Even though there are a few imposters out there, The Conversation Prism is still the original and IMHO the most thoughtful visualization of the social media landscape. JESS3 and I introduced The Conversation Prism at SXSW in 2008. Since then, it has undergone three iterations with the last being v3.0.
I’ve good news to share. We’re working on v4.0, but we need your help to finish it. We’ve removed and added some categories as well as introduced and deleted many social networks and tools. This is where you come in. Please tell us what we’re missing, what branches we should consider, or what we should remove altogether in the comments below. You can see a detailed view here.
1. Comment and Reputation
a. Disqus
b. Intensedebate
c. Echo
d. MySocialMediaReputation
2. Wisdom of the Crowds
a. Newsvine
b. Digg
c. Mahalo
d. Reddit
e. NowPublic
f. BuzzfFeed
g. Chime.in
3. Questions & Answers
a. Yahoo! Answers
b. Mahalo Answers
c. AllExperts
d. Answers.com
e. LinkedIn
f. Wikianswers
g. Quora
4. Collaboration
a. 37 Signals
b. Podio
c. Zoho
d. Google Docs
e. Mindtouch
f. Basecamp
g. Socialtext
h. Microsoft Office 365
i. Mindjet
j. Box
k. PBWorks
5. Social Commerce
a. ThisNext
b. BazaarVoice
c. LivingSocial
d. Shop Igniter
e. Milo
f. Groupon
g. Kaboodle
h. Shopkick
i. Svpply
j. Lockerz
k. Zaarly
l. Zappli
6. Blog Platforms
a. Blogger
b. TypePad
c. Movable Type
d. Tumblr
e. WordPress
f. Posterous
g. squarespace
7. Blogs/Conversations
a. Google Blogsearch
b. Technorati
8. Social Curation
a. Pinterest
b. Paper.li
c. Magnify.net
d. Flipboard
e. Zite
f. Pearltrees
9. Streams
a. Twitter
b. Plurk
c. Identi.ca
d. Lifestream.fm
e. AOL
f. Friendfeed
g. Status.net
h. Socialspring Streams
10. Nicheworking
a. Path
b. Pair
c. Diaspora
d. Foodspotting
11. Co-Creation
a. Crowdspring
b. Conenza
c. Designcrowd
d. Chirply
e. Quirky
12. Enterprise Social Networks
a. Socialcast
b. Communote
c. Chatter Collaboration Cloud
d. Yammer
e. NewsGator
f. Telligent
13. DIY + Custom Social Networks
a. Socialgo
b. Mobileroadie
c. Leveragesoftware
d. Jive
e. Crowdvine
f. Ning
g. Kit Digital
14. Discussion Boards and Forums
a. Tangler
b. Google Groups
c. Lefora
d. 4chan
e. Disboards.com
f. Gaia
g. Big Boards
h. Namesake
i. Linqia
15. Social Networks
a. Perfspot
b. Facebook
c. Bebo
d. MySpace
e. Orkut
f. Hi5
g. Google+
h. Tagged
16. Listening, Intelligence & Targeting
a. Alterian
b. Citizennet
c. Socialmention
d. Collectiveintellect
e. Radian6
f. Whos talkin
g. Spiral16
h. Trendrr
i. Crimson hexagon
j. Netbase
k. Visible Technologies
l. Linkfluence
m. Converseon
n. PeopleBrowser Playground
17. Business Networking
a. LinkedIn
b. Plaxo
c. Identified
d. Ryze
e. Xing
18. Reviews and Ratings
a. Yelp
b. Amazon
c. Epinions
d. Angie’s List
e. Planetfeedback
f. My3cents
g. Viewpoints
19. Location
a. Dopplr
b. Fire eagle
c. Tripit
d. Foursquare
e. Loopt
f. Highlight
g. Sonar
h. Banjo
i. Glancee
j. Intro
k. Kismet
20. Video
a. Viddler
b. Metacafe
c. YouTube
d. Blip.tv
e. Hulu
f. Vimeo
g. Socialcam
h. Dailymotion
i. Break.com
j. Vevo
k. Brightcove
l. TED
m. Big Think
n. Funny or Die
o. 5 Min
21. sCRM
a. Suggestionbox.com
b. GetSatisfaction
c. Uservoice
d. Salesforce
e. Toucan
f. Gigya
g. Nimble
22. Documents/Content
a. Thinkfree
b. .docstoc
c. Scribd
d. Empressr
e. Edocr
f. Slideshare
g. Prezi
23. Events
a. Eventbrite
b. Upcoming
c. Zvents
d. Socializr
e. Acteva
f. Meetup
24. Music
a. Music Finder
b. Last.fm
c. Blip.fm
d. Pandora
e. Ping
f. Shazam
g. Spotify
h. Turntable.fm
i. Moodagent
j. Songza
k. Grooveshark
l. Jango
m. Rhapsody
n. Rdio
o. MOG
p. Slacker
q. SoundCloud
r. Bandcamp
s. Google Music
t. Amazon Cloud Player
u. Musicovery
v. Hype Machine
25. Wiki
a. Plime
b. TWiki
c. Wikispaces
d. Wikia
26. Virtual Worlds
a. Second Life
b. Habbo
c. Entropia Universe
d. Poptropica
e. World of Warcraft
f. Neopets
g. Club Penguin
h. Farmville
