashion practices and ethical consumption.
The role of social media in influencing beauty standards and body image.
The impact of social media on the music industry and the role of social media influencers.
The use of social media for promoting mental health and well-being among healthcare professionals.
The role of social media in shaping public attitudes towards gun violence and gun control policies.
The impact of social media on social activism and advocacy.
The use of social media for promoting cross-cultural communication and intercultural understanding.
The role of social media in shaping public attitudes towards climate change and environmental policies.
The impact of social media on public health during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The use of social media for promoting financial literacy and access to financial services for low-income individuals.
The role of social media in shaping public attitudes towards immigration policies and refugee crises.
The impact of social media on political activism and social movements.
The use of social media for promoting digital literacy and technology education in developing countries.
The role of social media in shaping public attitudes towards gender and sexual orientation.
The impact of social media on consumer behavior in the food and beverage industry.
The use of social media for promoting mental health and well-being among first responders.
The role of social media in shaping public attitudes towards racial justice and police brutality.
The impact of social media on privacy concerns and data security.
The use of social media for promoting interfaith dialogue and religious tolerance.
The role of social media in shaping public attitudes towards income inequality and economic justice.
The impact of social media on the film and television industry and consumer behavior.
The use of social media for promoting mental health and well-being among military personnel.
The role of social media in shaping public attitudes towards privacy and data security.
The impact of social media on the hospitality industry and consumer behavior.
The use of social media for promoting intergenerational communication and understanding.
The role of social media in shaping public attitudes towards animal welfare and animal rights.
The impact of social media on the gaming industry and gamer behavior.
The use of social media for promoting digital literacy and technology skills among seniors.
The role of social media in shaping public attitudes towards renewable energy and sustainability.
The impact of social media on the advertising industry and consumer behavior.
The use of social media for promoting mental health and well-being among children and adolescents.
The role of social media in shaping public attitudes towards online privacy and security.
The impact of social media on the beauty industry and consumer behavior.
The use of social media for promoting cultural preservation and heritage tourism.
The role of social media in shaping public attitudes towards criminal justice reform.
The impact of social media on the automotive industry and consumer behavior.
The use of social media for promoting mental health and well-being among marginalized communities.
The role of social media in shaping public attitudes towards sustainable development goals.
The impact of social media on the fashion industry and consumer behavior.
The use of social media for promoting intercultural communication in the workplace.
The role of social media in shaping public attitudes towards mental health policies.
The impact of social media on the travel industry and sustainable tourism practices.
The use of social media for health information seeking and patient empowerment.
The role of social media in promoting environmental activism and sustainable practices.
The impact of social media on consumer behavior and brand loyalty.
The use of social media for promoting education and lifelong learning.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards mental health issues.
The impact of social media on the fashion industry and fast fashion practices.
The use of social media for promoting social entrepreneurship and social innovation.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards gun control.
The impact of social media on the mental health and well-being of adolescents.
The use of social media for promoting intercultural exchange and understanding.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards climate change.
The impact of social media on political advertising and campaign strategies.
The use of social media for promoting healthy relationships and communication skills.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards police brutality and racial justice.
The use of social media for promoting financial literacy and personal finance management.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards LGBTQ+ rights.
The impact of social media on the music industry and fan engagement.
The use of social media for promoting mental health and well-being among marginalized populations.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards immigration and border policies.
The impact of social media on the professional development and networking of journalists.
The use of social media for promoting community building and social cohesion.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards healthcare policies.
The impact of social media on the food industry and consumer behavior.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards gender equality.
The impact of social media on the sports industry and athlete-fan interactions.
The use of social media for promoting financial inclusion and access to banking services.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards animal welfare.
The use of social media for promoting mental health and well-being among college students.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards privacy and data security.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards income inequality and poverty.
The use of social media for promoting digital literacy and technology skills.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards renewable energy.
The use of social media for promoting mental health and well-being among elderly populations.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards online privacy and security.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards criminal justice reform.
The impact of social media on online activism and social movements.
The use of social media for business-to-business communication and networking.
The role of social media in promoting civic education and engagement.
The impact of social media on the fashion industry and sustainable fashion practices.
The use of social media for promoting cultural diversity and inclusion.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards police reform.
The impact of social media on the mental health and well-being of frontline healthcare workers.
The use of social media for promoting financial literacy and investment education.
The role of social media in promoting environmental sustainability and conservation.
The impact of social media on body image and self-esteem among adolescent girls.
The use of social media for promoting intercultural dialogue and understanding.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards immigration policies and refugees.
The impact of social media on the professional development and networking of healthcare professionals.
The use of social media for promoting community resilience and disaster preparedness.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards the Black Lives Matter movement.
The impact of social media on the music industry and artist-fan interactions.
The use of social media for promoting healthy eating habits and nutrition education.
The role of social media in promoting mental health and well-being among college students.
The impact of social media on the entertainment industry and consumer behavior.
The use of social media for promoting workplace diversity and inclusion.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards climate change policies.
The impact of social media on the travel industry and consumer behavior.
The use of social media for promoting mental health and well-being among military veterans.
The role of social media in promoting intergenerational dialogue and understanding.
The impact of social media on the professional development and networking of educators.
The use of social media for promoting animal welfare and advocacy.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards reproductive rights.
The impact of social media on the sports industry and fan behavior.
The use of social media for promoting financial inclusion and literacy among underprivileged populations.
The role of social media in promoting mental health and well-being among LGBTQ+ populations.
The impact of social media on the food and beverage industry and consumer behavior.
The use of social media for promoting interfaith dialogue and understanding.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards gun ownership.
The use of social media for promoting mental health and well-being among caregivers.
The role of social media in promoting sustainable tourism practices.
The impact of social media on the gaming industry and gamer culture.
The use of social media for promoting cultural heritage tourism and preservation.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards public transportation policies.
The use of social media for promoting mental health and well-being among homeless populations.
The role of social media in promoting mental health and well-being among immigrants and refugees.
The use of social media for promoting financial literacy and entrepreneurship among youth.
The use of social media for political mobilization and participation in authoritarian regimes.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards immigration policies.
The impact of social media on the professional development of teachers and educators.
The use of social media for emergency communication during public health crises.
The role of social media in promoting LGBTQ+ rights and advocacy.
The impact of social media on body positivity and self-acceptance among women.
The use of social media for public diplomacy and international relations.
The impact of social media on the mental health and well-being of marginalized communities.
The use of social media for crisis management and disaster response in the corporate sector.
The role of social media in promoting environmental activism and conservation.
The impact of social media on the professional development and networking of entrepreneurs.
The use of social media for medical education and healthcare communication.
The role of social media in promoting cultural exchange and understanding.
The impact of social media on social capital and civic engagement among young adults.
The use of social media for disaster preparedness and community resilience.
The role of social media in promoting religious pluralism and tolerance.
The use of social media for promoting healthy lifestyles and wellness.
The use of social media for fundraising and philanthropy in the non-profit sector.
The role of social media in promoting interfaith dialogue and understanding.
The impact of social media on the travel and tourism industry and consumer behavior.
The use of social media for customer engagement and brand loyalty in the retail sector.
The impact of social media on the political attitudes and behaviors of young adults.
The use of social media for promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment.
The use of social media for promoting animal welfare and adoption.
The role of social media in promoting mental health and well-being among the elderly.
The impact of social media on the art industry and artist-fan interactions.
The use of social media for promoting healthy food choices and nutrition.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards income inequality.
The use of social media for promoting political satire and humor.
The role of social media in promoting disability rights and advocacy.
The use of social media for promoting voter registration and participation.
The role of social media in promoting entrepreneurship and small business development.
The use of social media for promoting mental health and well-being among incarcerated populations.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and attitudes towards gun violence prevention.
The use of social media for promoting cultural heritage and preservation.
The impact of social media on mental health and well-being.
The relationship between social media use and academic performance.
The use of social media for emergency communication during natural disasters.
The impact of social media on traditional news media and journalism.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and discourse.
The use of social media for online learning and education.
The impact of social media on the fashion and beauty industry.
The use of social media for brand awareness and marketing.
The impact of social media on privacy and security.
The use of social media for job searching and recruitment.
The impact of social media on political polarization and extremism.
The use of social media for online harassment and cyberbullying.
The role of social media in promoting environmental awareness and sustainability.
The impact of social media on youth culture and identity formation.
The use of social media for travel and tourism marketing.
The impact of social media on consumer behavior and decision-making.
The role of social media in shaping beauty standards and body positivity.
The use of social media for crisis communication and disaster response.
The impact of social media on the music industry.
The use of social media for fundraising and philanthropy.
The role of social media in promoting healthy lifestyles and wellness.
The impact of social media on sports fandom and fan behavior.
The use of social media for political lobbying and advocacy.
The impact of social media on the entertainment industry.
The use of social media for healthcare communication and patient engagement.
The role of social media in promoting gender equality and feminism.
The impact of social media on the restaurant and food industry.
The use of social media for volunteerism and community service.
The role of social media in promoting religious tolerance and interfaith dialogue.
The impact of social media on the art industry.
The use of social media for political satire and humor.
The role of social media in promoting disability awareness and advocacy.
The impact of social media on the real estate industry.
The use of social media for legal advocacy and justice reform.
The role of social media in promoting intercultural communication and understanding.
The impact of social media on the automotive industry.
The use of social media for pet adoption and animal welfare advocacy.
The role of social media in promoting mental health and wellness for marginalized communities.
The impact of social media on the retail industry.
The use of social media for promoting civic engagement and voter participation.
The impact of social media on the film and television industry.
The use of social media for fashion and style inspiration.
The role of social media in promoting activism for human rights and social issues.
The effectiveness of social media for political campaigns.
The role of social media in promoting fake news and misinformation.
The impact of social media on self-esteem and body image.
The impact of social media on romantic relationships.
The use of social media for online activism and social justice movements.
The impact of social media on traditional news media.
The impact of social media on interpersonal communication skills.
The impact of social media on the fashion industry.
The use of social media for social support and mental health awareness.
The use of social media for political lobbying and activism.
The impact of social media on travel and tourism behavior.
The use of social media for customer feedback and market research.
The impact of social media on the restaurant industry.
The role of social media in political activism
The effect of social media on interpersonal communication
The relationship between social media use and body image concerns
The impact of social media on self-esteem
The role of social media in shaping cultural norms and values
The use of social media by celebrities and its impact on their image
The role of social media in building and maintaining personal relationships
The use of social media for job searching and recruitment
The impact of social media on children and adolescents
The use of social media by political candidates during election campaigns
The role of social media in education
The impact of social media on political polarization
The use of social media for news consumption
The effect of social media on sleep habits
The use of social media by non-profit organizations for fundraising
The role of social media in shaping public opinion
The influence of social media on language and communication patterns
The use of social media in crisis communication and emergency management
The role of social media in promoting environmental awareness
The influence of social media on music preferences
The impact of social media on body positivity movements
The role of social media in shaping beauty standards
The influence of social media on sports fandom
The use of social media for health promotion and education
The impact of social media on political participation
The role of social media in shaping parenting practices
The influence of social media on food preferences and eating habits
The use of social media for peer support and mental health advocacy
The role of social media in shaping religious beliefs and practices
The influence of social media on humor and comedy
The use of social media for online activism and social justice advocacy
The impact of social media on public health awareness campaigns
The role of social media in promoting cultural diversity and inclusion
The influence of social media on travel behavior and decision-making
The use of social media for international diplomacy and relations
The impact of social media on job satisfaction and employee engagement
The role of social media in shaping romantic preferences and dating behavior
The influence of social media on language learning and language use
The use of social media for political satire and humor
The impact of social media on social capital and community building
The role of social media in shaping gender identity and expression
The influence of social media on fashion and beauty advertising.

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234 Social Media Research Topics & Ideas

Icon Calendar 18 May 2024
Icon Page 2646 words
Icon Clock 12 min read

Social media research encompasses a broad range of different topics that delve into the ever-evolving digital landscape. People investigate the impact of social platforms on society, exploring subjects, such as online identity formation, self-presentation, the psychology of virtual interactions, and others. Additionally, studies examine the influence of social media on politics, activism, and public opinion, uncovering patterns of information dissemination and polarization. Privacy concerns, cyberbullying, and online safety are also explored in-depth, seeking strategies to mitigate the associated risks. In this article, people can find many social media research topics, ideas, and examples.

Hot Social Media Research Topics

Impacts of Social Media and Internet Algorithms on User Experience
The Rise of TikTok: A Socio-Cultural Analysis
Dealing With Cyberbullying: Strategies and Solutions
Understanding the Phenomenon of Social Media ‘Cancel Culture’
NFTs and Social Media: The Future of Digital Art?
Ethical Concerns in the Era of Influencer Marketing
Social Media’s Role in Accelerating E-Commerce Growth
Impacts of Internet and Social Media on Journalism and News Reporting
Understanding the Psychology of Viral Challenges on Social Platforms
Cryptocurrency and Social Media: The Intersection
Mitigating Misinformation and ‘Fake News’ on Social Media
Augmented Reality (AR) in Social Media: A Game Changer?
Evaluating the Impact of Social Media on Political Campaigns
Social Media’s Influence on Fashion and Beauty Trends
Privacy, Safety, and Security Concerns in the Age of Social Networking
Roles of Free Access and Social Media in Promoting Sustainable Practices
Implications of Social Media Addiction on Mental Health
Examining Social Media’s Role in Crisis Communication
The Power of User-Generated Content in Branding
Influence of Social Media on Food Culture and Dining Trends

Easy Social Media Research Topics

Impacts of Online Videos and Social Media on Mental Health
Influencer Marketing: Efficacy and Ethical Concerns
Evolution of Privacy Policies Across Social Platforms
Understanding Virality: What Makes Content Shareable?
Cyberbullying: Prevalence and Prevention Strategies
Social Media and Political Polarization: An In-Depth Study
Role of Social Media in Modern Business Strategies
Effect of Social Media on Interpersonal Relationships
Social Platforms as Tools for Social Change
Navigating Online Hate Speech: A Legal Perspective
Emerging Trends in Social Media Advertising
Online Identity Construction and Self-Presentation
The Psychology of Social Media Addiction
Social Media’s Role in Crisis Management and Communication
Sentiment Analysis in Social Media and Its Implications
Social Media Algorithms: Bias and Implications
The Phenomenon of Cancel Culture on Social Platforms
Cybersecurity Threats in the Era of Social Media
Analyzing Adverse Impacts of Social Media on Consumer Behavior

Interesting Social Media Research Topics

Evaluating the Effects of Social Media on Language and Communication
Roles of Social Media in Fostering Political Engagement
Misinformation and Propaganda Spread Through Social Platforms
Analyzing the Shift From Traditional Media to Social Media
Dark Patterns in Social Media: Hidden Manipulative Tactics
Social Media and Digital Activism: Revolutionizing Advocacy
Augmented Reality (AR) and Its Impact on Social Networking
Exploring Cybersecurity Issues in Social Media Platforms
Roles and Effects of Social Media and News in Mental Health Promotion
Strategies for Effective Social Media Crisis Management
The Power of Live Streaming for Brands and Influencers
Using Social Media to Enhance Classroom Learning
Analyzing the Influence of Memes on Internet Culture
Impacts of Social Media Algorithms on User Behavior
Assessing the Correlation Between Social Media and Loneliness
Geotagging and Its Implications for Personal Privacy
Social Media and E-commerce: A Cross-Industry Study
The Ethics of Digital Advertising on Social Platforms
Understanding the Psychology of Social Media Trolls
The Cultural Shift Caused by Social Media Localization

Social Media Research Paper Topics for High School

The Phenomenon of Cyberbullying: Prevention and Strategies
How Does Social Media Influence Teen Body Image?
Evaluating the Educational Potential of Social Media Platforms
Impacts of Social Media on Adolescents’ Self-Esteem
Roles of Free Connection and Social Media in Modern Political Activism
Exploring the Concept of ‘Digital Citizenship’ Among Teenagers
The Ethics of Social Media Privacy: User Rights and Responsibilities
Social Media Addiction: Understanding Its Causes and Effects
Influence of Social Media on Modern Communication Styles
Analyzing Positive Roles of Social Media in Promoting Reading Culture
Social Media and Mental Health: Correlation or Causation?
The Role of Social Media in Global Environmental Awareness
Examining Social Media’s Impact on Real-Life Social Skills
Social Media Platforms: Tools for Personal Branding or Narcissism?
Influence of Social Media Trends on Youth Fashion Choices
Impacts of Social Media on Teenagers’ Sleep Patterns
Online Safety: The Role of Parents and Schools in Social Media Usage
How Does Social Media Influence Teenagers’ Views on Relationships?
Social Media and Empathy: Does Online Interaction Decrease Compassion?

