The Institute for Social Media

Advocating for a networked digital community. The Institute for Social Media is a touchstone for knowledge and professional recognition of SM practitioners.

Our Purpose
The Institute for Social Media (ISM) is a collective evangelizing the benefits of Social Media engagement and digitally networked communities. In practice, this means:
– providing an aggregation point for Social Media knowledge,
– supporting standards, best-practice and Social Media activity,
– promoting the professional recognition of Social Media practitioners,
– stimulating dialogue, providing advocacy and encouraging participation.

ISM Formation
A diverse group of individuals have launched the Institute for Social Media with a mandate to hand control over to the resulting consistent member community by 1 July 2012. The announcement of the formation steering committee will be made during November 2010 as will more information on operations, our inaugural conferences and membership. In the meantime, please subscribe to this blog and follow us on Twitter for updates.

Collaborative Focus
The Institute for Social Media is a knowledge base, a center for excellence and a strong voice for lobbying and broad advocacy of Social Media benefits. We are NOT another Social Media network and our expectation is to work closely with the quality array of networks, meet-ups, associations and professional groups already active in the Social Media space.

Your Involvement
Nothing will happen without your involvement. See our initial Humble Beginnings blog entry and stay updated by subscribing to this site and following us on Twitter, so you receive our notifications of activity, interesting content and the details of our inaugural conferences in early 2011.

Membership
The material on this website is made available for public use and is provided to promote Social Media and achieve our stated purpose. The ISM does have a paid membership category, aimed more specifically at Social Media Practitioners. The cost is modest and aimed at funding member services, providing conferences and developing initiatives that further the standing of Social Media professionals.

Membership details will be available in November 2010 and from 1 July 2012, the committee of the ISM will be elected from the ranks of its paid professional members.

See our Blog for more information and content.