"Hub and spoke" organisation is the most effective way to construct social media, according to a study from Forrest Research.

In one of its latest blog posts, which could be useful to those involved in online PR services, the research firm analyses the various ways that social media portals can be organised.

It concludes that out of the three organisational methods – "tyre", "tower" and "hub and spoke" – the latter provides "centralised resources that can support business units".

Hub and spoke sees a site provide pools of information that are suitable to a number of users. As such, "resource sharing and cross-functional communications are accentuated across all elements of the company and extend to all areas of the company".

The firm also suggests that increased integration means that social media "doesn’t impact one department – but impacts marketing, pr, product, services, support, and development".

As such, all users are presented with a "touchpoint".

Out of the other alternatives, the tyre sees individual groups within a company create social media portals but these lack integration.

The tower sees only one group being charged with social media, but which remains predominantly within the communications or marketing department, which could be responsible for the business’s ppc services.

Forrester Research has been operating for 25 years and investigates how technological advances can impact upon business.

News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.