Social Media Research Paper Topics for College Students

Evaluating the Impact of Social Media on Body Image and Self-Esteem
The Influence of Social Media on Voting Patterns Among Young Adults
Social Media as a Valid Tool for Social Change: A Case Study Approach
Unveiling the Psychology of Social Media Addiction
Social Media’s Role in Modern Journalism: Opportunities and Challenges
Privacy Implications of Data Collection on Social Media Platforms
Cyberbullying in the Age of Social Media: Scope and Solutions
The Ethical Aspects of Social Media Influencer Marketing
Roles and Effects of Social Media in Crisis Communication and Management
Social Media and Its Effects on Interpersonal Communication Skills
Analyzing Social Media Strategies of Successful Businesses
Impacts of Internet Use and Social Media on Mental Health Among College Students
The Roles That Social Media Has in Modern Political Campaigns
Understanding the Social Media Algorithm: Bias and Implications
Social Media and Consumer Behavior: The Power of Influencer Marketing
Fake News, Authors, and Disinformation Spread Through Social Media Platforms
Exploring Direct Links Between Social Media Use and Academic Performance
Social Media’s Role in Promoting Sustainable Lifestyle Choices
Regulation of Hate Speech and Offensive Content on Social Media
The Power and Peril of Virality in the Age of Social Media

Social Media Research Paper Topics for University

The Effect That Social Media Has on Global Politics
The Ethics of Data Mining in Social Media
Roles of Social Media in Business Marketing Strategies
Social Media, Internet Use, and Their Impacts on Mental Health: A Systematic Review
Algorithmic Bias in Social Media Platforms: Causes and Consequences
The Influence of Colors and Social Media on Consumer Behavior
Exploring Possible Relationships Between Social Media Use and Academic Performance
Privacy, Morality, and Security Concerns in the Age of Social Media
Social Media as a Platform for Digital Activism
Impacts of Social Media on Interpersonal Communication and Relationships
Cyberbullying on Social Media: Scope, Impact, and Preventive Measures
The Role of Social Media in Spreading Health-Related Misinformation
Analyzing the Effect of Social Media on Journalism Practices
Understanding the Influence of Social Media on Body Image Perceptions
Social Media’s Role in Crisis Management: Case Studies
The Power and Effectiveness of Influencer Marketing on Social Media
Fake News and Disinformation in the Social Media Age
Regulatory Approaches to Hate Speech on Social Media Platforms
The Economic Implications of Social Media: From Startups to Giants

Social Media Research Paper Topics for Masters

Advanced Algorithms and Their Role in Shaping Social Media Interactions
Evaluating the Impact of Social Media on Democratic Processes Globally
The Intersection of Privacy, Data Mining, and Ethics in Social Media
Quantitative Analysis of Social Media’s Impact on Consumer Buying Behavior
Cybersecurity Threats in Social Media: Mitigation and Prevention Strategies
Analyzing the Psychological Implications of Social Media Addiction
Using Social Media Data to Predict Market Trends: An Econometric Approach
Role of Social Media in Crisis Management: A Comparative Study
The Sociolinguistic Impact of Social Media on Communication
Machine Learning and AI in Social Media: An Examination of Emerging Trends
Social Media as a Valid Tool for Public Health: Opportunities and Challenges
Social Media’s Influence on Modern Journalism: A Critical Analysis
Mapping Social Networks: A Graph Theory Approach
Evaluating the Efficacy of Social Media Campaigns in Social Change Movements
Analyzing the Role of Social Media in Corporate Reputation Management
Data Privacy Laws and Social Media: A Comparative Study
The Use of Small and Big Data Analytics in Social Media Marketing
Social Media and Its Role in Strengthening Democracy: A Deep Dive
The Impact of Social Media on Cultural Assimilation and Identity
Ethics of Artificial Intelligence in Social Media Content Moderation

Social Media Research Paper Topics for Ph.D.

Analyzing the Impact of Social Media Algorithms on User Behavior and Perceptions
Deciphering the Influence of Social Media on Political Campaign Strategies
Examining the Role of Social Media in Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives
Social Media and Mental Health: A Comprehensive Analysis of Recent Studies
Effects of Social Media and Internet Use on Consumer Buying Behavior: An Econometric Approach
Social Media and Digital Diplomacy: A Critical Analysis
Ethical Implications of Data Mining Techniques in Social Media Platforms
Unpacking the Psychological Mechanisms of Social Media Addiction
Role of Social Media in Contemporary Journalism: Opportunities and Challenges
Social Media and Privacy: A Comparative Study of Data Protection Laws
Machine Learning and AI in Social Media: Identifying Future Trends
Social Media’s Possible Influence on People, Body Image, and Self-Esteem: A Meta-Analysis
Analyzing the Role of Social Media in Crisis Management and Communication
Impacts of Social Media on Different Language and Communication Styles
Cybersecurity in Social Media: An Analysis of Current Threats and Mitigation Strategies
Social Media as a Good Tool for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
Effects of Social Media on Children and Their Parents: Social Skills and Interpersonal Relationships
Roles of Social Media in Promoting Gender Equality and Women’s Rights
Social Media and its Influence on Cultural Assimilation and Identity Formation

Social Media Research Topics for Argumentative Papers

Impacts of Social Media on Social and Political Discourses: Enhancing or Hindering Democratic Engagement?
Social Media and Mental Health: Exploring the Association Between Excessive Usage and Psychological Well-Being
Fostering Online Activism and Social Movements: The Role of Social Media
Balancing Personal Information Sharing and Data Protection: Social Media and Privacy
Exploring the Effects of Social Media on Body Image and Self-Esteem
Social Media and Political Polarization: Reinforcing Echo Chambers or Encouraging Diverse Perspectives?
Youth Culture and Identity Formation: The Influence of Social Media
Fake News and Misinformation: Combating Inaccurate Information in the Era of Social Media
Social Media and Cyberbullying: Examining the Impact on Mental Health and Well-Being
The Ethics of Social Media Research: Privacy, Informed Consent, and Ethical Considerations
Relationships in the Digital Age: Exploring the Influence of Social Media Use
The Influence of Internet, Technology, and Social Media on Consumer Behavior and Buying Decisions
Analyzing the Role of Online Platforms in Elections: Social Media and Political Campaigns
Social Media in Education: Exploring the Benefits and Challenges of Integration in the Classroom
Impacts of Social Media and Interface on News Consumption and Journalism Practices
Body Politics in the Digital Space: Examining Representations of Gender, Race, and Body Image on Social Media
Addressing Ethical and Security Concerns in the Digital Age: Social Media and Cybersecurity
Shaping Consumer Behavior and Brand Perception: The Role of Social Media Influencers
Civic Engagement in the Digital Era: Assessing the Role of Social Media Platforms
The Influence of Social Media Algorithms on Information Consumption and Personalization

Social Media Research Topics for Persuasive Papers

The Power of Social Media in Driving Social and Political Change
Promoting Digital Literacy: Empowering Users to Navigate the Complexities of Social Media
Social Media as a Catalyst for Social Justice Movements: Amplifying Marginalized Voices
Countering Fake News and Misinformation on Social Media: Strategies for Critical Thinking
Harnessing the Influence of Social Media for Environmental Activism and Sustainability
The Dark Side of Social Media: Addressing Online Harassment and Cyberbullying
Influencer Marketing: Ethical Considerations and Consumer Protection in the Digital Age
Leveraging Social Media for Public Health Campaigns: Increasing Awareness and Behavioral Change
Social Media and Mental Health: Promoting Well-Being in a Hyperconnected World
Navigating the Privacy Paradox: Balancing Convenience and Personal Data Protection on Social Media
Roles of Social Media and Internet in Fostering Civic Engagement and Democratic Participation
Promoting Positive Body Image on Social Media: Redefining Beauty Standards and Empowering Individuals
Enhancing Online Safety: Developing Policies and Regulations for Social Media Platforms
Social Media and the Spread of Disinformation: Combating the Infodemic
Roles of Social Media and Technology in Building and Sustaining Relationships: Connecting in a Digital Era
Influencer Culture and Materialism: Examining the Impact on Consumer Behavior
Social Media and Education: Maximizing Learning Opportunities and Bridging the Digital Divide
The Power of Viral Hashtags: Exploring Social Movements and Online Activism
Social Media and Political Polarization: Bridging Divides and Encouraging Constructive Dialogue

Social Media Topics for Pros and Cons Research Papers

Examining the Social Effects of Digital Connectivity: Pros and Cons of Using Social Media
Balancing Privacy Concerns in the Digital Age: Evaluating the Cons and Risks of Social Media Use
Information Sharing in the Digital Era: Uncovering the Advantages of Social Media Platforms
Building Online Communities: Analyzing the Strengths and Weaknesses of Social Media Interaction
Navigating Political Discourse in the Digital Age: The Disadvantages of Social Media Engagement
Mental Health in the Digital Sphere: Understanding the Benefits and Drawbacks of Social Media
Combating Cyberbullying: Addressing the Negative Side of Online Social Interactions
Personal Branding in the Digital Landscape: Empowerment vs. Self-Objectification on Social Media
Establishing Meaningful Connections: Exploring the Pros and Cons of Social Media Relationships
Leveraging the Educational Potential of Digital Platforms: Examining the Benefits of Social Media in Learning
Body Image and Self-Esteem in the Age of Social Media: Weighing the Positives and Negatives
From Digital Activism to Political Change: Assessing the Opportunities and Limitations of Social Media
Unraveling the Influence: Social Media and Consumer Behavior in the Digital Marketplace
Misinformation in the Digital Landscape: The Pros and Cons of Social Media in the Spread of Disinformation
Crisis Communication in the Digital Age: Navigating the Benefits and Challenges of Social Media
Tackling Fake News: Navigating Misinformation in the Era of Social Media
Maximizing Business Opportunities: Evaluating the Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media Marketing
The Psychology of Social Media: Analyzing the Upsides and Downsides of Digital Engagement
Exploring the Impact of Social Media on Socialization: Benefits, Drawbacks, and Implications
Online Activism: The Power and Limitations of Social Media Movements

Social Media Topics for Cause and Effect Research Papers

Enhancing Political Activism: Exploring the Relationship Between Social Media and Civic Engagement
The Psychological Effects of Digital Connectivity: Investigating the Relationship Between Mental Health of People and Social Media Use
Political Polarization in the Online Sphere: Understanding the Impact of Digital Networks
Disrupted Sleep Patterns in the Digital Era: Exploring the Role of Online Platforms
Digital Distractions and Academic Performance: Analyzing the Effects of Online Engagement
Navigating Online Relationships: Understanding the Impacts of Digital Interactions
The Digital Marketplace: Exploring Consumer Behavior in the Age of Online Platforms
The Loneliness Epidemic: Investigating the Relationship Between Social Media Use and Social Isolation
Redefining Political Participation: The Influence of Digital Networks on Democracy
Unmasking Digital Identities: The Psychological Effects of Social Media Use
News Consumption in the Digital Era: Exploring the Impacts of Online Platforms
Cyberbullying in the Virtual World: Analyzing the Effects of Online Interactions
The Digital Campaign Trail: Investigating the Influence of Online Platforms on Voter Behavior
Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) in the Digital Age: Exploring the Psychological Consequences
Body Dissatisfaction in the Digital Sphere: Understanding the Impacts of Online Presence
Information Overload: Coping With the Digital Deluge in the Information Age
Privacy Concerns in the Online Landscape: Analyzing the Implications of Digital Footprints
Unveiling the Dark Side: Exploring the Relationship Between Online Activities and Substance Abuse
Bridging the Political Divide: The Impact of Digital Networks on Sociopolitical Polarization

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74 Best Social Media Research Paper Topics

Whether in college or high school, you will come across research writing as a student. In most cases, the topic of research is assigned by your teacher/professor. Other times, students have to come up with their topic. Research writing in school is inescapable. It’s a task you are bound to undertake to fulfill your academic requirements. If you are in college, there are several topics for research depending on your discipline. For high school students, the topic is usually given. In this article, we focus on social media and topics about social media.

A social media paper is a research paper about social media that studies social media generally or an aspect of it. To write research papers on social media, you’ll need to conduct thorough research for materials and scholarly materials that’ll assist you. For social media, most of the scholarly works will be media-focused.

Sometimes, Professors or teachers ask students to write an essay or research a topic without narrowing it down. In that case, students will have to develop specific research topics. If you’re writing a paper on social media, we’ve provided you with helpful topics to consider for research.

How to Start a Social Media Research Paper

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Before giving a research writing, Professors and teachers believe students already know how to write one. Not every student knows how to write a research paper in most cases.

Research writing follows a systematic pattern, which applies to research on social media. Below is the pattern of a research paper to use;

Paper title
Introduction
Statement of problem
Research methodology
Research objective
Critical analysis
Results and discussion

Every research follows this basic pattern, and it also applies to your research paper on social media.

Social media has become a powerful tool for engagement of various kinds. Before now, social media was merely apps used for interpersonal affairs. Today, with the modification of digital technology, social media encompasses a lot more. Below are some social media topics to write about.

The impact of social media in promoting interpersonal relationships
A study on how social media is a vital tool for social change
Social media censorship: A new form of restriction on freedom of speech
The constantly growing oversharing nature of social media
Social media is a vital tool for political campaign
The proliferation of social media platforms into a buying space
The juxtaposition of personal engagement and business on social media platforms

There is a wide range of topics to coin from social media for college students because social media is a platform with diverse issues that can form into topics. Here are some research topics about social media to consider.

Breach of Privacy: A study on the ability of the government to monitor personal affairs on social media
A study of the toxicity brewing within social media
The increased cyberbullying perpetrated on social media platforms
The evolution of Twitter into a space for diverse conversations
A study of the emergence and growth of social media over the years
Effects of social media: How social media is breeding laziness amongst children
Social media as a distraction tool for students

If you are searching for interesting topics, there are many interesting research topics on social media. Examples of research paper topics that sound fun to choose from include;

A study on how the emergence of social media and social media advertising has infiltrated its primary purpose
An evaluation of how social media has created employment opportunities for people
Social media influence and its negative impact on society
Advertising on social media: Will influencer businesses take over advertising agencies?
A study on ways to improve advertisement for social media engagement
A look into how social media creates a distorted view of real life
Social media and real-life: Does social media obscure reality?

Research questions are helpful when carrying out research in a particular field. To know more about your thesis on social media, you will need to create research questions on social media to help inform your writing. Some social media research questions to ask are;

Are social media platforms designed to be addictive?
What is a social media Algorithm, and how to navigate it?
To what extent are personal data stored on social app databases protected?
Can social media owners avoid government monitoring?
Should parents allow their children to navigate social media before they are 15?
Have social media jobs come to stay, or are they temporary?
Is social media influencer culture overtaking celebrity culture?
To what extent can social media help to curb racism and homophobia?
Does social media exacerbate or curb discriminatory practices?
Is social media an effective tool for learning?

Everyone has access to social media apps until they’ve reached a certain age. There are several social media essay topics for high school students to write about. Some social media titles for essays include;

How social media affects the academic performance of students
Why the use of social media is prohibited during school hours
Why students are obsessed with Tiktok
Running a profitable social media business while in high school and the challenges
The dangers of overusing editing apps
A critical essay on how editing apps and filters promote an unrealistic idea of beauty
The death of TV: how social media has stolen student’s interest

The challenge students have with their topic ideas for research papers is that they’re broad. A good social media thesis topic should be narrowed down. Narrowing a topic down helps you during research to focus on an issue.

Some narrow social media topics for the research paper include;

A study of how social media is overtaking Television in entertainment
A study of how social media has overtaken traditional journalism
An evaluation of the rise of influencer culture on Instagram
YouTube and how it has created sustainable income for black content creators
A comparative study of social media managers and content creators
A study of the decline of Instagram since the emergence of Tiktok
How Twitter breeds transphobic conversations

There are several areas of social media to focus your research on. If you are looking for some social media marketing topics, below are some social media research paper topics to consider;

Influencer culture and a modified model of mouth-to-mouth marketing
The growth of video marketing on Instagram
Social media managers as an essential part of online marketing
A study on how social media stories are optimized for marketing
An analysis of social media marketing and its impact on customer behavior
An evaluation of target marketing on social media

There are so many topics to choose from in this aspect. Some social issues research paper topics to explore are;

The growth of cyberattacks and cyberstalking in social media
Social media and how it promotes an unrealistic idea of life
Social media and the many impacts it has on users and businesses
Social media detox: Importance of taking scheduled social media breaks
How social media enable conversation on social challenges

Writing a research paper on social issues touches on various areas. Some are challenging, while others are easier to navigate.

Below are some of the easy social issues topics to choose from.

The growing issue of women’s and trans people’s rights
Religious bigotry and how it affects social progress
Sustainable living and why it’s important to the society
The social impact of climate change and global warming

Social science is a broad discipline. If you are looking for social science essay topics, below are some social science topics for research papers to look into;

Consumerism and how it’s perpetrated on social media
How religious beliefs impact social relationships
Inflation and how it affects the economy of a nation
A study of the limited availability of work opportunities for minority groups
A look into the concept of “low wage” jobs

Research writing is not always technical or challenging. Sometimes, it can be fun to write. It all depends on your choice of topic. Below are some topics on social media that are fun to work on;

The importance of social media branding for small businesses
A look into the monetization of Instagram
User engagement and how it can be converted into business leads
The study of emojis and their role in social media engagement
From Instagram to Tiktok: the poaching nature of social media apps

Research writing on social media networking studies social networking and its design and promotion on social media platforms. Some research papers on social media networking are;

The impact of social media networking on business owners
Social media networking and how it impacts influencer culture
Social media and how it’s used to build and develop social relationships
How social media made social networking services easier

Social media research writing is one of the most interesting research to conduct. It cuts across several interesting areas. The writer can handle almost every aspect of the dissertation or thesis statement about social media . But, students who find it challenging should seek professional help. You can reach out to our expert team of writers to help you handle every element of your writing. We have the best on our team who are always ready to give you their best.

13 social media research topics to explore in 2024

Last updated

15 January 2024

Reviewed by

Miroslav Damyanov

Short on time? Get an AI generated summary of this article instead

To help you choose a specific area to examine, here are some of the top social media research topics that are relevant in 2024.

What makes a strong social media research topic?

Consider the factors below to ensure your topic is strong and compelling:

Clarity: regardless of the topic you investigate, clarity is essential. It ensures readers will be able to understand your work and any wider learnings. Your argument should be clear and your language unambiguous.

Trend relevancy: you need to know what’s currently happening in social media to draw relevant conclusions. Before choosing a topic, consider current popular platforms, trending content, and current use cases to ensure you understand social media as it is today.

New insights: if your research is to be new, innovative, and helpful for the wider population, it should cover areas that haven’t been studied before. Look into what’s already been thoroughly researched to help you uncover knowledge gaps that could be good focus areas.

Tips for choosing social media research topics

When considering social media research questions, it’s also important to consider whether you’re the right person to conduct that area of study. Your skills, interests, and time allocated will all impact your suitability.