27. Livecasting
a. Justin.tv
b. Ustream tv
c. Flixwagon
d. Stickam
e. Blogtv
f. Qik
g. Chatroulette
h. Blogtalkradio
i. Livestream
j. Vokle
k. socialcam
l. KIT Digital
28. Pictures
a. Flickr
b. Smugmug
c. Photobucket
d. Zooomr
e. Picasa
f. Fotopedia
g. Facebook Camera
h. Dailybooth
i. Picplz
k. Instagram
l. Hipstamatic
29. Social Bookmarks
a. Diigo
b. Evernote
c. Mister Wong
d. Fotopedia
e. StumbleUpon
f. Delicious
30. Social Marketing Management
a. Hootsuite
b. Media Funnel
c. Cotweet
d. Tweetdeck
e. Seesmic
f. Twelvefold Media
g. Buddy Media
h. Vitrue
i. Context Optional
j. Syncapse
k. Involver
l. Shoutlet
m. Wildfire
n. Spredfast
o. Engage21
p. MutualMind
q. Sprinklr
r. Expion
s. Scroon
t. Postling
u. Argyle Social
v. Awareness
31. Influence
a. Klout
b. Appinions
c. eCairn
d. Empire Avenue
e. Kred
f. mPACT
g. PeerIndex
h. PROskore
i. Traackr
j. TweetLevel
k. TweetReach
l. Twitalyzer
m. TwitterGrade
32. Bio-Social
a. Nike+
b. FitBit
c. Jawbone Up
d. RunKeeper
e. Lose It!
f. Sleep Cycle
The Story of The Conversation Prism 1.0
In the original post introducing Version 3.0 of the Conversation Prism someone had asked, “Why is it called the Conversation Prism when it looks like a color wheel? If it has nothing to do with a prism, why is it called that?”
Believe it or not, that’s the first time I had been asked this question. So, I decided to address it because there actually is a reason. It was originally a prism because of the way a prism works—it is a refraction of light. The Conversation Prism was a play on “light” and “enlightenment”. Instead of taking the conversations that are happening on the social web and looking at them as one stream from an audience, run it through a prism; it bends the light so that you can see the light refract, and therefore see all of its separate conversations taking place. That was the premise of the Conversation Prism. We eventually had to put it into a circular format because after the first round of research, there were too many players to fit in the design of the original prism. If you can envision what Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album looks like, which was basically a prism, that was the original concept for how the original Conversation Prism would look and work: one light bending into the prism that was tiered from top to bottom. There are just too many solutions out there, so it had to become circular in order for it to make sense.
The Inspiration for The Conversation Prism
The Conversation Prism attempted to succinctly visualize the social media universe. In 2007 and 2008, attempts at presenting the sheer size of rapidly expanding social media landscape were beginning to take shape. Often, they would begin as a PowerPoint slide intended to demonstrate the opportunities and challenges facing today’s businesses. This might seem counter intuitive or even absurd now, but back then, experts called for companies to maintain a presence in every network.
Then and now, I still believe that the landscape of social media is unique to your business. With the Conversation Prism 1.0, I attempted to bring a bit more structure to the understanding of the social web. The idea was to organize the most prominent networks of the time by how people used them not necessarily how they were designed or marketed.
What very few people know is that the original Prism predated many of the listening tools that we now have today. It was designed with both form and function, intended to not only visualize the social media sphere, but also offer a click path to the search boxes of each network. This went directly against against those who said you needed a presence in every network. Basic now, but at the time, it encouraged strategists to use the search box in each network to figure out whether or not that community was active for you and your market.
