Conclusion - Natural Social Spaces: How Do We Research Social Media and Development Trends, Dynamics, and Impact? Learning from a Polio and Routine Immunization and Social Media Research Initiative in Ukraine

Conclusion

If research and evaluation initiatives related to local, national, regional, and global social development priorities are to provide the most valuable insights for improving performance and impact, then they need to include a focus on social media, given its increasingly pervasive role as a key medium of communication. That focus will only be effective and useful if it provides insight and information related to natural communication spaces—the spaces and connections that people themselves are creating on a vast scale. These natural spaces are much more important than the comparatively tiny social media footprint of "development organizations". The natural spaces also tend to have much greater credibility and standing with the people who really matter, and who are, consequently, more influential. The Ukrainian situation outlined above provides specific insights into the particular dynamic in Ukraine. Each country will, of course, have its own dynamic. But natural, public social media spaces, in whatever form they take, will always dominate the social media space.

What is outlined above is a very initial attempt to extrapolate from the Ukrainian social media, polio, and immunization research some key elements that seek to advance effective and informative research and evaluation methodologies related to work on social media and development—ways to identify, engage, and assess.

This paper is by its very nature exploratory. There are no firm and hard answers. With the rocket-fuelled acceleration of social media, we are in the midst of a rapidly changing scene. We hope this paper helps to provide some insights, ideas, and strategies for how to better understand and learn from that expanding and changing social media scene for more effective and principled development action.

Editor's note: Above is an excerpt of a study made possible by the generous support of the American people through USAID under the terms of the Cooperative Agreement AID-OAA-A-14-00028. The contents are the responsibility of the Maternal and Child Survival Program (MCSP) and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government. The full table of Contents is here.

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