The honeycomb framework proposes 7 building blocks of social media: Identity, Conversations, Sharing, Presence, Relationships, Reputation, and Groups. It was created to help managers better understand social media and its impact on business. Each block represents an aspect of social media experience, like the extent users reveal identity, communicate with others, share content, know others' availability, relate to other users, identify others' standing, and form communities. Understanding each functional block can help businesses craft effective social media strategies to interact with customers, gain insights, and promote their brand.

1. HONEYCOMB
FRAMEWORK IN
SOCIAL MEDIA
PROF. VENKATESH GANAPATHY

2. INTRODUCTION
• Do managers understand social media?
• Massive transformation in social media landscape – empowered
conversations
• Who has greater control? Marketer or Customer?
• Social media networking – has it altered the communication landscape?
• It has become essential to integrate social media strategy with marketing
strategy.
• Let us understand – what is honey comb framework?

4. WHY SOCIAL MEDIA?
• A lot of conversation happens on social media
• Some of these conversations affect online reputation of businesses
• Lack of social media strategy can lead to PR crisis and dilution of brand
equity (Maggi Noodles, Uber, Oyo Rooms etc).
• Has social media become a necessary evil? Has it become a Frankenstein?

5. HOW CAN SOCIAL MEDIA FRAMEWORKS
HELP?
• Frameworks can facilitate better understanding of social media and its
forms.
• Understand impact of social media on business, society and cultures

6. THE HONEY COMB FRAMEWORK
• Proposed by Kietzmann, Hermkens, McCarthy and Sylvester in 2011
• There are 7 building blocks – each of these blocks represent one aspect of
social media experience and its implication for businesses.
• These constructs facilitate better understanding of social media experience

7. IDENTITY : THE FIRST BLOCK
• It denotes the extent to which social media users will reveal their personal
identities or personal information like age, sex, profession, location etc.
• Face Book, Twitter, Linked In need the user to create a verifiable personal
profile.
• Privacy concerns exist
• Users can therefore build different profiles for different platforms to hide
their original identity.

8. CONVERSATIONS : THE SECOND BLOCK
• This block represents the extent to which users communicate with others
on a social media network.
• People seek social media to be heard and to attract attention
• Congregation of like-minded people
• The “Subscribe” or “Follow” button helps others to stay connected
• Blogging is an effective way of reaching out to prospects, engaging with
them to trigger their transformation from prospects to customers.
• Social media can also create apostles out of loyal customers.

9. SHARING : THE THIRD BLOCK
• How can content be distributed and engaged using social media channels?
• Basis for people to connect with one another
• Picture and video sharing sites or music sharing sites
like YouTube, Flickr, Pinterest, are some good examples.
• Sharing - has become ubiquitous in the digital world – Someone is sharing
something with someone and it becomes viral when everyone is sharing
that with everyone.

10. PRESENCE : THE FOURTH BLOCK
• This signifies the extent to which users can know if others are present and
accessible.
• Are friends available online?
• Is their data switched on?
• What are the WhatsApp profile updates? Are there any status updates?
• Users can post updates on social media platforms and tag their locations.

11. RELATIONSHIPS: THE FIFTH BLOCK
• This underscores the extent to which users can be related to other users.
• There is some degree of association between users that allows them to
communicate, share, meet or list others as friends and followers.
• Relationships can be formal or informal.
• In case of Linked In, this can be a structured and formal relationship
• Twitter / Face Book/ You Tube – relationships are more informal

12. EXAMPLES : EFFECTIVE USE OF SOCIAL
MEDIA
• Today, it is imperative for businesses to understand how they can build and
maintain relationships with consumers on social media.
• Nestle, Swaraj Tractors, Asian Paints, Berger Paints, IKEA, Pepsi, Parle
(Rola-a-Cola) are some examples where the organizations leveraged on the
opportunities presented by social media.

13. REPUTATION : THE SIXTH BLOCK
• the extent to which social media users can identify the standing of others
and themselves in a social media network.
• Increase in followers - Sign of high reputation on most social media sites.
• Celebrities, political leaders, technology experts, other influencers
• Reputation - reputation of a user, reputation of content and the size of
his/her audience.
• Reputation cannot be judged on a single metric like number of followers.

14. GROUPS : THE SEVENTH BLOCK
• This functional block signifies the extent to which social media users can
form communities and sub communities in a social media setting.
• Apartment complexes have their own WhatsApp groups
• Students can have their own social media groups
• Businesses can target specific messages directed to these groups
• Today, consumers have greater trust on other consumers than businesses.
This block enables businesses to leverage the ready pool of customer
segments that they can access

15. TO SUM UP
• Understanding the functionalities of each of the social media channels can
help businesses in crafting purposeful strategies that can highlight the
need for businesses to interact with customers and improved social media
experiences.
• Businesses can also gain better insights and promote their brand and
products with much higher impact.
• Nike’s You Tube videos increased its sales revenues.

16. REFERENCE
• “Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks
of social media” by Jan H. Kietzmann, Kristopher Hermkens, Ian P.
McCarthy and Bruno S. Silvestre (www.sciencedirect.com)