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Social Media

A guide to using social media responsibly and to researching social media.

Search strategies

Because it is so ubiquitous, social media offers many different paths for scholarly exploration. Some suggested subject searches for doing social media research are:

  • social media
  • social networking
  • social marketing

Consider combining the above subject terms with an additional limiting search term. For example, try searching for social networks as a subject AND a keyword search for commercial impact.

Research Resources

Suggested databases to use when looking for articles on the topic of social media or networks.

Using Google to search for research related to social media and networks will be more fruitful if you try these search tips:

  • Limit your search to academic websites by adding site:edu to the end of your search. This search will return only those websites whose domain ends in .edu.
  • Add the word research to your search. I suggest the following search: social (media OR networks) research site:edu