Not only journalists need to verify and analyse content in Social Networks. One of Reveal’s use cases takes a closer look at the TECHcommunity, which is the largest online community from REVEAL Partner Software AG. Here is an interview with Matt Durham, Senior Vice President of Market Strategy at Software AG. He reveals his personal use of social media.

 

TECHcommunity is one of Software AG’s central communication platforms and an initial point for all kinds of interests, including sub-communities which are the main place for end-users, experts, developers, students, and scientists to share their knowledge and get useful information from others.

For Software AG, it is pivotal to know (1) who the influencers are in this network, (2) where to find experts regarding specific topics, (3) what sub-communities can be identified and how they are interconnected.

As part of the REVEAL requirements phase, Software AG’s Gabriele Strobel conducted interviews with various stakeholders of Software AG in order to understand how users are using the TECHcommunity and in how far they are active in Social Networks. Here is an interview she conducted with Software AG’s Matt Durham:

 

Gabriele Strobel: Please tell me how you use social media for your daily work?
Matt Durham: I use Twitter and LinkedIn on a daily basis and I tweet several times a day. I post my own Tweets and I retweet as well. On LinkedIn, I share links and information with my network. Facebook I only use for private purposes.

GS: Which specific people / organizations/ offers do you follow in the media?
MD: I follow competitors (e.g. Oracle), analysts (e.g. Gartner), leaders (e.g. Bill Gates), journalists (e.g. NBCNews), friends and colleagues.

GS: Do you specifically verify content that comes from social media platforms, and, if so, how?
MD: More than 90 percent of the posts are hyperlinked. I can verify them by checking the link. The remaining 10 percent of the posts are opinions, which I don´t have to verify.

GS: In your view, what role do Social Media play for the development and the distribution of our products.
MD: For the development, Social Media are not important. Our products are used by only a few thousand customers (since we are a B2B company). There is no scale. But for the distribution, Social Media are a cheap and effective way to contact customers. And a vendor tweet is not annyoing.

GS: Did you make your own experiences (real-life examples)?
MD: Yes. We used Social Media to inform about a limited licence key for free. It was a great success.

GS: Imagine you‘re starting up your computer and a mashup with brand new data of the described modalities is appearing on the screen (for example divided by industries). Would you welcome it?
MD: No. I´m a “creature of habit”. User experience is very important for me, so I´m not interested in new tools.

GS: What do you think of a tool revealing backgrounds and data of contributors?
MD: That´s a very interesting question. I have worked for Software AG for over eight years and have observed a “German bias”. If somebody posts a tweet, I assume that he is an expert in his area. Otherwise he wouldn´t post a tweet.

 

More interviews we conducted as part of our REVEAL work are just a click away:

• Interview with Silvia Costeloe, BBC
• Interview with Meike Richter, NDR
• Interview with Jeff Jarvis on Social Media in Journalism
• Interview with Denis Teyssou, Agence France Presse
• Interview with Casper Vestereng, Danmarks Radio (DR)