Consider your skillset: your specific expertise is highly valuable when conducting research. Choosing a topic that aligns with your skills will help ensure you can add a thorough analysis and your own learnings.

Align with your interests: if you’re deeply interested in a topic, you’re much more likely to enjoy the process and dedicate the time it needs for a thorough analysis.

Consider your resources: the time you have available to complete the research, your allocated funds, and access to resources should all impact the research topic you choose.

13 social media research paper topics

To help you choose the right area of research, we’ve rounded up some of the most compelling topics within the sector. These ideas may also help you come up with your own.

1. The influence of social media on mental health

It’s well-documented that social media can impact mental health. For example, a significant amount of research has highlighted the link between social media and conditions like anxiety, depression, and stress—but there’s still more to uncover in this area.

There are high rates of mental illness worldwide, so there’s continual interest in ways to understand and mitigate it. Studies could focus on the following areas:

The reasons why social media can impact mental health

How social media can impact specific mental health conditions (you might also look at different age groups here)

How to reduce social media’s impact on mental health

2. The effects of social media exposure on child development

There are many unknowns with social media. More research is needed to understand how it impacts children. As such, this is a very valuable research area.

You might explore the following topics:

How social media impacts children at different ages

The long-term effects of childhood social media use

The benefits of social media use in children

How social media use impacts childhood socialization, communication, and learning

3. The role of social media in political campaigning

Social media’s role in political campaigning is nothing new. The Cambridge Analytica Scandal, for example, involved data from millions of Facebook profiles being sold to a third party for political advertising. Many believe this could have impacted the 2016 US election results. Ultimately, Facebook had to pay a private class-action lawsuit of $725 million.

The role of social media in political campaigns is of global significance. Concerns are still high that social media can play a negative role in elections due to the spread of misinformation, disinformation, and the bandwagon effect.

Research in this area could look into the following topics:

How people are influenced by social media when it comes to voting

Ways to mitigate misinformation

Election interference and how this can be prevented

4. The role of social media in misinformation and disinformation

Misinformation and disinformation mean slightly different things. Misinformation is unintentionally sharing false or inaccurate information, while disinformation is sharing false information with the deliberate intent to mislead people.

Both can play a role not just in elections but throughout social media. This became particularly problematic during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Research into this area is important given the widespread risk that comes with spreading false information about health and safety-related topics.

Here are some potential research areas:

How misinformation and disinformation are spread via social media

The impact of false information (you could focus on how it impacts health, for example)

Strategies for mitigating the impact of false information and encouraging critical thinking

The avenues through which to hold technology companies accountable for spreading misinformation

5. The impact of AI and deepfakes on social media

AI technology is expected to continue expanding in 2024. Some are concerned that this could impact social media. One concern is the potential for the widespread use of deepfake technology—a form of AI that uses deep learning to create fake images.

Fake images can be used to discredit, shame, and control others, so researchers need to deeply understand this area of technology. You might look into the following areas:

The potential impacts of deepfakes on businesses and their reputations

Deepfake identities on social media: privacy concerns and other risks

How deepfake images can be identified, controlled, and prevented

6. How social media can benefit communities

While there’s much research into the potential negative impacts of social media, it can also provide many benefits.

Social media can establish connections for those who might otherwise be isolated in the community. It can facilitate in-person gatherings and connect people who are physically separated, such as relatives who live in different countries. Social media can also provide critical information to communities quickly in the case of emergencies.

Research into the ways social media can provide these key benefits can make interesting topics. You could consider the following:

Which social media platforms offer the most benefits

How to better use social media to lean into these benefits

How new social platforms could connect us in more helpful ways

7. The psychology of social media

Social media psychology explores human behavior in relation to social media. There are a range of topics within social media psychology, including the following:

The influence of social media on social comparison

Addiction and psychological dependence on social media

How social media increases the risk of cyberbullying

How social media use impacts people’s attention spans

Social interactions and the impact on socialization

Persuasion and influence on social media

8. How communication has evolved through social media

Social media has provided endless ways for humans to connect and interact, so the ways we do this have evolved.

Most obviously, social media has provided ways to connect instantaneously via real-time messaging and communicate using multimedia formats, including text, images, emojis, video content, and audio.

This has made communication more accessible and seamless, especially given many people now own smartphones that can connect to social media apps from anywhere.

You might consider researching the following topics:

How social media has changed the way people communicate

The impacts of being continuously connected, both positive and negative

How communication may evolve in the future due to social media

9. Social media platforms as primary news sources

As social media use has become more widespread, many are accessing news information primarily from their newsfeeds. This can be particularly problematic, given that newsfeeds are personalized providing content to people based on their data.

This can cause people to live in echo chambers, where they are constantly targeted with content that aligns with their beliefs. This can cause people to become more entrenched in their way of thinking and more unable or unwilling to see other people’s opinions and points of view.

Research in this area could consider the following:

The challenges that arise from using social media platforms as a primary news source

The pros and cons of social media: does it encourage “soloization” or diverse perspectives?

How to prevent social media echo chambers from occurring

The impact of social media echo chambers on journalistic integrity

10. How social media is impacting modern journalism

News platforms typically rely on an advertising model where more clicks and views increase revenue. Since sensationalist stories can attract more clicks and shares on social media, modern journalism is evolving.

Journalists are often rewarded for writing clickbait headlines and content that’s more emotionally triggering (and therefore shareable).

Your research could cover the following areas:

How journalism is evolving due to social media

How to mitigate social media’s impact on neutral reporting

The importance of journalistic standards in the age of social media

11. The impact of social media on traditional advertising

Digital advertising is growing in popularity. Worldwide, ad spending on social media was expected to reach $207.1 billion in 2023 . Experts estimate that ad spending on mobile alone will reach $255.8 billion by 2028 . This move continues to impact traditional advertising, which takes place via channels like print, TV, and radio.

Most organizations consider their social strategy a critical aspect of their advertising program. Many exclusively advertise on social media—especially those with limited budgets.

Here are some interesting research topics in this area

The impact of different advertising methods

Which social media advertising channels provide the highest return on investment (ROI)

The societal impacts of social media advertising

12. Impacts of social media presence on corporate image

Social media presence can provide companies with an opportunity to be visible and increase brand awareness . Social media also provides a key way to interact with customers.

More and more customers now expect businesses to be online. Research shows that 63% of customers expect companies to offer customer service via their social media channels, while a whopping 90% have connected with a brand or business through social media.

Research in this area could focus on the following topics:

The advantages and disadvantages of social media marketing for businesses

How social media can impact a business’s corporate image

How social media can boost customer experience and loyalty

13. How social media impacts data privacy

Using social media platforms is free for the most part, but users have to provide their personal data for the privilege. This means data collection , tracking, the potential for third parties to access that data, psychological profiling, geolocation, and tracking are all potential risks for users.

Data security and privacy are of increasing interest globally. Research within this area will likely be in high demand in 2024.

Here are some of the research topics you might want to consider in this area:

Common privacy concerns with social media use

Why is social media privacy important?

What can individuals do to protect their data when using social media?

The importance of social media research

As social media use continues to expand in the US and around the world, there’s continual interest in research on the topic. The research you conduct could positively impact many groups of people.

Topics can cover a broad range of areas. You might look at how social media can harm or benefit people, how social media can impact journalism, how platforms can impact young people, or the data privacy risks involved with social media use. The options are endless, and new research topics will present themselves as technology evolves.

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The Top 10 Most Interesting Social Media Research Topics

Finding social media research topics you’re interested in is tricky. Social media is a fairly new field, and the constant arrival of new technology means that it’s always evolving. So, students have a lot to think about in their search for topics.

In this article, we’re going to walk you through social media research paper topics that are timely and relevant. We’ll also show you examples of social media research topics you can get inspiration from. Lastly, we’re going to lay out some social media research questions you can ponder while formulating your topic.

Find your bootcamp match

What makes a strong social media research topic.

A strong social media research topic requires clarity of focus. This means that your topic must be timely, relevant, and coherent. This allows your research topic to be compelling and easily understandable to others.

Tips for Choosing a Social Media Research Topic

Know the trends. Learning what social media topics are trending allows you to know the relevant issues and emergent themes in the field of social media. This also lets you know what topics are well-researched and which ones are still emerging.
Explore knowledge gaps. Knowing what previous researchers have written prevents you from repeating knowledge that has already been explored and shared. Nobody wants to reinvent the wheel when doing research. Exploring knowledge gaps lets you increase the impact of your work and identify opportunities for further research.
Choose something that you’re interested in. Diving deep into a topic that you’re interested in motivates you to learn more about it. The research process becomes more engaging when you know you care about your topic.
Be specific. Knowing what you want to research and what you don’t want to research are keys to the research process. This entails narrowing down your topic to a specific area, subject, theme, or relationship. You want to know the scope and the limitations of your study.
Check your timeframe. Limiting your topic to a specific timeframe helps in narrowing down what you need to study. For example, you can decide to study a phenomenon that has emerged in just the last three years. By doing this, you’re making sure that your research is both specific and relevant.

What’s the Difference Between a Research Topic and a Research Question?

The difference between a research topic and a research question is in the scope. Research topics tend to be broader than research questions. Research topics focus on a specific area of study within a larger field, while a research question further narrows down what you are researching. A good research question allows you to write on your topic with greater precision.

How to Create Strong Social Media Research Questions

The key to creating strong social media research questions is learning enough about your topic to know where the gaps are. This means that you have to conduct a thorough social media literature review, reading previous studies until you have a handle on what’s been said and what questions are still unanswered. Your question will emerge from this preliminary research.

2. The Influence of Social Media on Mental Health

Mental health has been an important topic in social media research these past few years. Social media use and its connection to mental health has even been the subject of systematic reviews. This means that there’s a huge body of previous studies that you can look to when developing your research question.

Exploring both the positive effects and negative impacts of social media sites on mental health helps people and firms establish guidelines that help user communities. This research topic might also cover strategies for helping social media users improve their mental health.

3. The Role of Social Media in Political Campaigning

Social media is a new tool for political campaigning. Exploring what social media strategies have been conducted by politicians running for office helps in determining how social media aids in political campaigning. Studying new strategies like user-generated content for political campaigning allows you to know how voters interact with political candidates.

4. The Role of Social Media in Disinformation

The rise of fake news has coincided with the rise of social networking websites. This topic involves dissecting how social media technologies allow certain types of online content to thrive and make it easier for bad actors to spread disinformation.

5. How Social Media Can Benefit Communities

More and more social issues have been popularized through online content. Diving deep into how social media can facilitate organizational networking lets you compare the traditional and new organizing strategies being created in digital spaces. It also lets you understand how social media activity influences trends in virtual communities.

6. The Effects of Social Media Exposure on Child Development

Children also use social media sites. Some children use social networking sites under the supervision of their parents, and some do not. Social interaction, online or not, affects how children develop. Studying the psychological effects of social media exposure lets you know how social media may improve or derail the growth of children.

7. How Communication Has Evolved Through Social Media

Body language, tone of voice, and other non-verbal cues are absent in online forms of communication. In their place, emojis and other new ways to express thoughts and emotions have appeared. Learning how social media changes the way we talk to one another allows you to develop a theory of communication that takes into account the role of digital communities.

8. Social Media Platforms as Primary News Sources

A lot of people now are getting their daily dose of news and current events through social media. News networks have also established their social media presence on platforms that they can use to deliver news and current events to their audiences. Researching this topic lets you investigate the changes and innovations in information dissemination.

9. How Social Media Paves Way for Non-Traditional Advertising

Regular social media posts, advertisements, and other forms of online content aren’t the only ways businesses market to their audiences. Social media has paved the way for user-generated content and other non-traditional types of online marketing. With this topic, you can learn social media marketing strategies that have been capitalized on the social connection fostered by social networking websites.

10. Impacts of Social Media Presence on Corporate Image

More businesses increasingly build and curate their digital presence through various social networks. Knowing how a business can improve its corporate image through social media influence clarifies the role of technology in modern economics and online marketing.

Social Media Research Questions

How was Facebook used as a political campaigning tool in the 2020 United States presidential election?
What social platforms are the most effective in influencing consumer behavior?
How does user-generated content boost the credibility of a business?
How do different types of online content disseminated through popular networks affect the attention span of people?
What are the most effective forms of online content and social media strategies for increasing sales conversions for small businesses?

Choosing the Right Social Media Research Topic

Choosing the right social media research topic helps you create meaningful contributions to the discipline of social media studies. Knowing the most popular topics in the field can make you an expert on social media. By reading up on previous studies, you will not only be more informed but you will also be in a position to make a positive impact on future studies.

Studying the relationship between social media and different fields produces valuable knowledge. Even if you’re only interested in exploring one social platform or a single social media event or phenomenon, your research can help people better understand how social media engagement changes the face of social relationships in the world at large.

Social Media Research Topics FAQ

Social media is a computer-based technology that allows digital communities to exchange information through user networks. Various social media networks specialize in text, photo, or video transfer. All of these are ways for people on the Internet to share information and ideas with each other.

Social media research is important because it helps you contribute to the growing body of knowledge about digital social settings. In 2021, according to DataReportal, at least 4.88 billion people around the world use the Internet . The more that people connect with each other through the social media domain, the more their quality of life changes, for better or worse.

According to Statista, the most popular social media platforms right now are Facebook, YouTube, and WhatsApp , each of which has at least two billion users. These social networks allow users to share text, picture, and video content with one another.

People use social media to connect with each other, share information, and entertain themselves. Social media sites can broadly serve all of these purposes or be focused on just one of these functions.

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MRA Guide to the Top 16 Social Media Research Questions

MRA and IMRO published this simple guide to Social Media Research (SMR) in 2010 in order to help researchers identify and find answers to the most important questions to SMR techniques.

Introduction Social networks engulf everyday life. They represent a place to share news, ideas, and information of all kinds. The connections made among people in these networks, and the resulting information shared, can have a profound effect on the thoughts, attitudes, and beliefs of individuals. Moreover, even the flow of information itself can be a powerful predictor of key business and program outcomes.

Recognizing the power of social networks, opinion researchers have increasingly begun to take advantage of social media to answer critical business questions. In doing so, the research profession has invented new tools and methods to supplement an already impressive array of techniques. The Marketing Research Association (MRA) has developed this guide in order to describe the current landscape of social media research as well as to facilitate and advance further development of the technique. Ultimately, it is the goal of the Association and its members to foster universally accepted and practiced standards and best practices for these and other research methods.

What is Social Media?

There are many definitions of social media but, at its core, social media uses Internet-based technologies that facilitate the creation and exchange of user-generated content. Social media refers to Web sites that permit people to interact with the site and with each other using simple interfaces. At the time of publication, Facebook, qq.com, Twitter and YouTube are among the most popular social media sites.

Social media refers to the information that people share on those sites, including status updates, image and video comments, responses to blogs and forums, and any other individual contributions to the online space. This information reflects naturally occurring conversations among people who may or may not personally know each other.

What is Social Media Research?

Though evolving rapidly, social media research (SMR) is the application of marketing and opinion research methods to social media data for the purposes of conducting research (e.g., usage and attitude studies, social media research tracking studies, custom research, etc.). Similar to other types of marketing research usage and attitude studies, tracking studies, research goals and objectives are developed, methodologies are prepared, and social media data are analyzed quantitatively and/or qualitatively depending on the goals of the project.

SMR is distinct from other forms of marketing research in that it uses social media as its data source as opposed to surveys, focus groups and other data collection modes and techniques. SMR can be a complementary or stand-alone analytical tool for researchers, providing them with a unique opportunity to listen and measure the opinions of potentionally vast numbers of people who communicate online, some of whom may not normally or easily be accessible through non-observational forms of research.

About the Authors MRA is grateful to the following for their contributions to this Guide to the Top 16 Social Media Research Questions: Jim Longo, PRC, Itracks, Committee Chair; Janet Savoie, PRC, Online Survey Solution; Annie Pettit, Conversition Strategies; Ray Poynter, The Future Place; Ellie Schwartz; Ed Sugar, PRC, OLC Global; Tamara Barber, Forrester Research; Tamara Kenworthy, PRC, On Point Strategies; Steven Runfeldt, Schwartz Consulting; Benjamin Smithee, Spych Market Analytics; Aaron Hill, PRC, Sawtooth Software; Susan Saurage-Altenloh, PRC; Steffen Hück, HVYE; and Patrick Glaser, MRA.

THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA RESEARCH

#1. what are the advantages and disadvantages of smr.

From a capacity standpoint, SMR provides the ability to collect and analyze information from the past as well as in real-time, as it is generated. Moreover, the richness of data available on social media networks is conducive to both qualitative designs (e.g., digital ethnographies) as well as quantitative designs, including numerical aggregation of large quantities of data.

In terms of methodological considerations, SMR utilizes an observational form of data collection. Information is collected from Web sites as posted by individuals who may not be specifically aware of the research role. As such, social media communications are thought to be free of, or less subject to, response biases that occurs in interviewer-administered, and even self-administered, forms of opinion surveys and focus groups. However, social media is inherently a public form of communication, with varying degrees of privacy which may affect some social media users’ willingness to reveal information, particularly sensitive or potentially embarrassing personal details.

From an ethical standpoint, SMR has the additional advantage of eliminating the burden that would otherwise be placed on a research participant. Social media users do not participate in “active” data collection (e.g., survey, focus group). They generate data simply by engaging in their natural online communications. However, SMR presents unique ethical considerations of which researchers must be aware (see “Ethical and Legal Issues”).

