Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Google+ and about a hundred more social networking sites... The choice is overwhelming and expanding by the day. Smart marketers and communications professionals know that establishing a social presence on the right platforms is crucial to successful social media that adds real value for business. But how do you make that choice? How do you determine the right social networks for your business or client?

The first step towards deciding which network to be active on is defining your target group – that's Marketing 101. So, who is it that buys from you? Who is it that are you doing business with?

Once you've defined your audience, you need to get to know it – what is it that your customers like, do, talk about, where do they congregate online, how often, for what purposes? How do they make purchase decisions? To what extent are those decisions influenced by what people are saying, liking, sharing on social networks and on which platform exactly?

Every day I come across an interesting study and I want to dive into it to learn more about the research findings and then write a blog post with the key takeaways and my views. Unfortunately, I do need to sleep too. Indeed, from a professional's perspective it's hard to keep up with the tons of valuable research studies and analyses that are being released all the time. Information overload is our reality...

This is why when I saw the following infographic from the Institute for Public Relations I thought "Wow, this is spot on!" The infographic summarises the latest key issues and trends from the industry's top social media studies – one infographic, many studies.

This is something I would've found very useful when I was doing my research for my dissertation.

I would've had an overview of the top social media for PR studies in one place as a great reference for me to dig deeper in each study if I wanted to. Just knowing that those studies existed would've saved me a lot of time trying various keywords on Google search and bouncing from website to website for days to find the relevant and trustworthy sources.

A few months ago I participated in the largest transnational survey on strategic communication worldwide - the European Communication Monitor (ECM). The results were published a few days ago and, as always, I was eager to find out to what extent my input corresponded to the answers given by the other participants and if I had correctly identified the same emerging trends in the field as they have. As it turns out, I seem to be on the same page as most other practitioners.

Here's some research background first:

The ECM 2014 surveyed 2,777 communications professionals from 42 countries to study key issues of communication management and public relations, the digital age, networking, leadership, gender and mobile media.

The research findings confirm that without any doubt the digital age has transformed how communicators work, interact and share experiences. However, the rise of online channels and social media not only have major strategic implications, but also bring about considerable challenges for professionals:

I recently reviewed Gini Dietrich's new book"Spin Sucks: Communication and Reputation Management in the Digital Age (Que Biz-Tech)" for online PR magazine Behind the Spin. (If you missed the piece, head over to Behind the Spin and have a look here, it will get you excited about this post.) In my review I conclude that the book is "a great read for people starting their PR careers, but also for those who want to understand the collision of old and new communications channels and the power of digital".

I really enjoyed reading the book partly because of the way it was written. Gini has a very clear, but also attention-grabbing style of writing, which you must have noticed if you've been reading the Spin Sucks blog. (If not, start now!)

And so while scrolling the pages on my Kindle, I made notes of the passages I really liked, which turned out to be a pretty long collection of quotes that I want to share with you.

Below are my favourite attention-getters and learnings from Gini. I hope you enjoy them!

Digital disruption is today's reality. Even in the relatively new field of corporate responsibility (CR) and sustainability digital and social media are forcing companies to make a 360-degree turn and revamp their communications, marketing, supply chain operations, and basically every part of the business. Why? Because digital has penetrated our personal and professional lives at every level, making direct two-way communications between consumers and brands possible anywhere, anytime. This, in turn, has resulted in increased customer expectations for brands to shift to an experience-based, consumer-centric approach to sustainability in digital channels.

A recent survey sheds some light on the rise of social media for corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability.

The Lundquist CSR Online Awards Survey examines how experts in corporate responsibility, sustainability professionals and other stakeholders engage with companies. It also analyses how well Europe's top 100 companies respond to stakeholder needs with their corporate websites and associated digital presence.

Over 350 CSR experts and sustainability professionals from 44 countries have contributed, allowing to develop a clearer picture of the trends and user expectations about the use of social media for sustainability communications and stakeholder engagement.