SlideShare for Research

This new kick that I’m on has me using SlideShare.net as a research tool. It dawned on me about a month ago, when colleague asked if I had any general presentations on social media. I didn’t happen to have any laying around, that would suit his needs, but I wanted to help him so I told him about SlideShare and we cruised through it together.

Bingo.

Research

It’s amazing what a search on Social Media Basics returns, and you can always modify your search if you don’t get back what you need. What I really love about using SlideShare as a research vehicle is that the presentations are dated according to when they were uploaded. Now, I know that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s when they were made, but I would say that it does more often than not.

So, I know if I’m looking at a presentation that was uploaded in 2007 about Facebook usage, the numbers are going to be off… slightly. But if I’m looking at a presentation from a month ago, the information should be pretty timely depending on the sources cited within.

Tell A Friend

I can’t say that I’ve really been looking, but the advent of SlideShare.net as a poor-man’s research tool is one of those no-brainers that isn’t talked about enough and may not be intuitive to people. Next time someone asks you for a presentation on a topic that you don’t have one for, give SlideShare a try.