The Conversation Prism was and is a template for developing a social media strategy. Of course its design and purpose evolved over the years. But what continues today is that it is a social map where you plot your course to engage customers and influencers in the networks of relevance. It also serves as a reminder that businesses must continually listen to conversations and put a structure around it to stay relevant now and over time. Many listening vendors today will tell you that they used the original Conversation Prism as their framework for developing their platforms.
Thank you for your help!
Comment and Repuration:
– Livefyre
in social curation, what about” The tweeted time”
http://tweetedtimes.com/ , i’m using it everyday 🙂
Tanks for your work !
I- for Influence- I don’t see SOCIAL-IQ!!
Blog- Weebly
Documents- Google Drive
Social Curation: scoop.it and storify.com . Social Bookmarks: Pinterest 🙂
Social curation – Storify
Professional networks – Viadeo
Events – Plancast
Livestreaming – Audioboo
Social Market Management – MarketMeSuite
What about social good platforms, like Care2, and social fundraising networks like Give2gether, Crowdrise, etc.?
Can we add Content Marketing Intelligence ? @infinigraph ? Content Marketing SaaS companies are a fundamental driver and a new category.
Comment and Reputation: Talkwheel
Social Curation: Twitwheel
Social Networking: BlackBerry Messenger
Hey Brian – I am in SF in August and hooking up with Jeremiah O – will you be around?
Here is my short-list (there is more but this is what I could come up with in my current ‘hang-over’ state:
ESN:
IBM Connections
Jive
Leverage
LithiumMoxieSoftware
Cisco’s Webex Social
Google+ for the Enterprise
Wisdom of the Crowds:
Delicious
LocalUncle
Listening
Intelligence & Targeting:
BlinqMedia
IBM Cognos Consumer Insight
Sitecore
Business Networking:
UnSocial
Highlight
Location:
Nearby This
Events:
Plancast
For Listening &
Monitoring:
IBM Cognos Consumer Insight
Looxii
Social Commerce:
Half-Off Depot
Yippit
Gilt City
YP deals
Deal Chicken
Plum
Pictures:
Pinstagram
Social Curation:
Clipboard
Virtual Worlds:
Kaneva
Social Media
Marketing Management:
Sprout Social
Listening & Targeting: NeedTagger (mine conversations for commercial intent)
sCRM: NeedTagger (identify/connect with prospects)
Few things. Regarding Bazaarvoice: Old BV logo should be replaced with our new one (attached). I’d also add us to the Q&A and reviews categories, naturally.
On Social Curation, I’d add Storify, Pearl Trees, Daily Brew, Percolate, Longreads…there are a lot more.
On comment and reputation, I’d add LiveFyre.
On pictures, I’d add Instagram.
On music, I’d add spotify.
Events, I’d add G+.
Hope that helps.
Thank you Ian!
On social curation, you can add Dialogfeed (www.dialogfeed.com), working now with top brands to republish own social on site
What about Buffer (http://bufferapp.com) that seems to start strong as sharing service agregator on mobile app? 30. Social marketing service
Waze is a crowdsourcing traffic app.
Here are my suggestions, some overlaps with others:
Comments:
– Livefyre
Pictures
– Extragram
Listening, Intelligence & Targeting
– Unmetric
– Google Analytics
– Compete
– Alexa
Document Sharing
– Zoho
LivingSocial and Kickstarter
While serving as an excellent checklist, I’m guessing that the conversation prism will get progressively harder to slice and dice as companies expand their engagement competencies and popular culture postures over time. As often said, we are now “at the end of the beginning of the digital revolution”.
It would be intereresting to see how the conversation prism will look (from a company-centric perspective) if it were segmented in just 5 cuts;
1. Social sharing platforms
2. Aggregator platforms
3. Utility plaforms
4. Networking platforms
5. Self-expression platforms
or 4 cuts from the lenses of the consumer/customer;
1. The need to belong
2. The need to discover and explore
3. The need to achieve
4. The need for fun and enjoyment
As marketers migrate towards the customer experience holy grail, I’m wondering Brian, how this prism will look from those lenses.
Here are my additions for Enterprise Social Networks:
Cisco WebEx Social
IBM Connections
Igloo Software
MangoSpring
MoxieOzmosisSocialTextTIBBR
Virtual Worlds – Webkinz World although it is no longer number one in the children’s world it was much larger than Club Penguin which you do have. Ganz has also just released in Beta a new world called Amazing World which you may want to include.
