Mapping the field of social media management – A bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Background: The popularity of social media (SM) has led to the establishment of social media management (SMM) departments and new roles in organisations such as SM manager, SM coordinator, SM content specialist and SM director. The development of these SM roles motivated the execution of this research, as the study aimed to identify publications focusing on SMM tools or skills.

Objectives: Firstly, to map the body of research work centred on SMM tools or skills. Secondly, to map future research agendas from an information and knowledge management (IKM) perspective.

Method: A bibliometric analysis approach was used to identify studies, key sources, authors, keywords and countries publishing work on SMM tools or skills.

Results: A total of 501 SMM tools or skills studies were published over 11 years. The oldest work was published in 2011. The USA, the UK and Germany made up the top three publishing countries. The top 15 authors were from six countries: Italy, the USA, Spain, Australia, Germany and Denmark. The most frequently used keywords were social media, Facebook and Twitter.

Conclusion: The authors believed that by fulfilling the research aim, SM managers would be guided to the correct locations to enhance their SMM knowledge and skills.

Contribution: From reading this study, SMM researchers can locate SMM leading publishers. Additionally, the study identified various areas of future research that researchers may exploit and help progress research in the field of SMM.