SMR offers researchers a host of benefits, a few of which include:

Ease of adjusting research criteria throughout the study
Potential cost savings and reduced logistical burden
Ease of application across locations
Access to hard-to-reach research participants
Benchmarking (e.g., reported vs. observed opinions)

Likewise, researchers should be aware of various challenges associated with SMR. For example, researchers who are new to SMR methods will need to familiarize themselves with both the characteristics of social media users as well as specific SM sites in order to properly draw conclusions about research findings. Additional considerations include the need to learn and become proficient with:

SM tools and techniques including sentiment and content analysis
Indicators of SMR validity and reliability at each stage of the process
Relevant types of biases, particularly those arising from unique SMR tools
The types of brands and categories that are more likely to be successful carrying out SMR, e.g., due to volume of data or consumer importance

#2. What data sources are typically used in SMR?

Millions of Web sites (small and large) currently facilitate the practice of social media research. However, online sites, which currently facilitate social media communications come and go, and change very rapidly. Researchers involved in SMR need to stay abreast of changes in social media communication patterns and trends, including the rise of mobile access, and popular SM vehicles. Current examples of SM Web sites that generate data suitable for SMR include:

Social Networking Sites:Social News: e.g., Digg, Reddit, Mashable, Technorati Facebook: Search, Community Pages, Fan Pages, Groups, Chat, Facebook-based Apps

Twitter: Location-based Application, Real-time Search, Advanced Search (search.twitter.com)

LinkedIn: Search, Groups, Q&A

Photo/Video Sharing: e.g., YouTube, Flickr
Online Communities: Industry, Topic-related, Branded or Unbranded
Blogs: e.g., Blogger, Posterous, Wordpress
Forums: Industry or Topic-related
Questions and Answers: e.g., Yahoo Answers, Linkedin Answers, Yedda
Commenting: e.g., Disqus, Backtype
Traditional News: e.g., CNN, BusinessWeek

#3. How does SMR interact with other forms of traditional and non-traditional research, including online, offline, in-person, and qualitative and quantitative?

SMR can effectively stand on its own, but may also be integrated with traditional research methods to create a holistic research solution. In fact, SMR may sometimes springboard or support other forms of traditional research. Examples of SMR integration with other research methods include:

Observing the flow of conversation in real time, thus prompting the most effective methodology for further research
Accessing user supplied media such as photos and video
Measuring trending topics for further “traditional” research
Assisting in the preparation of discussion guides or surveys
Identifying key influencers in an industry or on a topic
Reaching a segment of the population that may not otherwise be reachable
Comparing community-based insights to natural observational social media insights
Establishing trust between researcher and participant, potentially for further recruitment into another form of research
Exploring, and discovering “unknowns” via observations

#4. How reliable are SMR results?

Validity refers to the degree to which results reflect truth or reality while reliability reflects the degree to which results can be replicated if someone else were to conduct a similar study. Because research suppliers have different methods, standards of quality, and processing rules, research consumers must conduct their own validity and reliability analysis of any potential supplier to ensure the quality of work is sufficient. As with all types of marketing research, the validity and reliability of social media research varies greatly:

What is the validity and reliability of the sentiment and/or content analysis processes? If manual coders are used, reliability might be lower. If automated coders are used, validity might be lower.

Given that sentiment differs by Web site (e.g., Twitter is more negative while blogs are more positive), what is the range of social media venues that are measured and what percentage of the Internet population do they represent? Do any of the sites overwhelm the data collection strategy in a proportion that does not reflect the Internet space? Does the vendor know how and why to sample and weight data?
To what extent is the intended target group reflected by the social media venues being used?
Is the intention to measure and generalize to the general Internet population or to a particular segment of the Internet?
How is geographic and demographic information being measured in order to assess the validity of generalizing outside of the sample?
What timeframe is appropriate for the research objectives? Though small samples may be acceptable for long-term research, shorter time frames must use larger sample sizes.

#5. Within businesses and organizations, how will SMR activities be tracked and aggregated, and whose responsibility is it to handle each of those functions?

Social media research may be executed in multiple ways. For example, numerous departments within a single company may be involved in SMR, including internal research departments, and cross-functional teams from marketing, customer relationship management, public relations, public affairs, and other departments. SMR may also be outsourced to vendors who may or may not specialize in research. Regardless, the skill set of the user must be appropriate for the function.

#6. What additional knowledge, skills, and abilities will a corporate researcher need to learn in order to improve their level of competency with SMR?

SMR may involve several different methods and analytical approaches. As such, corporate researchers may find it most advantageous to learn a wide breadth of relevant techniques while continually honing their skills and knowledge in the areas that are most relevant to their organization. Commonly used techniques include both sentiment analysis and content analysis. Additionally, researchers will need to learn about, and become comfortable with, important explanatory variables beyond traditional “respondent” demographics, such as how different types of Web sites (e.g., blogs, forums, media, etc.) generate and facilitate different types of data (e.g., whether data is more positive versus negative, descriptive versus condensed, etc.).

#7. Are the participants aware that their usergenerated content is under observation?

Research contributors have demonstrated the occasional tendency to provide sub-optimal information when they are aware that others are studying or observing them. Oftentimes, this is attributable to concerns over the privacy of sensitive information or feelings of being compelled to give a socially-desirable response to a question. In SMR, though it commonly is understood that conversations are generally public and open to viewing by almost anyone, the individual under observation may or may not be aware of the presence of a researcher.

At the same time, participation in the social media space offers varying degrees of privacy. Users may participate for personal and/or professional reasons and they may or not seek relationships with other users. Researchers should be aware of the potential and likelihood for “social observational bias” and the effect it will have on the type, candor and direction of the user’s comments.

Ethical and Legal Issues

#8. how are sources cited in research reports and on research web portals are the citations different based on the source, e.g., twitter, blogger, forums.

As in traditional forms of research, it is important to protect the privacy of contributors. As such, without prior express consent, data transmitted from vendor to client should not include direct references or citations to individuals that would reveal their identity.

However, sources may be recorded for validation purposes as well as for potential data quality checks. Any data or reporting intended for transfer to an outside entity should be purged of personally identifiable information (PII) prior to changing-hands. This includes IP addresses, usernames, user id numbers, user photos, e-mail addresses, and other types of commonly available online data.

Where detailed information must be shared for the purposes of data quality or validation, the data should include source citations using the current link of the information (e.g., http:// twitter.com/xxxx/xxxx/). Notably, links should be expected to expire or become “broken” overtime. Researchers should plan to record any pertinent administrative or relevant source data (e.g., date/time, source identifier, query details, etc.) to be used in validation at the time of data collection.

#9. What are the controversies and legal issues regarding the rights of the people whose data is being used?

Social media is a relatively new form of communication and individuals from every stakeholder group, including the public, researchers and governments, are participating in an on-going conversation about the nature of its privacy and ethics. For this reason, it’s critical for researchers to understand that they have a responsibility to respect social media user’s privacy and that the definition and expectations for social media user’s privacy can and will change over time. Some brief areas of consideration are described below.

Privacy: Individuals and their social media privacy expectations should be respected. If an individual has posted information on a public Web site under a public “privacy” setting, they may be considered to have a very low or no expectation of privacy for the information they reveal. Even so, researchers who collect and analyze this information should take care to protect it from becoming identifiable to an individual.

Conversations should not be copied verbatim into reports as those direct quotes can be searched and identities discovered. A small number of relevant conversations can be summarized, without losing their flavor, in reports. Moreover, full quotations can be used with permission.

Interacting with individuals: Clients must never use information collected during or for social media research for the purpose of direct marketing or otherwise influencing the opinions and behaviors of the data subject. Marketing may only occur in places like branded and client communities where contributors would naturally expect those types of conversations to take place.

Combining data from multiple sources where privacy policies differ: In general, the policy provisions that tend to favor the rights and needs of the contributors should be given weight. Best practices call for researchers to respect the coded crawling terms of every Web site they visit. Where Web sites are coded to indicate that crawling is not permitted, those Web sites should not be crawled even if it is technically possible. Researchers must not join Web sites under the pretense of being a member so that they then have access to crawl a Web site that prohibits such crawling otherwise – this condition holds for both automated and manual crawling. Where researchers do join groups, they must immediately make it explicit that they are there for the purposes of marketing research. Notably, issues concerning access to data sources are paramount to the conduct of social media research and can be expected to be a major focus of the opinion research industry moving forward, both in terms of how to ethically gain access to the widest net of sources as well as appropriate ways to handle and adjust for cases where this is not possible.

SM Research Processes & Providers

#10. what is the level of expertise and industry qualifications of social media researchers and/or smr companies.

Anyone selecting a social media research vendor must be aware that the technique is relatively new. They must be careful to select a research partner with the appropriate level of expertise and skill in the practice of SMR. Some relevant questions to ask include:

Is the company primarily an IT or social media company that expanded into research, or a research company that expanded into social media? While IT and social media companies may have expertise in social media, crawling and data collection techniques, research companies have expertise in data analysis techniques.
Does the company focus on research exclusively or do they maintain other functions as well? For example, companies that conduct SMR may specialize in buzz monitoring, customer relationship management, public relations, research, or some other social media function.
Does the company specialize in qualitative methods, quantitative methods, or a combination of both?
Is the provider aware of traditional research practices such as sampling and weighting and, if so, how and when do they apply those practices?
For the practice of ethics and standards of quality, does the provider classify themselves as a researcher or as some other profession?

#11. What are the standard data and/or research outputs?

Since SMR is relatively new, industry standards for outputs have not yet been developed. It is important to understand the vendor’s policies and capacities for standard and custom reporting. Relevant questions include:

Does the company offer a full-service model of data collection, analysis and presentation or do they offer a self-service tool such as a portal?
In cases where the vendor offers full-service reporting and presentation, what substantive outputs may be expected? What technical explanation and reporting may be expected (e.g., a technical appendix)?
Are the SMR analyses incorporated with traditional types of marketing research and does the company have expertise doing so?
Does the provider offer standardized or customized tools?
How often are outputs updated and/or delivered?

#12. What is the process for gathering data?

Like other forms of opinion research, a wide variety of approaches exist for the implementation of SMR. It is important to understand the company policies undertaken. Relevant questions include:

Does the company gather its own data or is a data collection vendor used?
How many Web sites are crawled and how are those Web sites selected?
Does the company seek out permission-based relationships with the sites they crawl?
Does the company honor the electronic privacy notifications of individual Web sites?

#13. What data quality processes are implemented in each stage of the SMR?

What quality and validation protocols have been adopted and implemented to safeguard the quality of the research at each stage of the process? Are there validation processes in place for initial data collection, scoring and coding, etc.? Does the organization collect and retain information at the initial stages for validation purposes while removing/anonymizing data for reporting purposes?

#14. Does the company provide sentiment scoring?

Sentiment scoring is a process of assigning a positive or negative emotion to a conversation. Some vendors may provide strictly positive or negative emotions, while others may assign a continuum ranging from positive to neutral, to negative. If the vendor provides sentiment scoring, is the process an internal proprietary method, a third party purchased product, or some combination of the two? How is the sentiment scored (e.g., dictionary, bayesian, manually)?

#15. If sentiment scoring is provided, what is the process for validating results?

Simple and commonly-used systems of sentiment validation may prove to be inadequate. More rigorous approaches should be used, specifically blinded methods. For example:

For automated systems, researchers should receive a list of uncoded conversations and then code them manually. The manual codes should then be matched back and compared to the automated codes to derive a percentage match (i.e., validation coefficient).

For manual systems, two unique raters should independently code conversations. A validation coefficient may be derived from a comparison of the two outputs.

The above processes are two relatively simple examples of validation systems. More complicated calculations are available, but their use should be weighed according to the capacity of stakeholders to understand the meaning and method of the technique.

Language constantly changes and evolves due to new and lapsed slang, terminology, and speech patterns. As such, simple systems of sentiment validation may prove to be inadequate. When conducting SMR, rigorous and constantly monitored approaches to sentiment analysis are most appropriate.

#16. What, if any, methods are used for determining the geography associated with the data?

Demographic and geographic information can often be an important and meaningful element for research and validation purposes. When considering SMR, what geographic information is available and how precise is the information (e.g., city or town, region, country, unknown)? What types of demographic data are available (e.g., age, gender, income, education)?

Researchers must take care to specify the methodology and sample size associated with the information. Inferred methods (based on Web site sources or language) may be associated with large sample sizes but have low validity. On the other hand, precise information is currently only available for an extremely tiny percentage of conversations and therefore often has insufficient generalizability.

The “Top 16 Questions” presented in this guide represent the core matters of importance to the research field with respect to social media research. They include issues of reliability, execution, interaction with other kinds of research, ethics and legal compliance, data quality, process, and outputs.

Importantly, the 16 questions in this document do not stand as the only ones the opinion research profession needs to address, nor do they take the place of standards of practice. Instead, they provide a starting point for experts and professionals to debate and discuss development toward this goal. As in any profession, a reasonable consensus should be reached in order to validly define and represent an industry standard of best practice. It is the goal of the Marketing Research Association that this document be widely distributed and contribute as such.

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Social Media Research: A Comprehensive Guide

Guv Callahan

May 20, 2024

8 min. read

Social media research helps you unlock the potential of social content for business. We’re living in a world where tweets hold power and likes shape perceptions. When you know what to publish and who you’re posting it for, you can construct a stronger strategy that helps you meet key goals.

Data isn’t just about numbers; it’s about uncovering narratives and following the breadcrumbs of likes, shares, and comments to gain deeper understandings. There’s a method to the madness of selfies and status updates. The right approach to social media research helps you learn more about the collective consciousness of society — and use it to your advantage.

Let’s explore the language of social media likes and shares and dig beneath the surface of our digital interactions.

What is Social Media Research?

Tools and techniques for social media research, understanding the difference: social media research vs. traditional research, harnessing the power of social media research for your business, ethics and privacy in social media research, success stories: real world examples of social media research.

experts conducting social media research

Social media research is the process of using social media data to learn about trending topics, audiences, and content performance. Reviewing social data gives you quantitative insights (e.g., engagement rates , best posting times ), but it can also lead to qualitative learnings like human behaviors, preferences, and opinions.

When conducting social media research, companies can look for patterns and sentiments to drive their social media marketing strategy. They can decide what content to create, which channels to post on, how to reach their audience, when to post content, and a myriad of other decisions that will lead to faster results.

putting a magnifying glass on data collected during research

There’s no single best way to do social media research. You can manually review engagement on your posts or look at your competitors’ content. Or you can use third-party social listening tools to aggregate social data for you.

Social media research can be formal (like a traditional research project) or informal. You might have a certain goal in mind, or you might not know what you’re looking for and just want to see what pops up.

Let’s review some options.

Social media analytics

No matter what channels you choose, you can gain a wealth of insights from built-in social analytics. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter give you instant intel about your content performance and audiences.

Even better, you don’t always need to know what you’re looking for. You can start combing through your analytics, then jot down questions or ideas you want to explore further.

Tip: Learn more in our blog The Complete Guide to Social Media Analytics .

Google Alerts

Google Alerts is a free and underrated tool that gives you unique angles and insights on a given topic. You can set up a Google Alert related to a keyword or topic of your choice, then receive a daily digest of articles published on that topic.

From there, you can learn more about what other brands and businesses are publishing. Repurpose your findings into your social media content to get ahead of trends and topics. You can lead conversations instead of joining them after they blow up on social.

Social listening tools

Social listening tools like Meltwater let you be the fly on the wall in the social world. You can “listen” to what your audience is saying and truly be everywhere all at once.

These tools monitor billions of publicly available data points across multiple social channels, like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. They help brands track mentions of their products or brand names in real time so you can become part of important conversations.

You can also track topics related to your niche or learn more about what your audience is talking about beyond your brand. This gives you direct insight into their lifestyles so you can meet them where they are authentically.

Want to learn more about how Meltwater could help your social media research? Fill out the form below and an expert will be in touch!

Media intelligence tools

Taking social listening a step further, you can add media intelligence tools to the mix to learn what’s being talked about beyond social media. Meltwater’s media intelligence suite lets you monitor TV and radio channels, blogs, print media, and other new sources around the world.

This gives you more comprehensive insights into hot topics and trends that you can repurpose for social media. News-worthy events make their way to social media, giving you an easy “in” to your audience’s attention.

Aside from the social-specific aspect, social media research holds a few advantages over traditional research.

For starters, social research gives you real-time data that’s constantly changing. You can also get the most specific insights according to your audience and social channels, not just general info. This means you can shorten the research curve and get faster insights about topics that matter to you.

By comparison, traditional research is often a more structured approach with specific goals in mind. It typically requires lots of sources and manual effort. It takes time to find and vet sources, cross-reference data, and ensure a high level of accuracy.

Combining both types of research can give you the most comprehensive view of your audience.

Now that you know what social media research is, let’s explore some ways you can apply it to your business.

Identify your target audience

Analyzing social media data can help you pinpoint who your target audience is (because it’s not always who you think). You might have your audience defined on the surface with basics like age, gender, and geographic location, but social research can dig several layers deeper to uncover new audience segments you haven’t considered.

Audiences evolve all the time. Their preferences, needs, and interests change. This means that who you want to reach today might not be the same person you want to connect with in the future. Constantly finding new things about your audience will help you continue generating content that captures their interests.

Improve brand reputation

Monitoring online conversations and feedback gives companies a direct path to reputation management . You can more easily spot when trouble might be brewing so you can act fast and defend against hits to your brand image.

Proactively engaging with customers on social platforms shows that the company values their opinions and is committed to providing excellent customer service. This not only builds trust and loyalty but also strengthens the brand's reputation as a customer-centric organization.

Optimize social media marketing campaigns

When you know more about your audience and past content performance, you’re in a better position to create better posts that resonate. Learn what type of content your audience prefers based on engagement metrics. Tailor your content and messaging to reflect their interests and needs.

You’ll also have insights about what’s hot in the social media world. You can use these trends as the foundation for your own content, taking the guesswork out of what you should talk about.

Tip: Learn more about tailoring your content and messaging in our Personalization at Scale Guide !

image of a social media specialist checking her smartphone at her desk

Collecting social media research from outside data sources brings ethics and privacy into question. Marketers should be proactive in asking where their data is coming from and how it was obtained.