Search is missing as a category, Dropbox is missing from collaboration and Google Docs is named Google Drive nowadays. Google Hangout should be in Livecasting, I think? How about WeTransfer & SlideRocket for Documents/Content?
Kickstarter feels like co-creation or wisdom of crowd even though the conversation takes place through funding, not commenting. Sorry, I just saw you added this, but I’ll keep it in as a vote.
Wikipedia is a dialog—though not completely open.Also I notice that regular shopping sites, notably Amazon, are bothering a lot less about product descriptions and leaving it all to customer comments. Actually very frustrating if you want plain vanilla list of product details—I find myself having to seek out manufacturers’ sites to get them. Don’t know where/how this belongs on prism.
Consider: Rocket21 for Social Network; Arktan for Comment Reputation
Consider adding a Social Cause/Microfunding Blade – there are a good 20+ companies supporting that segment
Hi Brian, to Listening, Intelligence & Targeting: Gall.com.ve I hope you find it useful.
kisses, @marstte:twitter
Posting for Scott Plocharczyk…
16. Listening, Intelligence and Targeting: Attensity, Networked Insights, Tracx, ScoutLabs, and Bluefin
30. Social Marketing Management: Tracx, Hearsay, Sprout Social, and North Social
31. Influence (would consider changing to Influencer Relationship Management or Social Brand Management): Digital Signal, Tracx, SocialChorus, SocialVibe, mylikes, and 140 Proof.
Brian,
Thanks for including tracx in v4.0. Especially appreciate your recognition of tracx as a management solution; existing across multiple categories.
Under virtual worlds, I’m surprised you don’t have Mine Craft. It’s loved enough by adults and children alike that Lego has just special released a Mine Craft set.
There’s also VYou.com. It’s kinda like a cross between YouTube and Twitter. Not sure which category is best.
If you want to monitor The Conversation Prism, news, blogs, twitter, facebook, google+, youtube or any website you can use socialwatching.com. There’s an open search engine on search.socialwatching.com website.
Adding for Mark Morin,
Twylah
ScoopIt
and perhaps storify
Is mahalo pivoting?
Might be a bit too niche, but you’ve got social customer care – Conversocial.
Gaga’s Little monsters in social networks / Poptropica seems more heavily game than network?
Add Venntive to sCRM
Excellent idea, Brian, and thank you for letting us help. Here you are a couple of recommendations:
3. Questions & Answers: Focus
7. Blogs/Conversations: Alltop
16. Listening, Intelligence & Targeting or 30: Social Marketing Management: Social Bakers
25. Wiki: WetpaintCheers,
Just correcting:
3. Questions & Answers: Focus
7. Blogs/Conversations: Alltop
16. Listening, Intelligence & Targeting or 30: Social Marketing Management: Social Bakers
25. Wiki: Wetpaint
Cheers,
Hi Brian – It’s a good list, but very US-focused and missing lots of non-US players – e.g.
Listening and Intelligence
Brandwatch (UK, US, Germany)
Brandtology (Singapore, US, China)
Sentiment Metrics (UK, Australia)
Synthesio (France, US)
Integrasco (Norway)
Spotter (France)
Social Marketing Management
Engage Sciences (UK, US)
MarketMeSuite (UK, US)
Agorapulse (France)
Hello Luke. I’ll take a look at these other solutions. We have developed country specific version of the Prism. Of the list above, how many include US/English speaking countries as primary markets?
I would say Brandwatch, Sentiment Metrics, Synthesio, Engage Sciences and MarketMeSuite – for sure. Agorapulse have a lot of French clients, but are making headway in the UK/US too (their CEO spoke at AllFacebook’s event in San Francisco a week ago). I’d be happy to pitch in on the location-specific versions. Just ping me if you want some lists 🙂
Would love the help… 🙂
Alrighty then. Are you interested in any specific regions/locations? I’ll email you some lists.
Great post, appreciate the time to develop and feedback.
