The social media landscape in 2013- how to make less noise and more buzz (infographic)

With so many social media channels and tools available, which one is right for your brand’s campaign? From social commerce tools to crowd-sourcing platforms, the latest version of Brian Solis’ ‘Conversation Prism’ looks at the social media landscape from a marketers perspective, to help select the right channel and platform based on clear business objectives.

Originally launched in 2008, this third version of ‘The Conversation Prism’ is an attempt to illustrate the sheer size of the social web in the US and the conversations that define it.
As social media continues to grow and evolve, platforms appear, disappear, acquire each other, get renamed, the Conversation Prism changes with it.
Now, this July 2013 version has been updated with extra categories to account for the new services being developed today, including enterprise social networks, social marketplaces, influence, quantified self, and service networking.
The graphic was created by Altimeter Group principal analyst Brian Solis and Jesse Thomas of agency JESS3.

View larger image here
How do I use it?
The graphic above is divided into 26 social media categories, each with at least 6 brands. In the centre of the Prism is the business or the person spearheading the social campaign: you. From here, you can shift the outer circles accordingly to fit your intent, whether it’s about value, purpose, transparency, commitment, or vision.
Various channels in the outer circle are classified by their function to the end user (i.e. “photos,” “music” and “social curation.”) After that, it’s just a shift of circles in order to find the tools that properly align to your business goals.
Please note that the inner wheels are goals for the brand that aren’t related to their position on the chart. (for example, ’brand’ doesn’t tie in to the ‘blog/microblogs’ category.)
For more information about The Conversation Prism, click here