Ideally, you’ll choose tools that are in compliance with regulations like GDPR and CCPA. Know how they obtain data and whether they safeguard individual users’ information. Getting ahead of your competitors shouldn't be at the expense of your customers’ privacy or potential legal challenges.

Companies around the world use social media research to drive engagement, create better content, and grow their brand presence.

Take Shiseido , for instance. This Meltwater customer uses our Explore solution to learn what makes their brand special across 120 markets. The company uses social listening to monitor competitors, unify social mentions in a single dashboard, and understand the brand’s presence on a global stage.

Another Meltwater customer, Fifty Acres , uses the platform to learn about relevant narratives happening on social media. Learning what others are talking about allows them to shape their own stories, pitch new ideas for business growth, and connect with people in the right places at the right times.

W Hotels in Singapore is another great example of social media research at work. The company uses Meltwater to learn more about what customers like when traveling, allowing them to create custom experiences in their hotels.

Last but not least, Mailchimp uses Meltwater to inform its content strategy. The company looks for trends and themes on social media that resonate with creators, allowing them to easily scale their content by making their audience go bananas over every post.

Learn more when you request a demo by filling out the form below.

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Social media research: Step-by-step tutorial with examples

Introduction: What is social media research?
Step 1: Develop a research design
Step 2: Collect & import your social media data
Step 3: Data preparation

Step 4: Get an overview

Step 5: Categorize your data
Step 6: Aggregate & present your results

Further learning materials

Friday, January 5, 2024

How to conduct social media research with MAXQDA?

Social Media has drastically changed the way we communicate. Nowadays it’s a lot easier for an individual to communicate with a large audience or with strangers living on the other side of the planet, and to find and communicate with others researching similar topics. Companies, organizations, and political parties can target a specific group of people for their campaign and receive immediate feedback. So, it’s not a surprise that online communication has become more prevalent, which in turn has increased the significance of social media platforms.

Researchers and marketers alike benefit from the wealth of data available on social media platforms, gaining insights into the public’s opinions, communication patterns, and more. Social media research describes the process of collecting and analyzing social media data, such as posts, comments, and likes in order to understand communication patterns, public opinions, and trends.

Who conducts social media research?

Compared to other data collection instruments, such as focus group discussions, collecting social media data is less resource-intensive as the data is easily accessible. However, researchers are confronted with extensive data when performing social media research. Depending on the topic thousands and thousands of posts and comments exist. Consequently, social media researchers need QDA software that is well-equipped for challenges like these, such as MAXQDA. MAXQDA can facilitate your social media research with its numerous data organization and analysis tools. MAXQDA’s auto-coding and sentiment analysis are particularly useful tools, allowing you to explore many posts without reading each one individually. Furthermore, AI Assist, MAXQDA’s AI-based features, are well-suited to handle big data. In the present guide we aim to explain how you can perform social media research with MAXQDA.

Step 1: Develop a research design for social media research

As for any other research project, we advise you to develop a research design before starting your social media research. A research design serves as a structured plan outlining how a researcher intends to answer a specific research question. Determine the specific social media data you wish to analyze and define the precise methodology for your analysis. Among other considerations, ask yourself which social media platform(s) you want to consider, whether there is a time frame of interest; and if you plan to exclusively focus on social media posts containing particular hashtags or keywords. You must address these questions to develop a well-designed study that ensures reliable and valid results. We recommend reading our Research Design guide if you need clarification on what a research design entails.

Please note that the order of the steps presented here is flexible and depends on your research design and research question.

Step 2: Collect & import your social media data

With MAXQDA, you have several options for importing your social media data. On the one side, MAXQDA provides specialized import tools for YouTube comments and specialized analysis tools for YouTube data and X (formerly known as Twitter) data. Suppose you want to import and analyze data from a different social media platform. Then, you can either use MAXQDA’s WebCollector to collect and import entire webpages into MAXQDA or another social media data collection service, saving the data in a MAXQDA-compatible format, like an Excel file. There are several online tools for exporting social media data.

MAXQDA’s WebCollector

You can use MAXQDA’s WebCollector – a free Chrome Browser extension – to export entire websites in a format that can be imported into MAXQDA. The free MAXQDA WebCollector is availale on the Chrome WebStore.

Get the MAXQDA WebCollector

After installing the extension, export the webpage from your social media platform of interest. In the case of X (formerly known as Twitter) you have two options. You can either export only top-level posts or a specific top-level post, including all its replies. Search for a hashtag and export the search results, i.e., all posts containing this hashtag, by opening the WebCollector extension and clicking “Collect.” If you want, you can add notes in the Document Memo section, such as the time frame or other parameters of your search. Upon import into MAXQDA, these notes will be imported as a Document Memo.

Use the MAXQDA WebCollector to export social media data

In the case you are specifically interested in specific posts, e.g., posts from a certain account or posts with a lot of replies, click on the post so that the original post and all comments are displayed. Now, export the website with MAXQDA’s WebCollector to compile the original posts, including all replies.

Step 3: Social media research data preparation

Before starting the actual analysis, you might want to clean and organize your data in a meaningful way. For example, you could remove irrelevant and duplicate posts. You could also organize your data in document groups, e.g., based on the social media platform, a time range, a hashtag, or whatever category is important to your social media research.

Organize your data in Document groups

You may add variables to the imported social media data depending on your research design. For example, when investigating social media trends over time, it can be handy for further analysis to add variables such as the date and timing of the post. To do so, simply go to the “Variables” tab and click “List of Document Variables.” By clicking “New variable,” you can add new variables, specify their type, and define missing values.

Add document variables to improve your social media research

Depending on your research approach, you might benefit from an overview of the data before creating and applying codes, e.g., when following an inductive approach. In other cases, you might already have codes in mind and use them prior to summarizing the data, e.g., in deductive approaches.

When following an inductive approach, you might want to get a basic understanding of the collected social media data and base your codes on the actual content. MAXQDA offers numerous tools, allowing you to get a quick overview. Especially useful when working with big data, such as in social media research, are MAXQDA’s auto-coding and AI-based tools.

Summarize social media data with AI Assist

We acknowledge that AI can assist researchers in qualitative data analysis as well as in other areas of life. Therefore, we developed the AI Assist add-on – your virtual research assistant. AI Assist features several tools that can facilitate your social media research. AI Assist’s Summarize Document function is handy for a quick content overview. This feature creates a summary of entire documents, e.g., of a post and its replies, which it stores in Document Memos. To let AI Assist summarize your document, right-click on it in the Documents window, and choose AI Assist > Summarize Document. You can edit and refine the summary within the Document Memo. These summaries might help you get an idea about the key points discussed and develop codes accordingly.

With AI-generated summaries you can speed up your social media research

Automatically analyze the public’s sentiment

Often, people performing social media research are not interested in every single opinion of every single individual but in the general sentiment towards a topic, politician, issue, or product. With MAXQDA, you can perform a sentiment analysis in no time. To perform a sentiment analysis, open the Smart Coding Tool in the Codes tab. Since the Smart Coding tool works on the level of coded segments, you need to dummy-code your data prior to the sentiment analysis. When importing YouTube comments, comments and replies are automatically coded. However, when importing data through other means, such as via the WebCollector, you may want to manually create the codes ‘post’ and ‘reply’ to quickly code your data. Subsequently, you can perform automatic sentiment analysis by clicking on the button “Analyze Sentiments.” To autocode your social media data with the respective sentiment, click “Autocode Segments with Sentiment.” Then, MAXQDA creates the code ‘Sentiment’ with the identified sentiments as subcodes. By looking at the code frequencies you get a first impression of the general public sentiment.

Autocode the sentiment of your social media data

Subsequently, you can use MAXQDA’s retrieval function to, e.g., focus your social media research on negative posts. To do so, simply activate the documents of interest and the code ‘Sentiment’ > ‘Negative’. All text segments coded with this code will be displayed in the Retrieved Segments window. If you plan to create subcodes, for example to divide the negative sentiment into reasons why people dislike your product, you can again use the Smart Coding tool. Select the code ‘Negative’ from the Code tree on the left site and MAXQDA will display only the segments with a negative sentiment to which you can apply additional codes.

Summarize coded segments with AI Assist

Rather than going through the ‘Negative’ posts individually, you can again use the power of artificial intelligence to create a summary of the coded segments. To do so, right-click the code ‘Negative’ in the Codes window and select AI Assist > Summarize coded segments. Similarly, to the Summarize Document feature, AI Assist will add the summary in a memo.

Step 5: Categorize your social media research data

In many qualitative research projects, including social media research, coding/categorizing your data is an important step. When working inductively, the AI-generated summaries might provide initial ideas for codes. When working deductively, you probably already have codes in mind. With MAXQDA you can easily create codes, assign code colors, and define rules for coding in the New Code window regardless of your approach. Furthermore, you can organize your codes hierarchically. But there is more – MAXQDA allows you to create emoticodes which might come handy when analyzing social media data. For more information on various coding methods, you can refer to:

Learn more about coding with MAXQDA

Autocode your social media data

Especially useful for big data is MAXQDA’s Text Search & Autocode feature, which is located in the Analysis tab. This feature allows you to search for keywords and automatically code them. You can also use logical operators, such as OR, to search for a list of keywords simultaneously e.g., to find all synonyms of a word with just one search. If you are interested in certain concepts, you can create dictionaries of keywords defining the concept and search for multiple concepts at once (search for the whole dictionary). To do so, you first need to create a dictionary. Therefore, go to the MAXDictio tab and select Dictionaries.

Search & autocode important keywords for your social media research

Generate subcode suggestions with AI Assist

In the coding of qualitative data, researchers often start with broad codes, intending to refine them in a later step of the social media research. Alongside the Smart Coding Tool, which is ideal for code refinement, as explained earlier, AI Assist’s “Suggest Subcodes” is another valuable tool. You can use this feature to to get subcode suggestions. Simply, right-click on a code and select AI Assist > Subcode Suggestions.

Step 6: Aggregate & present your results

A crucial step involves consolidating your social media research results into a format that is easily understandable for others. For example, charts and visualisations can aggregate huge amount of data in an easily comprehensible graph that answers your research question. Of course, MAXQDA has integrated visualisation and charting tools. Some tools that might be especially useful for presenting social media data are presented in the following sections.

Word Cloud for visualizing the most frequent words

MAXQDA’s World Cloud, which can also be used with data that hasn’t been coded, is one of the most appropriate visualization tools in social media research. Select the document(s) that serve as the basis for your word cloud and generate a visual representation of the most recurring words. To exclude frequent, yet non-informative words such as ‘the’ or ‘a,’ you can apply a stop word list to the data, effectively filtering out these ubiquitous terms. We offer several Stop Word Lists in several languages on our website, so you don’t have to create one yourself.

Get Stop Word Lists

Word Cloud displaying the most frequent words of YouTube comments

Visualize trends

If your social media research analyzes a topic over time, the Trends function might also interest you. Currently, MAXQDA offers Word Trends, Code Trends, and Dictionary Categories Trends. To explore how code or word frequencies change across time, you should store your social media data in distinct documents – one document per time range. While Word Trends can be used even when the data is not coded, Code Trends requires coded data. No matter whether you are using Code or Word trends, select Trends for multiple documents. Then, select the documents (and codes) of interest and MAXQDA will visualize them. For example, you can use the Code Trends tool on auto-generated sentiment codes to investigate how sentiments towards a topic change over time.

Aside from analyzing trends across time, you can also use MAXQDA’s Trends tool to compare reactions, e.g., between different social media plattforms. To do this, you need to organize your data as follows: create a separate document for each social media plattform containing all posts of interest. Next, choose your preferred Trends tool and again choose trends for multiple documents. In case you are interested in how a discussion evolves in a comment section, given that the data is stored in one document, you can opt for the single document trends feature. MAXQDA splits the document in 10 segments, allowing you to see how word/code frequencies look across them.

Visualizing sentiment trends for #maxqda across weeks

Write your report with QTT

Questions-Themes-Theories (QTT) provides an innovative workspace for gathering important visualizations, notes, segments, and other analytical results. It is an excellent tool for organizing your thoughts and crafting your social media research report. To get started, create a dedicated worksheet for your topics and research questions, and populate it with pertinent analysis elements extracted from other MAXQDA functions. For example, you can incorporate your Trends visualization to a QTT worksheet by clicking on the button, as shown in the screenshot below. Exploratory coded segments related to a set of social media posts can be added to the QTT worksheet via the context menu. For each imported element you can add insights. Furthermore, you have the option to add your conclusions and theories, as well as your research design. Subsequently, you can view all analysis elements and insights to write your final conclusion. The new Questions-Themes-Theories tool is designed to assist you finalize your social media research. With just one click, you can export your worksheet and use it as a starting point for your social media research report.

Add a visualization to a QTT worksheet

We offer a variety of complimentary learning materials to help you get started with your social media research. Check out the recording of a spotlight session on analyzing social media data with MAXQDA which was held at the MAXDAYS conference in 2023. In addition, the free book “The Practice of Qualitative Data Analysis,” provides ten case studies with brief real-world examples, demonstrating MAXQDA’s practical applications.

Spotlight Session: Analyzing Social Media Data with MAXQDA

The Practice of Qualitative Data Analysis

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Social Media Research

Considerations when researching social media
Collected tools
Additional resources

Introduction

What is this guide?

This guide is intended as a starting point to help researchers understand how social media research is conducted, what needs to be considered when embarking on a social media research project, and provide tools that may be helpful for working with complex social media data. This guide is not meant to be an exhaustive or authoritative explanation of any topic it covers - you will need to learn more about your desired platform and methods on your own. This guide is not legal or ethical advice, nor is it an expert's opinion on methods.

Guide structure

Starting broadly and narrowing from there, we'll first cover big questions like "why should I do social media research?", "what are the legal or ethical considerations when doing social media research?" and then look at popular platforms and their unique aspects individually.

Each subpage on a specific platform will include a brief description of the platform, how its TOS impacts research, and a list of tools used for working with that platform. You will still want to read the Terms of Service (TOS) yourself! TOS language and API functions change frequently. The popularity of platforms shifts significantly over time and new platforms are created. Currently, dominant platforms include: X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, YouTube, and TikTok.

At the end all of the platform-specific tools as well as broadly useful content analysis and text mining tools will be collected into one page, and the final page will provide links to readings, resources, and services at AU that may be helpful to the aspiring social media researcher.

What is social media research?

Social media research is a broad term that encapsulates any sort of research using social media platforms. These platforms can be used for participant recruitment, the administering of interventions or experimental protocols, or often as a source of data on people's opinions or behaviors - the main focus of this guide.

Some researchers also study the effects of social media on users, but this may or may not include data collected from social media.

Social media research is highly valuable as it provides researches across many disciplines with access to peoples' opinions or behaviors that would be difficult or impossible to gather via other means. Other forms of social media research act as important transparency checks to social media platforms' effects on society, tracking advertisement, political radicalization, health information, or other important topics.

You may want to research social media because you're a social media user yourself, because you've come across interesting social media research in the past, or because you have a particular question that may be well-suited to being answered by analyzing the combined views of a large number of people.

You can use social media data for the following and more:

Text/data mining
Content or sentiment analysis
Network discovery/visualization

Secondary sources

Social media is of interest to researchers across a very wide range of disciplines and as a result, the literature of both "how to study social media" and "studies of social media" is widely distributed. There are many potential search locations where you may want to look for information about the study of social media, including several of AU's extensive collection of databases.

Searching for secondary sources on social media can be tricky - like many "new" terms in scholarly writing, there isn't total agreement on what words to use when talking about it. When searching for social media-related literature, think about synonyms for your keywords. For example, in addition to searching for the term "social media" you may also want to try keywords such as "new media" or "social networking sites".

This scholarly database contains over 3,600 peer-reviewed publications in full-text on every subject.

Multi-subject reference source covering general and academic periodicals; full-text is available for many articles.

Google Scholar may be the world’s largest academic search engine, indexing peer reviewed articles, books, conference papers, theses and dissertations, and other scholarly literature. The full text of items may not be available for free, but those that overlap with AU Library’s collections can be accessed there. If you receive a reCAPTCHA error, please follow the instructions in our FAQ about configuring your Google Scholar settings .

Abstracts and some full text of journals and magazines in anthropology, sociology, psychology, business management, public administration, political science, criminology, and economics.

Next: Considerations when researching social media >>
Last Updated: May 6, 2024 3:22 PM
URL: https://subjectguides.library.american.edu/socialmediaresearch

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v.12(6); 2020 Jun

Social Media Use and Its Connection to Mental Health: A Systematic Review

Fazida karim.

1 Psychology, California Institute of Behavioral Neurosciences and Psychology, Fairfield, USA

2 Business & Management, University Sultan Zainal Abidin, Terengganu, MYS

Azeezat A Oyewande

3 Family Medicine, California Institute of Behavioral Neurosciences and Psychology, Fairfield, USA

4 Family Medicine, Lagos State Health Service Commission/Alimosho General Hospital, Lagos, NGA

Lamis F Abdalla

5 Internal Medicine, California Institute of Behavioral Neurosciences and Psychology, Fairfield, USA

Reem Chaudhry Ehsanullah

Safeera khan.

Social media are responsible for aggravating mental health problems. This systematic study summarizes the effects of social network usage on mental health. Fifty papers were shortlisted from google scholar databases, and after the application of various inclusion and exclusion criteria, 16 papers were chosen and all papers were evaluated for quality. Eight papers were cross-sectional studies, three were longitudinal studies, two were qualitative studies, and others were systematic reviews. Findings were classified into two outcomes of mental health: anxiety and depression. Social media activity such as time spent to have a positive effect on the mental health domain. However, due to the cross-sectional design and methodological limitations of sampling, there are considerable differences. The structure of social media influences on mental health needs to be further analyzed through qualitative research and vertical cohort studies.

