Social Media and Mobile Communication

The Chair for Social Media and Mobile Communication deals with new developments in the field of converging social media, mobile applications and cloud platforms. The aim of the MCM4 is to develop research-based and practice-oriented approaches for the design of digital communication products and services.

Three specialisations shape the research, teaching and projects of the Chair:

• Social media: New potential for the research of social media (focusing on Twitter and Facebook) is examined with methods of social network analysis. Research activities focussed on the following topics in particular: The analysis of roles in social media and the identification of influencing factors, communication behaviour in networks, the influence of social media on product sales and the analysis of “virality” potential in social media content.
• Mobile communication: The research focus “Mobile communication” deals on the one hand with how mobile app platforms affect existing and future business models for mobile services, and on the other hand with analysing smartphone applications (apps) and their use in communication.
• Cloud computing: The components of business models have been analysed based on explorative case studies of established PaaS (Platform as a Service) providers. The results will serve as the basis for identifying trends and future areas of development for existing PaaS providers.

In terms of methods, quantitative methods are used primarily along with case studies and surveys to a lesser extent. A methodical speciality and competence of the Chair lies too in quantitative social network analysis and its application to new media.