Polis is pleased to announce the first winner of the Interaction London Research Prize awarded to an LSE student with the best idea for applied research into social media.

The inaugural winner, Hibah Hussain, will look at whether social media brands can be part of people's private networks.

Hibah will work with Interaction London on her research to give it a 'real world' setting. The results will be presented at a seminar in 2011.

Here is Hibah's description of her project:

"Drawing upon social psychology and media theory, I hope to build off of the argument that communication technologies are eroding the boundaries between what como tener una tarjeta de crédito has traditionally been considered as 'the public realm' (the world outside of the household/personal relationships) and the 'private world' (the world of intimate connections and familiar networks).

By analyzing how social networking sites blend the private with the public, I will examine strategies for brands to integrate themselves into this "public-private" space in a productive, non-intrusive way.

Ultimately, by combining critical theory with virtual ethnography, market research, and social psychology techniques, this project will help brands move towards what DoubleClick's Rick Bruner refers to as "invertising." Used to describe situations in which advertising is looked at as useful and desirable rather than disruptive and intrusive, the goal of "invertising" is to have people invite advertising into their lives and use it as an instrument for two-way communication and idea exchange."