Introduction and background

Human beings are social creatures that require the companionship of others to make progress in life. Thus, being socially connected with other people can relieve stress, anxiety, and sadness, but lack of social connection can pose serious risks to mental health [ 1 ].

Social media

Social media has recently become part of people's daily activities; many of them spend hours each day on Messenger, Instagram, Facebook, and other popular social media. Thus, many researchers and scholars study the impact of social media and applications on various aspects of people’s lives [ 2 ]. Moreover, the number of social media users worldwide in 2019 is 3.484 billion, up 9% year-on-year [ 3 - 5 ]. A statistic in Figure 1 shows the gender distribution of social media audiences worldwide as of January 2020, sorted by platform. It was found that only 38% of Twitter users were male but 61% were using Snapchat. In contrast, females were more likely to use LinkedIn and Facebook. There is no denying that social media has now become an important part of many people's lives. Social media has many positive and enjoyable benefits, but it can also lead to mental health problems. Previous research found that age did not have an effect but gender did; females were much more likely to experience mental health than males [ 6 , 7 ].

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Impact on mental health

Mental health is defined as a state of well-being in which people understand their abilities, solve everyday life problems, work well, and make a significant contribution to the lives of their communities [ 8 ]. There is debated presently going on regarding the benefits and negative impacts of social media on mental health [ 9 , 10 ]. Social networking is a crucial element in protecting our mental health. Both the quantity and quality of social relationships affect mental health, health behavior, physical health, and mortality risk [ 9 ]. The Displaced Behavior Theory may help explain why social media shows a connection with mental health. According to the theory, people who spend more time in sedentary behaviors such as social media use have less time for face-to-face social interaction, both of which have been proven to be protective against mental disorders [ 11 , 12 ]. On the other hand, social theories found how social media use affects mental health by influencing how people view, maintain, and interact with their social network [ 13 ]. A number of studies have been conducted on the impacts of social media, and it has been indicated that the prolonged use of social media platforms such as Facebook may be related to negative signs and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress [ 10 - 15 ]. Furthermore, social media can create a lot of pressure to create the stereotype that others want to see and also being as popular as others.

The need for a systematic review

Systematic studies can quantitatively and qualitatively identify, aggregate, and evaluate all accessible data to generate a warm and accurate response to the research questions involved [ 4 ]. In addition, many existing systematic studies related to mental health studies have been conducted worldwide. However, only a limited number of studies are integrated with social media and conducted in the context of social science because the available literature heavily focused on medical science [ 6 ]. Because social media is a relatively new phenomenon, the potential links between their use and mental health have not been widely investigated.

This paper attempt to systematically review all the relevant literature with the aim of filling the gap by examining social media impact on mental health, which is sedentary behavior, which, if in excess, raises the risk of health problems [ 7 , 9 , 12 ]. This study is important because it provides information on the extent of the focus of peer review literature, which can assist the researchers in delivering a prospect with the aim of understanding the future attention related to climate change strategies that require scholarly attention. This study is very useful because it provides information on the extent to which peer review literature can assist researchers in presenting prospects with a view to understanding future concerns related to mental health strategies that require scientific attention. The development of the current systematic review is based on the main research question: how does social media affect mental health?

Research strategy

The research was conducted to identify studies analyzing the role of social media on mental health. Google Scholar was used as our main database to find the relevant articles. Keywords that were used for the search were: (1) “social media”, (2) “mental health”, (3) “social media” AND “mental health”, (4) “social networking” AND “mental health”, and (5) “social networking” OR “social media” AND “mental health” (Table 1 ).

Keyword/Combination of Keyword	Database	Number of Results
“social media”	Google Scholar	877,000
“mental health”	Google Scholar	633,000
“social media” AND “mental health”	Google Scholar	78,000
“social networking” AND “mental health”	Google Scholar	18,600
"social networking "OR "social media" AND "mental health"	Google Scholar	17,000

Out of the results in Table 1 , a total of 50 articles relevant to the research question were selected. After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, duplicate papers were removed, and, finally, a total of 28 articles were selected for review (Figure 2 ).

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PRISMA, Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Peer-reviewed, full-text research papers from the past five years were included in the review. All selected articles were in English language and any non-peer-reviewed and duplicate papers were excluded from finally selected articles.

Of the 16 selected research papers, there were a research focus on adults, gender, and preadolescents [ 10 - 19 ]. In the design, there were qualitative and quantitative studies [ 15 , 16 ]. There were three systematic reviews and one thematic analysis that explored the better or worse of using social media among adolescents [ 20 - 23 ]. In addition, eight were cross-sectional studies and only three were longitudinal studies [ 24 - 29 ].The meta-analyses included studies published beyond the last five years in this population. Table 2 presents a selection of studies from the review.

IGU, internet gaming disorder; PSMU, problematic social media use

Author	Title of Study	Method	Findings
Berryman et al. [ ]	Social Media Use and Mental Health among Young Adults	Cross-sectional	Social media use was not predictive of impaired mental health functioning.
Coyne et al. [ ]	Does Time Spent using Social Media Impact Mental Health?: An Eight Year Longitudinal Study	8-year longitudinal study	Increased time spent on social media was not associated with increased mental health issues across development when examined at the individual level.
Escobar-Viera et al. [ ]	For Better or for Worse? A Systematic Review of the Evidence on Social Media Use and Depression Among Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Minorities	Systematic Literature Review	Social media provides a space to disclose minority experiences and share ways to cope and get support; constant surveillance of one's social media profile can become a stressor, potentially leading to depression.
O’Reilly et al. [ ]	Potential of Social Media in Promoting Mental Health in Adolescents	qualitative study	Adolescents frequently utilize social media and the internet to seek information about mental health.
O’Reilly [ ]	Social Media and Adolescent Mental Health: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly	focus groups	Much of the negative rhetoric of social media was repeated by mental health practitioners, although there was some acknowledgement of potential benefit.
Feder et al. [ ]	Is There an Association Between Social Media Use and Mental Health? The Timing of Confounding Measurement Matters	longitudinal	Frequent social media use report greater symptoms of psychopathology.
Rasmussen et al. [ ]	The Serially Mediated Relationship between Emerging Adults’ Social Media Use and Mental Well-Being	Exploratory study	Social media use may be a risk factor for mental health struggles among emerging adults and that social media use may be an activity which emerging adults resort to when dealing with difficult emotions.
Keles et al. [ ]	A Systematic Review: The Influence of Social Media on Depression, Anxiety and Psychological Distress in Adolescents	systematic review	Four domains of social media: time spent, activity, investment, and addiction. All domains correlated with depression, anxiety and psychological distress.
Nereim et al. [ ]	Social Media and Adolescent Mental Health: Who You Are and What You do Matter	Exploratory	Passive social media use (reading posts) is more strongly associated with depression than active use (making posts).
Mehmet et al. [ ]	Using Digital and Social Media for Health Promotion: A Social Marketing Approach for Addressing Co‐morbid Physical and Mental Health	Intervention	Social marketing digital media strategy as a health promotion methodology. The paper has provided a framework for implementing and evaluating the effectiveness of digital social media campaigns that can help consumers, carers, clinicians, and service planners address the challenges of rural health service delivery and the tyranny of distance,
Odgers and Jensen [ ]	Adolescent Mental Health in the Digital Age: Facts, Fears, and Future Directions	Review	The review highlights that most research to date has been correlational, has focused on adults versus adolescents, and has generated a mix of often conflicting small positive, negative, and null associations.
Twenge and Martin [ ]	Gender Differences in Associations between Digital Media Use and Psychological Well-Being: Evidence from Three Large Datasets	Cross-sectional	Females were found to be addicted to social media as compared with males.
Fardouly et al. [ ]	The Use of Social Media by Australian Preadolescents and its Links with Mental Health	Cross-sectional	Users of YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat reported more body image concerns and eating pathology than non-users, but did not differ on depressive symptoms or social anxiety
Wartberg et al. [ ]	Internet Gaming Disorder and Problematic Social Media Use in a Representative Sample of German Adolescents: Prevalence Estimates, Comorbid Depressive Symptoms, and Related Psychosocial Aspects	Cross-sectional	Bivariate logistic regression analyses showed that more depressive symptoms, lower interpersonal trust, and family functioning were statistically significantly associated with both IGD and PSMU.
Neira and Barber [ ]	Social Networking Site Use: Linked to Adolescents’ Social Self-Concept, Self-Esteem, and Depressed Mood	Cross-sectional	Higher investment in social media (e.g. active social media use) predicted adolescents’ depressive symptoms. No relationship was found between the frequency of social media use and depressed mood.

This study has attempted to systematically analyze the existing literature on the effect of social media use on mental health. Although the results of the study were not completely consistent, this review found a general association between social media use and mental health issues. Although there is positive evidence for a link between social media and mental health, the opposite has been reported.

For example, a previous study found no relationship between the amount of time spent on social media and depression or between social media-related activities, such as the number of online friends and the number of “selfies”, and depression [ 29 ]. Similarly, Neira and Barber found that while higher investment in social media (e.g. active social media use) predicted adolescents’ depressive symptoms, no relationship was found between the frequency of social media use and depressed mood [ 28 ].

In the 16 studies, anxiety and depression were the most commonly measured outcome. The prominent risk factors for anxiety and depression emerging from this study comprised time spent, activity, and addiction to social media. In today's world, anxiety is one of the basic mental health problems. People liked and commented on their uploaded photos and videos. In today's age, everyone is immune to the social media context. Some teens experience anxiety from social media related to fear of loss, which causes teens to try to respond and check all their friends' messages and messages on a regular basis.

On the contrary, depression is one of the unintended significances of unnecessary use of social media. In detail, depression is limited not only to Facebooks but also to other social networking sites, which causes psychological problems. A new study found that individuals who are involved in social media, games, texts, mobile phones, etc. are more likely to experience depression.

The previous study found a 70% increase in self-reported depressive symptoms among the group using social media. The other social media influence that causes depression is sexual fun [ 12 ]. The intimacy fun happens when social media promotes putting on a facade that highlights the fun and excitement but does not tell us much about where we are struggling in our daily lives at a deeper level [ 28 ]. Another study revealed that depression and time spent on Facebook by adolescents are positively correlated [ 22 ]. More importantly, symptoms of major depression have been found among the individuals who spent most of their time in online activities and performing image management on social networking sites [ 14 ].

Another study assessed gender differences in associations between social media use and mental health. Females were found to be more addicted to social media as compared with males [ 26 ]. Passive activity in social media use such as reading posts is more strongly associated with depression than doing active use like making posts [ 23 ]. Other important findings of this review suggest that other factors such as interpersonal trust and family functioning may have a greater influence on the symptoms of depression than the frequency of social media use [ 28 , 29 ].

Limitation and suggestion

The limitations and suggestions were identified by the evidence involved in the study and review process. Previously, 7 of the 16 studies were cross-sectional and slightly failed to determine the causal relationship between the variables of interest. Given the evidence from cross-sectional studies, it is not possible to conclude that the use of social networks causes mental health problems. Only three longitudinal studies examined the causal relationship between social media and mental health, which is hard to examine if the mental health problem appeared more pronounced in those who use social media more compared with those who use it less or do not use at all [ 19 , 20 , 24 ]. Next, despite the fact that the proposed relationship between social media and mental health is complex, a few studies investigated mediating factors that may contribute or exacerbate this relationship. Further investigations are required to clarify the underlying factors that help examine why social media has a negative impact on some peoples’ mental health, whereas it has no or positive effect on others’ mental health.

Conclusions

Social media is a new study that is rapidly growing and gaining popularity. Thus, there are many unexplored and unexpected constructive answers associated with it. Lately, studies have found that using social media platforms can have a detrimental effect on the psychological health of its users. However, the extent to which the use of social media impacts the public is yet to be determined. This systematic review has found that social media envy can affect the level of anxiety and depression in individuals. In addition, other potential causes of anxiety and depression have been identified, which require further exploration.

The importance of such findings is to facilitate further research on social media and mental health. In addition, the information obtained from this study can be helpful not only to medical professionals but also to social science research. The findings of this study suggest that potential causal factors from social media can be considered when cooperating with patients who have been diagnosed with anxiety or depression. Also, if the results from this study were used to explore more relationships with another construct, this could potentially enhance the findings to reduce anxiety and depression rates and prevent suicide rates from occurring.

The content published in Cureus is the result of clinical experience and/or research by independent individuals or organizations. Cureus is not responsible for the scientific accuracy or reliability of data or conclusions published herein. All content published within Cureus is intended only for educational, research and reference purposes. Additionally, articles published within Cureus should not be deemed a suitable substitute for the advice of a qualified health care professional. Do not disregard or avoid professional medical advice due to content published within Cureus.

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

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54 answers to the most common social media questions

Written by by Natalie O'Grady

Published on April 22, 2024

Reading time 14 minutes

With the social media landscape constantly evolving, there’s always something new to learn for both novice and experienced marketers alike. Naturally, you might have many pressing social media marketing questions you’re embarrassed to ask because they seem like common knowledge. But no social media question is too simple because it can be challenging to catch up, especially in 2024, when changing social media regulations bring something different every day.

In this post, we answer some of the most common and important social media questions. Besides general FAQs, we’ll also tackle platform-specific questions. Let’s get started!

Table of contents:

General social media questions

Instagram faqs, facebook faqs, youtube faqs, linkedin faqs, 1. how many people are on social media.

As of January 2024, a total of 5.04 billion people around the world use social media, putting the worldwide social media penetration rate at 62%.

2. What is the most popular social media platform?

Based on user count alone, Facebook continues to be the most popular social media platform. It had 3 billion monthly active users in Q4 2023.

3. How long does the average person spend on social media per day?

As of 2024, the average social media user spent around 2 hours and 23 minutes per day on social media according to Statista . Interestingly, this is down from 2 hours and 31 minutes the previous year.

Bar graph from Statista showing average number of minutes users spend daily on various social media platforms.

4. What is the fastest-growing social media platform?

While Facebook remains the largest overall platform at three billion users, TikTok has climbed to the fifth largest platform in a short time, with 1.5 billion users. YouTube, WhatsApp and Instagram round out the top five largest platforms.

5. What’s the best time to post on social media?

The best time to post on social media depends on several factors. While your choice of platform and your industry both matter, your audience activity plays the biggest role. You should look at your post performance to get valuable data about the perfect post timing for your business.

You can also use our guide on the best time to post as a starting point before you find what works best for your business and industry.

6. How often should I post on social media?

Again, this largely depends on your audience. While you definitely should publish at least one post every day, you should see if posting more often will make any difference in your performance. Once you find a posting frequency that works for you, create a publishing calendar , and follow it consistently.

Sprout Social publishing calendar in month view featuring content by social media network, message type, tags and campaigns.

7. Which social media platform should I use to promote my business?

Having a presence on all popular platforms can be counterproductive if not executed with a strategy. Instead, focus on the platforms that are highly popular among your target audience. The best platforms to use will vary for each business. Check out our guide on how to choose the best social media channels for your business.

8. How do I get started with social media marketing?

There are a few things you need to begin marketing on social media—a goal, target audience and strategy. Determine what you want to achieve through social media marketing and what types of people you want to attract. Then create a social media strategy to streamline and organize your approach.

9. What kind of content should I post?

This also depends on your industry and what appeals to your target audience, although visuals typically take the cake on social media. Try out some of our social media post ideas and see which ones perform the best to find out what type of content your audience likes.

10. How can I get more followers on social media?

Growing your social media following involves a lot of planning and strategizing as well as posting the right content and targeting the right audience. Use our comprehensive guide on how to grow your social media audience to get started.

11. Can I use social media to build a B2B marketing strategy?

Absolutely. With 53% of consumers saying their social media usage has increased over the last two years, your target audience is active on these platforms more than ever. Sprout’s Social Listening tools provide indepth insights including demographic information such as audience segmentation based on factors like age, gender and location when analyzing social conversations about a specific topic for a more comprehensive grasp of your prospects.

Insights from Sprout’s Listening tool showcasing audience demographics like age and gender.

Leverage our guide to building a customer-centric B2B social media strategy to start planning.

12. How can I use social media data for market research?

Annual market research is critical for keeping your overall marketing strategy ahead of the curve, and social media data is ripe with actionable insights. Uncover useful insights like audience intent, trends your customers are following and how customers are using your products and services. We have a full article on ways to use social media for market research to get you started.

13. What are the best social media metrics to track?

It’s important to track social media metrics that are important to your organization. Vanity metrics like follower growth and audience still tell a part of your overall story, and can be useful to include. You’ll also want to consider customer satisfaction metrics like reply time, total response volume and customer satisfaction scores (CSAT). Awareness is trackable through metrics like reach, and customer retention is spotlighted in reviews and net promotor score (NPS). Find a full list of suggestions in our guide to the best social media metrics to track in 2024.

14. How can I build an effective influencer marketing strategy?

Influencer marketing has evolved greatly over the years; no longer are brands required to shell out major money for sponsorships with celebrities. The type of influencer you need will depend on your brand persona and target audience. You don’t always need macro influencers with millions of followers to make an impact; micro-influencers with niche followers might just be what your brand needs. Here is a complete guide on the key considerations you need to keep in mind to build an effective influencer marketing strategy.

Influencer marketing tools like Tagger are pivotal in optimizing influencer marketing efforts. They help you find the right influencers from thousands of vetted content creators, manage contract negotiations and analyze campaigns in real time so you get prompt performance insights and use them to improve your strategy.

Tagger helps you find the right influencers from thousands of vetted content creators and analyze campaigns in real time so you get prompt performance insights and use them to improve your strategy.

15. What are the best metrics to track for influencer marketing?

Once you’ve got a solid influencer marketing strategy built, hone in on what metrics you need to track, such as post performance and the influencer’s overall account performance. We suggest these 10 best metrics to track for influencer marketing including audience engagement and website traffic.

16. How many active users does Instagram have and can it really help my brand?

Over 2 billion users are active on the platform monthly. Additionally, there are over 200 million business accounts on Instagram. And on average, most Instagram users are between the ages of 18 and 34. Learn more Instagram stats .