15. Social Networks: Plinky (daily writing prompts), Goodreads (book reviews), Chess.com, Wattpad
8. Social Curration: Trove, Wavii, about.me
31. Influence/Management: TwitterCounter, FollowerWonk, Wahooly,
30. Social Marketing Management: BufferApp (noted by others), Qwitter, Manage Flitter, ContentScorer
MangoApps by MangoSpring
I would say that UberVu, Viralheat and TrackUr are missing from Listening platforms
Unbucket, bizspark,
Apologies for any repetition but may I add
Bambuser (Livecasting)
Storify, Scoop-it, Trove, Twylah (Social Curation)
Buffer
Echo Research (Comment and Reputation)
Y-frog (Pictures)
Dropbox (Documents)
Audioboo, Soundcloud
Brian,
More to consider.
Tweet chats:
tweetchat.com
twebeevent.com
Social Marketing Management
socialbro plugin
And many more!
would love to see a version of the ‘Prism meets Pink Floyd’s art.
Actually…me too. Against a black background.
Hey Zak, I know as you’re helping me here. Please keep note of this one. We’ll issue a separate infographic…
Sprinklr is missing from the following areas:
Collaboration
Listening, Intelligence & Targeting
sCRM
Influence
Hi Brian! Great list and awesome to see you’re updating it. Thanks for including Linqia in the list. We wouldn’t categorize Linqia in Discussion Boards and Forums (as we help brands be matched to influential community leaders through our platform) but rather a new category – influencer activation (or influencer outreach) with the following companies operating in this space: linqia, say media, ad.ly, social spark, ebuzzing, blogdash. Thanks! Maria
Collaboration – DropBox
Social Marketing – SocialBakers
SproutSocial for social marketing management. They are awesome!
InsideView can be added to the Listening, Intelligence and Targeting
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24. Music : Mixcloud
30. Social Marketing Management : ViralHeat
31. Influence : Crowdbooster, Proliphiq
Hi Brian, SharePoint is missing from the list — we’re using it internally to collaborate, learn, share, and connect with experts.
Music: I heart radio
Content: Might considering adding Box here too?
I’ve good news to share. We’re working on v4.0, but we need your help to
finish it. We’ve removed and added some categories as well as
introduced and deleted many social networks and tools.
Or what we should remove altogether in the comments below.
Please tell us what we’re missing, what branches we should consider, or
what we should remove altogether in the comments below. You can see a
detailed view here.
I’ve good news to share. We’re working on v4.0, but we need your help to
finish it. We’ve removed and added some categories as well as
introduced and deleted many social networks and tools
In Listening & Intelligence section, please consider adding SocialAppsHQ – https://www.socialappshq.com
Hi Brian, great perspective of evolving conversation phenomena. Please consider adding a simple text search capability to the online page (to find with which petals a product is tagged) and possible a mini tag-cloud to see what is included in each petal combination.
And thinking of names for petals and new tags: sCRM (social CRM) is but a harbinger of business software that can be tagged sERP (social ERP).
Looking forward to a digital app for tablets that will allow dowload, exploration, and links-out-to; it will be well deserved of $0.99 for the effort.
Here is my addition for Listening, Intelligence: ASOMO. http://www.asomo.net/en/
Hi Brian, what I miss in your list is social gaming. Do jou have a reason for that?
It started to branch too far from the center…
Hi Brian!
We love The Conversation Prism, but we’re missing Zyncro as an Enterprise Social Network. It’d be great to see Zyncro in the next versión 🙂
Hi Brian!
We love The Conversation Prism, but we’re missing Zyncro as an Enterprise Social Network. It’d be great to see Zyncro in the next versión 🙂 What do you think?
How about Diggio for #4 – collaboration. Great tool!
Hi Brian, I would be interested to learn more and possibly help. Considering that a prism could be a “medium that misrepresents whatever is seen through it.” Or a medium which misrepresents what’s communicated within it.
There needs to be a clearer definition as to the outcome of this ‘project’. Firstly is the boundary definition and secondly is the core’s (centric axis) goal, if any. The Core is a peculiar element of this Conversion Prism, and you went from “The Conversation” to “Brand” – a perspective dilemma. I suggest that the core is neither, but ‘time’. The conversion is the ‘Message’, i.e. in case we forget…the light that is refracted or the Conversation that pushes or pulls the message. With the aspect of the Boundary, we are not looking in, conversation is not on the outside and conversation is not started, its carried from a Thought to another thought.
Therefore, I suggest that the missing elements on the inside is human speech with auditory visual signals, which in itself is a brand, an unique identity, while all other brands, mimic one way or many others the ‘author’ of the inanimate brand. The Boundary is ourselves as a group, not as an individual. David Mullins
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