It’s just over a year since I handed in my Masters dissertation – I can still remember the relief I felt as I walked out of the O’Reilly Institute as a student for the last time, leaving half a forest of printed and bound thesis behind me. For the most part I found the course enjoyable and worthwhile: I met some great people, pushed myself out of the comfort zone on quite a few occasions, and in general made the most out of being a ‘Trinner’ for the two years!
My hopes to get the dissertation published were probably overly-ambitious: I certainly didn’t have the resources to re-work it into shape for an academic journal, and work deadlines kept pushing thoughts of publication in the business press into the never-never. So, rather than have it languish forever on a hard-drive, I’m publishing it here, in full, warts and all.
The dissertation was an examination of the use of Social Media Marketing (SMM) by Irish SMEs. I’m proud of what I’ve achieved with it, and I still think it has a lot of value. Looking back at it, I think my biggest take-away was the natural fit between the ways in which the majority of SMEs tend to carry out their marketing activities (heavily dependent on networks, and the personality of the owner-manager), and what is seen to be “best practice” SMM – a moving target if ever there was one!
A massive thank you once again to everyone who gave their time in support of this.