Instagram data reveals that 70% of consumers research brands and products on the platform for their next purchase. Instagram is also the most-used platform for influencer marketing and 80.8% of marketers plan to use it to strengthen their influencer marketing strategy in 2024. Instagram Stories has further solidified the network’s status as the primary platform to promote visual content and Instagram Story ads has resulted in more advertisers promoting their products through Instagram Stories than ever before.

There are several apps you can use to enhance your Instagram marketing strategy —apps that can save you time and effort in content creation, scheduling and reporting. Check out a curated list of Instagram apps you’ll need to meet your marketing goals on the platform.

17. How many followers does the average Instagram user have?

The average Instagram personal account has about 150 followers . For public influencer accounts, the number varies widely; an account is considered a micro-influencer with around 1,000 followers.

18. What percentage of Instagram followers sees your post?

While Instagram hasn’t made anything official, many users have noticed that their posts reach only about 7% of their followers. This is because the platform prioritizes posts from accounts you regularly interact with.

19. What is the average age of Instagram users?

On average, most Instagram users are between the ages of 18 and 34. Learn more Instagram demographic stats .

Statista bar graph showing what percentage various age groups make up of Instagram's overall user base.

20. Does Instagram sell your information?

No. According to Instagram’s data policy , the network promises to never sell your information. It does, however, share analytics data about users’ activity and preferences with third-party partners such as advertisers and analytics services.

21. What information does Instagram collect?

Besides your device information, Instagram collects the content, communication and information you provide. This can include metadata about your content such as the location. It also collects information about how you use the platform and the people, accounts and hashtags you interact with. Read the full Instagram data policy to learn more.

22. Can you export Instagram followers?

Yes. While not in the Instagram app itself, several tools such as IGExport and Phantombuster will let you export your Instagram followers into a .csv file.

23. Is there a way to download Instagram posts?

Instagram gives you an option to download a copy of all the posts you’ve shared on the platform. Find out how to do this through the Instagram Help Center . As for posts shared by other people, Instagram won’t let you download them directly but you can use third-party apps like DownloadGram and Ingramer. Check out Instagram’s terms of use for image downloading, reposting and embedding.

24. How do you save someone else’s picture on Instagram?

Click on the “Save” button at the bottom of the post and Instagram will add it to your collection. This isn’t the same as downloading a photo or video. To download a picture, you’ll need to use third-party apps.

Image of comment section of Denny's Instagram page, with a red arrow pointing to the save button.

25. How can I see who saved my pictures on Instagram?

Instagram doesn’t give you the option to see who’s saved your posts, but with an Instagram Business Profile can find out how many times a post has been saved. You can find this information under Post Insights.

26. How do you remove pictures from Instagram?

To remove pictures or videos you’ve posted on Instagram, tap on the “Options” button above your post and then choose “Delete.” You’ll need to tap “Delete” again to confirm that you want to remove the post from Instagram.

27. How do you get your “Top Live” on Instagram?

You could access this “Top Live” section at the top of your “Explore” page before, but Instagram has since removed it. Your curated “Explore” page may show suggested Lives alongside Reels and regular posts.

28. How can I share live video replays?

Choose “Share Video” when you see the option at the bottom of your screen once the broadcast ends. You’ll also get the option to “Download Video” in case you want to save it to your camera roll or “Delete Video” if you don’t want to keep it.

29. How can I see who is live on Instagram?

When someone you follow goes live on Instagram, you’ll see their profile picture at the top of your Feed with a colorful ring around it along with the word “Live.” Tap on the profile picture to start watching their live video.

30. How can I see active users on Instagram?

If users are currently active, you’ll see a green dot next to their profile picture and username. You won’t be able to see this feature if users have turned off their activity status.

31. What is Threads and can I use it for my brand?

Threads is a social platform with a similar structure to Twitter/X that connects directly to Instagram. Users can sign up for Threads via their Instagram account.

Threads can be a piece of your overall social strategy and leveraged in much the same way you use Twitter. One thing to note is that your audience on Threads will likely be identical to your Instagram audience. This offers new ways for your brand to engage with this specific following, reaching them in a different format.

32. How do I get started with Threads?

You can set up a Threads account through your established Instagram account. Download the Threads app from the App Store or Google Play Store and login with your Instagram credentials to get started. The username you use on Instagram will carry over to Threads, and you’ll have the option to customize your profile and bio on the new platform. If you already have the Instagram app downloaded, you can also search “Threads” and tap the ticket icon that appears in the search bar. Read everything you need to know about getting started with Threads.

33. What is Meta Business Suite?

Meta Business Suite is a desktop and mobile app that lets you connect both your Facebook and Instagram accounts in one place. Connect your Facebook and Instagram business pages to Meta Business Suite and dive into scheduling posts, parsing data insights and connecting third party tools like Sprout Social . You can manage Facebook, Instagram, Messenger posts, ads and communications and track their content performance. You can also add and manage an Ad account with Business Manager.

The add an ad account screen in Meta Business Suite

34. What is the Creator Studio for Facebook and Instagram?

Creator Studio is a platform that allows brands and content creators to manage their content, track audience engagement and monetize content on Meta platforms. There are several tools you can use on the platform; we recommend reviewing our full guide to Creator Studio for Facebook and Instagram .

35. What are the best times to post on Facebook?

The short answer is whenever your target audience is most often on the platform. The longer answer is that it varies by industry and day of the week. In general, Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to early afternoon are the best times to post, with any time on Sunday being the worst. You can get more specific in our guide to the best times to post on Facebook .

36. How can you schedule Facebook posts?

It’s difficult to imagine running an entire social media strategy without being able to schedule Facebook posts . There are a few ways you can schedule content ahead of time. First, navigate to the main dashboard of the Meta Business Suite. From here, choose the planner tab and then “Create Post.”

You also have two options for scheduling posts in Sprout. The first is by choosing the “Compose” icon, drafting your post and then choosing a time to schedule. The other path is to use Sprout Queue, found in the “Publishing” tab of your Sprout dashboard. This is a great option when you have content you don’t need to go out at a specific time, as you can let the Sprout Queue choose the best option with the Viral Post feature.

Sprout Social's Facebook dashboard with optimal send times that allows you to manage post publishing based on the best engagement rates.

37. How do hashtags work on Facebook for businesses?

Hashtags on Facebook are great for tracking influencer campaigns as well as trending topics. They can be used to categorize conversations your brand is having on the platform. Make sure you avoid spaces between words and all forms of punctuation in the hashtag.

A Facebook page shows search results for #Portland, which includes 3.4 million posts. A post from a florist called Botanica Floral Design is at the top.

TikTok FAQs

38. how many active users does tiktok have.

As of 2024, TikTok has over 1.5 billion monthly active users. This makes it the fifth most popular social media platform in the world.

39. How often should I post on TikTok?

TikTok suggests a best practice of posting one to four times a day, and experimenting with times and types of content. Ultimately, how often you post on TikTok should be guided by your audience and how often you can intentionally create quality content to share.

40. What are the best times to post on TikTok?

The optimum times to post on TikTok are generally Tuesday to Wednesday, in two time blocks: 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. or 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. To get more specific, we have a guide to the best times to post on TikTok broken down by industry.

Based on data from Sprout Social, a data heat map show shows the best times to post on TikTok globally in 2024.

41. How do I get started with ads on TikTok?

TikTok offers a wide variety of ad types, including both video and image. To get started, you’ll need to create an account on TikTok Ads Manager . Once you’re all signed up, dive into our full guide to ads on TikTok for next steps, including how to install the TikTok Pixel on your website.

42. How do I increase my TikTok engagement rate?

The number one approach to increasing your TikTok engagement rate is to focus on quality over quantity.. For example, posting a well-planned and executed video once a week will give you better results than posting subpar content multiple times a week. Also ensure you post at optimal times (see above) and invite your audience to engage in the comments.

43. How can I use TikTok for influencer marketing?

As a video-forward platform, TikTok is a goldmine for brands looking to strengthen their influencer marketing strategy. There are over 100,000 influencers on TikTok in the US alone. Using TikTok in your influencer strategy involves identifying the right influencers, tracking trending hashtags and keeping a pulse on conversations relevant to your brand. Read more in our guide to TikTok for influencer marketing .

44. What are YouTube Shorts and how can I use them to promote my brand?

Consumers love short-form content . If you’re familiar with Instagram’s Reels or TikTok in general, YouTube Shorts will feel similar. These vertical videos tend to be 60 seconds or less, and creators use them as standalone pieces or to share clips of their longer videos. You can use the same approach you would with TikTok, tweaking to speak specifically to your YouTube subscribers.

45. Are marketers using YouTube Stories?

Yes! According to a report, 59% of marketers currently using YouTube plan to increase their usage. This was the largest percentage of any social media platform.

46. How do I promote my videos on YouTube?

YouTube’s Help page offers an in-depth guide on how to promote videos on YouTube. Suggestions include cross-posting, interacting with your audience and using Google Ads for Video.

47. How can I optimize my videos on YouTube?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is key to making sure your videos get in front of your target audience. There are several things to consider—thankfully, we have a guide for YouTube SEO that breaks it down.

48. What are YouTube hashtags and why should I use them?

YouTube hashtags are similar to hashtags on other platforms. They help you categorize your content and help users find your videos. However, on YouTube, hashtags come with a few extra benefits in the SEO realm. Hashtags help YouTube understand the context of your video, and increase the chances of your content getting in front of the right people.

YouTube hashtags help you understand the context of your video

49. How can I use YouTube for influencer marketing?

YouTube is the second most popular platform for influencer marketing, and it’s easy to see why. With options for both short form and long-form videos, brands can work with influencers to tell visual, engaging stories in multiple ways. Use our YouTube influencer marketing guide to build your strategy.

50. How many members does LinkedIn have around the world?

Globally, LinkedIn membership exceeds 900 million in 200 countries and regions.

51. How can I create an effective LinkedIn Business Page?

Creating an effective LinkedIn Business Page comes down to building and managing it like a true marketing asset. There are many different sections, sub pages and approaches that allow you to be creative and explore new ways to connect with your target audience.

52. Are LinkedIn Ads worth the hype?

Linked Ads can bring a high return on investment. LinkedIn is rated the number one platform for B2B lead generation, and brands have seen a 33% increase in purchase intent from ad exposure on LinkedIn. Marketers say they see two times higher conversion rate on LinkedIn.

53. How do LinkedIn hashtags work?

LinkedIn hashtags are keywords and phrases that help bring your content to your target audience.. You can add them to your posts and on your business and personal pages. Unlike other platforms, LinkedIn heavily encourages using multiple hashtags, including a space where you can select up to three relevant hashtags for your business page.

A search bar at the top of the LinkedIn page shows “#cybersecurity.” Below on the left, there are options to sort search results, like “people” and “products.” In the center is a post from a LinkedIn user that includes the cybersecurity hashtag.

54. What are the most important LinkedIn metrics to track?

Ultimately, your brand may have specific metrics you want to track, even if these don’t appear on common “most important” lists. However, we recommend focusing on data in the visitors, followers and engagement spaces. These LinkedIn metrics will give you a solid look at how your content is performing and who is coming to your page.

Bonus Question

Did we answer most of your social media questions?

Let us know if you have any other pressing questions about social media or platform FAQs that you’d like us to answer. We understand that things change quickly and you need answers just as fast. Be sure to check out our social media stats to understand the landscape better across all social platforms.

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Brandwatch Consumer Research

Formerly the Falcon suite

Formerly Paladin

Published September 6 th 2016

Conducting Social Media Research: How to Find Real Consumer Insights

Social is a rich source of data but only if you know how to conduct good social media research. This post explains the methods for finding consumer insights

Social media research can surface consumer insights that can be difficult and expensive to find in any other way. The volume of conversation on the web gives this research method a unique ability – uncovering qualitative insights on a quantitative scale.

For many people, however, it can be daunting. There is so much data: millions upon millions of conversations happen online every day. If you don’t know how to refine what you are listening to, you’ll drown in the data.

It’s also easy to rely on the metrics that are constantly produced on social: likes, followers, fans and so on. Knowing how to cut through the noise to find the information that can drive business decisions is a real skill. I recently spoke to Bex Carson, Head of Brandwatch’s Research Services team, to get an insight into best practice when it comes to social media research.

social media research puts the whole world in your hands

Developing an approach to social media research

Uncovering insights requires a certain approach. You need to move beyond the simple social metrics to uncover robust insights that can recommend a real business action. The problem can be knowing who to listen to, how to spot a trend, knowing what’s significant and putting your findings into context.

Many people will start with the metrics they know about. They then think about the questions it is possible to answer with those metrics, and develop a research plan based on that. A good social intelligence tool has the flexibility that renders this way of thinking very restrictive – it starts with what was already known and therefore limits the possibilities of what can be discovered.

Ask interesting questions

The foundation for good social media research is asking the right questions. If you start with a bad question, you’ll receive a bad answer.

Start by forgetting any concerns about how you are going to conduct the research. Focus on the problems and questions you need to answer, without thinking about the methodology. Once you have the question, you can work on the methodology.

With Brandwatch there’s a way to answer pretty much any question. The joy of social media is its flexibility and Brandwatch Analytics has been built to be flexible to match that.

Bex Carson, Head of Research Services, Brandwatch

The questions need to be specific. They need to be able to deliver an answer that can be acted upon. Examples of this sort of question might be “What do women in their 50s want from a fashion brand?” or “Is our content resonating with our target customers?”

Spend time developing questions, and brainstorm with others where possible. Consider the following:

What do we want to be able to do that is different based on this research?
What capacity/power/authority for change does the reader of the report have?
How do I recognize success? What does good look like?
What do I already know about this subject/audience?
Is my question answerable within the timeframe available?

Do better analysis

There are two main approaches you can take to answering your questions. The first involves uncovering metrics that answer a defined question. The second is more of an exploratory approach, discovering insights as you work through the data. Where time and budget allows, a combination of the two approaches will generally reveal the most interesting and robust answers.

The best social media research that produces the best results will combine some elements of both. That way you know you are investing time to get definite answers to specific questions, but you’re leaving yourself open to discover something new about your audience.

BEX CARSON, BRANDWATCH

Structured and planned analysis.

For this type of research, you are looking for an answer to a specific question. You need to identify specific metrics that you can bring together to answer that question. By using the power of segmentation – Brandwatch’s Rules , Categories, and Tags – you can arrive at specific answers.

You can take a structured approach to social media research

This method is great for answering defined, objective questions. For example, if you have run a campaign and want to know if it drove spontaneous awareness, you can look at the volume of discussion for both the campaign assets and the brand baseline over time. These relatively simple queries will result in metrics that uncover the success of your campaign.

Follow the breadcrumbs analysis

This approach is exploratory, listening to the data to discover the story within it. Think of it as social media ethnography. You can arrive at a fuller understanding of your consumers, uncovering different audience groups as you move through the data and spot trends.

This methodology can be a challenge. You need to enter the project without preconceptions and ensure you don’t draw your own conclusions. It’s a harder way to conduct social media research – using open listening to find underlying themes.

The benefits are plentiful, though. First, you are closer to the voice of the customer . There is no substitute for listening to your customers verbatim, understanding the nuance and sentiment of their conversations.

As a human analyst, you can understand and categorize things that a machine simply can’t. Someone might be talking about the same topic even if they don’t use the same words. Reading through the conversations, you can find people might talk in a way that you hadn’t thought of, and use that to enrich your research.

1. Decide on your dataset

Broad topics and themes often drive more interesting results than brand queries. You want to analyze of a type of conversation rather than a particular brand. Within the conversation theme, you still need to define the problem clearly so you can create a targeted query and reduce noise in the data.

As an example, let’s say you wanted to know what people who have seen the movie thought about the new Ghostbusters film . If you just wrote a query on Ghostbusters, there would be a lot of conversation around the all-female cast, or the abuse that Leslie Jones received on Twitter.

By writing a query that includes personal pronouns, mentions of cinema brands, people saying “just seen/watched” and so on, you will have a much cleaner data set without manipulating it too much.

2. Clean your data

This can be a really important way of revealing the interesting, more concealed consumer insights. Many topics can be dominated by a few obvious and popular themes, so that the insights get lost in comparison.

You want to surface underlying themes with a unique value, rather things you can see easily on a topic cloud/trend line. To do this, you can look at you initial query results to identify the popular themes, and then exclude those mentions by using tags.

The data that remains lets you see what else people are saying beyond what you already know. It can also be useful to remove retweets, leaving you with only the original conversations.

3. Take a random sample

While automation can be a useful tool, the type of analysis we are talking about here is human led. This means you need a manageable dataset. It needs to be large enough to be representative of the mentions, but small enough so it can be read completely, and in detail. Mark off the mentions as you work through them to ensure you cover your whole sample.

This allows you to undertake the next step…

4. Read and code using grouped categories

There is no right way to do this step, and it will largely depend on your dataset. This is where you go on a journey of discovery, hunting down the insights in the data. You want to start grouping themes and topics.

You can start by creating categories that you think you are going to find. To go back to the Ghostbusters example, you would expect some people to say they “loved it”, others that “hated it”, and everything in between.

It’s important to remember that this is just a starting point. You need to be completely data-led. New themes will emerge as you work through the data, so you need to add these.

Human analysis allows you to have nuanced emotional categories, such as anger, frustration, humor, joy and so on. A human analyst is able to pick these up where automated processes would not be able to.

You can also set up categories for author type, to understand the different conversations among different actors.

Brandwatch allows you to group categories together, so each emotional or author response can form a sub-group within a parent group. This can prove useful during your analysis.

Crucially, you want to liberally add categories as you read through the data. At the end, you might find there were only a couple of mentions of one category and decide to delete it. It’s better to do this than be conservative and realize you missed an important topic of discussion only once you reach the end of the dataset.

5. Analyze and chart

Now you need to dive into the charts and start analyzing.

The best way to start is to simply create a standard chart component and apply filters to the data. You can start looking at your different categories, moving the data around to spot interesting patterns.

Some of the most useful insights come from crossing your parent categories. So if you have author type on one axis, and emotion on the other, you can start to see different emotional responses from different author types.

Golden rules for social media research

1. compare everything and constantly seek out difference.

The fundamental tenet of social media research is noticing a difference between things. You don’t know what good looks like without seeing the bad, but you are looking for a significant difference. You don’t want to recommend sweeping changes because of a tiny difference in the data. Be curious and keep exploring.

If you want to be interesting, be interested.

2. Be curious and ask why

If you notice a difference, start digging into it. Then dig some more. Keep digging until you have read something that helps explain why that difference exists.

You can’t create a suggested action based on a piece of data if you don’t understand why that piece of data is the way that it is.

Presenting your social media research

First, remember that you are telling a story. With any story, you need to consider your audience.

There may be several people or departments that are going to read your report. They won’t all have the same amount of time available to read what you have written, and they might not all be interested in the same things.

While it’s a good idea to start with a methodology to give the report transparency, hit them with the key findings and consumer insights straight away.

Then, as you continue through the story of the data, you can explain each insight more thoroughly with charts, graphs, and analysis to back it up.

You might like

How to write a social media report.

We reveal how to write a social media report, whether you want to present in-depth research, a campaign-specific report, or a regular round-up of metrics.

Having insights buried in a 27 page PDF is frustrating and risks your hard work being overlooked.

Finally, remember that you’re not really telling your story; you’re telling the story of the people you’re listening to, so make sure to include the voice of the customer. Real examples of social posts, with real customer profile pictures, will bring your social media research to life.

Content Writer

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Finding a suitable social media research topic is stressful. The reason is that the media landscape is constantly changing, and new ideas and topics are brought to the forefront. Another reason is the limited available scholarly resources to aid your research in this area. However, writing about social media is interesting, but it all depends on your chosen topic.

So, how do you find suitable topics for your social media paper? First, you start by finding research problems related to social media. To find these problems, focus on drafting social media loopholes for research. Once you've found a suitable topic, the writing stage is the next.

Social media is a virtual communication platform that promotes digitized interactions between humans. Social media research papers are academic papers written on issues directly or indirectly affecting social media, its users, and its usage.

Writing research papers on social media or topics that grow within the space creates more awareness for any issue. While that's the case, over the years, many conversational topics have continued to grow through the space. These topics often have a short shelf life because they reside only within comment sections.

Even after selecting a topic, most students still struggle to write their papers. Why? It's usually the problem of not knowing how to structure their research. Here are helpful ways to start writing your social media paper:

We understand how difficult it can be to find suitable social media research topics. So, we have researched and compiled a comprehensive list of topics you can use regardless of your educational level.

While research writing on social media is relatively new, there are many exciting areas to base a study on. However, if you're finding it challenging to choose a topic, consider the above topics as a guide or seek help.

Unless otherwise credited, all characters, logo images and titles shown herein are © Copyright 2011 by FrankAnOllie.com. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any of these images, pages or parts thereof without specific written permission is strictly prohibited.

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Americans’ Social Media Use

Youtube and facebook are by far the most used online platforms among u.s. adults; tiktok’s user base has grown since 2021, table of contents.

Which social media sites do Americans use most?
TikTok sees growth since 2021
Stark age differences in who uses each app or site
Other demographic differences in use of online platforms
Acknowledgments
2023 National Public Opinion Reference Survey (NPORS) Methodology

To better understand Americans’ social media use, Pew Research Center surveyed 5,733 U.S. adults from May 19 to Sept. 5, 2023. Ipsos conducted this National Public Opinion Reference Survey (NPORS) for the Center using address-based sampling and a multimode protocol that included both web and mail. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race and ethnicity, education and other categories.

Polls from 2000 to 2021 were conducted via phone. For more on this mode shift, read our Q&A .

Here are the questions used for this analysis , along with responses, and its methodology .

A note on terminology: Our May-September 2023 survey was already in the field when Twitter changed its name to “X.” The terms Twitter and X are both used in this report to refer to the same platform.

Social media platforms faced a range of controversies in recent years, including concerns over misinformation and data privacy . Even so, U.S. adults use a wide range of sites and apps, especially YouTube and Facebook. And TikTok – which some Congress members previously called to ban – saw growth in its user base.

These findings come from a Pew Research Center survey of 5,733 U.S. adults conducted May 19-Sept. 5, 2023.

A horizontal bar chart showing that most U.S. adults use YouTube and Facebook; about half use Instagram.

YouTube by and large is the most widely used online platform measured in our survey. Roughly eight-in-ten U.S. adults (83%) report ever using the video-based platform.

While a somewhat lower share reports using it, Facebook is also a dominant player in the online landscape. Most Americans (68%) report using the social media platform.

Additionally, roughly half of U.S. adults (47%) say they use Instagram .

The other sites and apps asked about are not as widely used , but a fair portion of Americans still use them:

27% to 35% of U.S. adults use Pinterest, TikTok, LinkedIn, WhatsApp and Snapchat.
About one-in-five say they use Twitter (recently renamed “X”) and Reddit.

This year is the first time we asked about BeReal, a photo-based platform launched in 2020. Just 3% of U.S. adults report using it.

Recent Center findings show that YouTube also dominates the social media landscape among U.S. teens .

One platform – TikTok – stands out for growth of its user base. A third of U.S. adults (33%) say they use the video-based platform, up 12 percentage points from 2021 (21%).

A line chart showing that a third of U.S. adults say they use TikTok, up from 21% in 2021.

The other sites asked about had more modest or no growth over the past couple of years. For instance, while YouTube and Facebook dominate the social media landscape, the shares of adults who use these platforms has remained stable since 2021.

The Center has been tracking use of online platforms for many years. Recently, we shifted from gathering responses via telephone to the web and mail. Mode changes can affect study results in a number of ways, therefore we have to take a cautious approach when examining how things have – or have not – changed since our last study on these topics in 2021. For more details on this shift, please read our Q&A .

Adults under 30 are far more likely than their older counterparts to use many of the online platforms. These findings are consistent with previous Center data .

A dot plot showing that the youngest U.S. adults are far more likely to use Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok; age differences are less pronounced for Facebook.

Age gaps are especially large for Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok – platforms that are used by majorities of adults under 30. For example:

78% of 18- to 29-year-olds say they use Instagram, far higher than the share among those 65 and older (15%).
65% of U.S. adults under 30 report using Snapchat, compared with just 4% of the oldest age cohort.
62% of 18- to 29-year-olds say they use TikTok, much higher than the share among adults ages 65 years and older (10%).
Americans ages 30 to 49 and 50 to 64 fall somewhere in between for all three platforms.

YouTube and Facebook are the only two platforms that majorities of all age groups use. That said, there is still a large age gap between the youngest and oldest adults when it comes to use of YouTube. The age gap for Facebook, though, is much smaller.

Americans ages 30 to 49 stand out for using three of the platforms – LinkedIn, WhatsApp and Facebook – at higher rates. For instance, 40% of this age group uses LinkedIn, higher than the roughly three-in-ten among those ages 18 to 29 and 50 to 64. And just 12% of those 65 and older say the same.

Overall, a large majority of the youngest adults use multiple sites and apps. About three-quarters of adults under 30 (74%) use at least five of the platforms asked about. This is far higher than the shares of those ages 30 to 49 (53%), 50 to 64 (30%), and ages 65 and older (8%) who say the same.

Refer to our social media fact sheet for more detailed data by age for each site and app.

A number of demographic differences emerge in who uses each platform. Some of these include the following:

Race and ethnicity: Roughly six-in-ten Hispanic (58%) and Asian (57%) adults report using Instagram, somewhat higher than the shares among Black (46%) and White (43%) adults. 1
Gender: Women are more likely than their male counterparts to say they use the platform.
Education: Those with some college education and those with a college degree report using it at somewhat higher rates than those who have a high school degree or less education.
Race and ethnicity: Hispanic adults are particularly likely to use TikTok, with 49% saying they use it, higher than Black adults (39%). Even smaller shares of Asian (29%) and White (28%) adults say the same.
Gender: Women use the platform at higher rates than men (40% vs. 25%).
Education: Americans with higher levels of formal education are especially likely to use LinkedIn. For instance, 53% of Americans with at least a bachelor’s degree report using the platform, far higher than among those who have some college education (28%) and those who have a high school degree or less education (10%). This is the largest educational difference measured across any of the platforms asked about.

Twitter (renamed “X”)

Household income: Adults with higher household incomes use Twitter at somewhat higher rates. For instance, 29% of U.S. adults who have an annual household income of at least $100,000 say they use the platform. This compares with one-in-five among those with annual household incomes of $70,000 to $99,999, and around one-in-five among those with annual incomes of less than $30,000 and those between $30,000 and $69,999.
Gender: Women are far more likely to use Pinterest than men (50% vs. 19%).
Race and ethnicity: 54% of Hispanic adults and 51% of Asian adults report using WhatsApp. This compares with 31% of Black adults and even smaller shares of those who are White (20%).

A heat map showing how use of online platforms – such as Facebook, Instagram or TikTok – differs among some U.S. demographic groups.

Estimates for Asian adults are representative of English speakers only. ↩

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ABOUT PEW RESEARCH CENTER Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts .

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Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The influence of internet media on young adult development.

Michael A. Ouellette , Liberty University Follow

School of Behavioral Sciences

Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD)

Cari Oliver

Media, Influence, Development, Free will, Young adults

Disciplines

Recommended citation.

Ouellette, Michael A., "The Influence of Internet Media on Young Adult Development" (2024). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects . 5870. https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/5870

The study examines from a Christian worldview how free will, regarded as God's greatest gift, is now being shaped by human influence. New treatment methods become essential to adapt to the media-changing world and help with developmental delays. The purpose of this qualitative grounded theory lite study was to explore Internet media’s influence on young adults in Quebec, Canada. Data on Internet media demographics, social behavior, identity, influence, emotional self-regulation, and moral decision-making were collected by conducting twelve semi-structured, audio-recorded interviews with young adults in Quebec. The responses were coded into six primary themes, with an intercoder conducting a cross-verification to enhance the validity of the coding process. The interviews revolved around the three research questions on how the experiences of young adults with heavy internet media use relate to social behavior, identity, and self-regulation developmental delays. Participants were 18 to 32 years old, with no struggles with identity, previous diagnosis, or trauma. The results showed that all twelve participants were heavy media users and eleven of them used it for entertainment. Some results supported it while others refuted previous research on media influence on development. The implications of the data closed the gap regarding the extent Internet media influences social (identity and social behavior) and socio-emotional (self-regulation of emotions) development, by adding qualitative data to quantitative numbers. Understanding these relationships and their signs will better prepare those in a helping role (counselors, therapists, and all caregivers) to monitor and intervene.

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Article sidebar, article details, main article content, analysis of gender and use of social media for research: the case of social science lecturers in federal universities in south east nigeria, felicia n. ugwu, charles o. omekwu, chioma clarista onoh, harriet uche igbo.

The study investigated the correlation between the use of social media for research and scholarly research outputs of social sciences lecturers in federal universities in South East Nigeria. The study was done with a view to finding the extent of use and possible differences by gender on the use of social media and research outputs among the respondents, the effects of such differences and the way forward. Three purposes of study, corresponding research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. Population of the study consists of all the academic/teaching staff working in the faculty of the social sciences in all the federal universities in South East Nigeria. Sample for the study include all the 459 academic staff in the faculty of the social sciences. Instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire. Out of the 459 distributed, 354 useful copies ( 77% return rate). Research questions were analyzed using Multiple Regression while the Hypotheses were tested using Ordinary Least Square (OLS) technique. Major findings include a significant relationship between extent the use of social media and research outputs of lectures. Moreover, male lecturers use social media more than their female counterparts wchich increased their chances of having more research outputs. Many challenges on the use of social media for research were reported based on which recommendations include provision of adequate power supply and internet connectivity, regular training on the use of social media for research and increased research collaboration between male and female lecturers.

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Cell Phones in Schools Are a Complicated Issue, New Poll Finds

Published Aug 8, 2024

In July, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order to put boundaries on cell phone use in public schools. Youngkin cited research connecting high cell phone use among adolescents to poor mental health and negative academic outcomes. Whether cell phones belong in schools is a question that has been hotly debated for some time now. Virginia has made their stance clear, joining a growing list of states, including Florida and Indiana, that have established restrictions on cell phone use in schools.

The distinction between allowing cell phones in school versus the classroom might be the biggest challenge for states and school districts to tackle. Safety issues within schools have made it nonnegotiable that parents must be able to reach their children while at school. At the same time, cell phones inside the classroom are assuredly not going to aid in the ongoing effort to help students rebound from learning loss suffered during the pandemic. This complex issue will likely require a complex solution.

In this month’s poll, we re-introduced several previously asked questions about cell phones and social media. Time will tell whether more states will take action to restrict cell phone use in schools. In the meantime, getting a better understanding of how parents feel about the issue is critical. To paint a more complete picture, we’ve also posed these types of questions to teachers and teenagers earlier in the year. You can find both surveys, along with the rest of the surveys we’ve released in the last 12 months, here .

In partnership with Morning Consult, EdChoice surveyed a nationally representative sample of American adults 18 and older (N=2,258) from July 9–12, 2024. With additional sampling, we obtained responses from 1,311 parents of children currently in K–12 education. Check out the full report to read more about how parents are feeling heading into the 2024–25 school year.

While 66% of parents feel that students should be allowed to have cell phones in school, only 30% of parents say cell phones should be allowed in the classroom. This large gap in support for the use of cell phones in school versus the classroom has existed since we began asking this question in the fall of 2023.

Certain groups of parents are more supportive of cell phones being allowed in school than others, however. Nearly three in four Black parents (73%) support their children accessing their cell phones in school, seven points higher than parents on average. Furthermore, Hispanic parents are 11 points more likely than the average parent to support their child accessing their cell phone in the classroom. Perhaps less surprising, older respondents (55+) were far less supportive (-13 points) of cell phones in school than age 18–34 respondents.

When asked about how often their children use cell phones, 49% of parents said their child uses their cell phone “extremely” or “very” often. For parents of children in high school, that number increases to 65%.

Parents have mixed opinions on the effect of cell phone use on their children. Interestingly, the majority of parents feel cell phones have a positive impact on their child’s relationships with classmates (64%), relationships with family (59%), as well as their self-confidence (51%). On the other hand, parents are less likely to feel cell phones are positively impacting their child’s physical health, mental health, and academic performance.

We also asked parents questions about their feelings on a closely related topic, social media. More than one-third (37%) of parents say their child uses social media “extremely” or “very” often. For parents of children in high school, that figure jumps 15 points to 52%. Examining how social media impacts their child’s life, only 43% say it has a positive impact on their child’s self-confidence. Parents are even less likely to say social media use is positively affecting their child’s academic performance (39%), mental health (37%), and physical health (34%).

Lastly, we asked parents if they are concerned about social media’s effects on their child’s mental health. Interestingly, only 39% of parents of high school students said they are “extremely” or “very” worried about the effect of social media use on their child’s mental health. This is especially noteworthy because parents of high schoolers were disproportionately more likely (+15) than school parents on average to say their children use social media at least very often. Concern is highest amongst parents of children in grades K–4 (53%) and parents of children in grades 5–8 (51%).

Visit the EdChoice Public Opinion Tracker site to access past reports, crosstabs, questionnaires , and our national and state dashboards. All are updated monthly. We also provide a more in-depth description of our research and survey methods .

Our K–12 education polls archive is updated on a rolling basis, roughly a few times each month. Please don’t hesitate to let us know if we are missing any surveys, or if there are accidental errors.

Colyn Ritter

Research Associate

Colyn G. Ritter is a Research Associate at EdChoice, where he studies school choice, polling data, public opinion in polling data, and other education related topics. As part of the Research team, he collects data on school choice programs, analyzes polling data through our monthly public opinion tracker, and assists with statewide surveys of K-12 parents and school leaders. Colyn is most curious about the future of the K-12 education landscape with regards to Gen Z, learning pods, and microschools. His work can be found on the EdChoice blog, EdChoice podcasts, as well as other education or opinion outlets. Previously, Colyn worked with youth in the St. Louis area teaching an ACT crash course, as well as with the School of Social Work at Saint Louis University. He received a bachelor's degree from Saint Louis University in Accounting and Sports Business.

2024 Schooling in America Survey Is Out Now!

Updated August 14, 2024

Pessimistic Parents and Cell Phone Bans: 2024 Midyear Polling Review

Updated July 30, 2024

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Microplastics in Salt and Sugar

Title: Microplastics in Salt and Sugar Publication Type: Research Report Year of Publication: 2024 Abstract: Toxics Link conducted the study with the objective of determining the presence of microplastics in sugar and salt products available in Indian markets. To test the presence of microplastics, ten salt and five sugar samples, both branded and unbranded, were purchased online and from local markets for the lab test. Microplastics of different sizes and forms were found in all salt and sugar samples. The purpose of the study was to bring into focus microplastics as food contaminants and trigger possible policy actions and research on possible technological interventions to reduce the exposure risks.

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MRA Guide to the Top 16 Social Media Research Questions

What is Social Media?

What is Social Media Research?

THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA RESEARCH

#2. What data sources are typically used in SMR?

#3. How does SMR interact with other forms of traditional and non-traditional research, including online, offline, in-person, and qualitative and quantitative?

#4. How reliable are SMR results?

#5. Within businesses and organizations, how will SMR activities be tracked and aggregated, and whose responsibility is it to handle each of those functions?

#6. What additional knowledge, skills, and abilities will a corporate researcher need to learn in order to improve their level of competency with SMR?

#7. Are the participants aware that their usergenerated content is under observation?