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Social media


 
 

Social media is an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and "building" of shared meaning among communities, as people share their stories, and understandings.

Description

Social media can take many different forms, including Internet forumInternet forum

An Internet forum is a facility on the World Wide Web for holding discussions, or the web application software used to provi...
s, weblogsWeblogs

Weblogs may refer to:*Plural of Blog...
, wikis, podcasts, pictures and video. Technologies include: blogBlog

Blog is the contraction universally used for weblog, a type of website where entries are made , displayed in a reverse...
s, picture-sharing, vlogVlog

Videoblog, a portmanteau combining video, web, and log, is a blog that includes video.Media Revolution: Podcasting Regular ...
s, wall-postings, email, instant messagingInstant messaging

Instant messaging or IM is a form of real-time communication between two or more people based on typed text....
, music-sharing, crowdsourcingCrowdsourcing

"Crowdsourcing" is a term coined by Wired magazine writer Jeff Howe and editor Mark Robinson in June 2006....
, and voice over IPVoice over IP

Voice over Internet Protocol, also called VoIP, 'IP Telephony, 'Internet telephony, 'Broadband telephony...
, to name a few. Examples of social media applications are Google GroupsGoogle Groups

logo =| screenshot = | caption = Google Groups screenshot...
 (reference, social networking), WikipediaWikipedia

Wikipedia is a Web-based free-content multilingual encyclopedia project....
 (reference), MySpaceMySpace

MySpace is a social networking website offering an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs,...
 (social networking), FacebookFacebook

Facebook is a social networking service for high school, college, university, corporate, non-profit, military and geographic...
 (social networking), Last.fmLast.fm

Last.fm is an Internet radio station and music recommendation system that merged with sister site Audioscrobbler in Au...
 (personal music), YouTubeYouTube

YouTube is a popular free web site which lets users upload, view, and share video clips....
 (social networking and video sharing), Avatars UnitedAvatars United

Avatars United is a web community for online game characters ....
 (social networking), Second LifeSecond Life

Second Life is a privately-owned, partly subscription-based 3-D virtual world, made publicly available in 2003 by San Fr...
 (virtual reality), FlickrFlickr

'Flickr is a photo sharing website and web services suite, and an online community platform, which is generally consid...
 (photo sharing), TwitterTwitter

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send updates which are text-based...
 (social networking and microblogging) and
other microblogs such as JaikuJaiku

Jaiku is a social networking, micro-blogging and lifestreaming service comparable to Twitter....
 and PowncePownce

Pownce is a free social networking and micro-blogging site started by Internet entrepreneurs Kevin Rose, Leah Culver, Daniel...
. Many of these social media services can be integrated via social network aggregationSocial network aggregation

Social network aggregation is the process of collecting content from multiple social network services, such as MySpace or Fa...
 platforms like MybloglogMyBlogLog

MyBlogLog is a social network for the blogger community that is based in part on interactions facilitated by a popular web w...
 and PlaxoPlaxo Overview

Plaxo is an online address book service founded by Napster co-founder Sean Parker, Minh Nguyen, and two Stanford engineering...
.

Distinction from traditional media

Social media or social networking (one example of social media) has a number of characteristics that make it fundamentally different from traditional media such as newspapers, television, books, and radio. Primarily, social media depends on interactions between people as the discussion and integration of words builds shared-meaning, using technology as a conduit.

Social media utilities create opportunities for the use of both inductive and deductive logic by its users. Claims or warrants are quickly transitioned into generalizations due to the manner in which shared statements are posted and viewed by all. The speed of communication, breadth, and depth, and ability to see how the words build a case solicits the use of rhetoric. Induction is frequently used as a means to validate or authenticate different users' statements and words. Rhetoric is an important part of today’s language in social media.

Social media is not finite: there is not a set number of pages or hours. The audience can participate in social media by adding comments or even editing the stories themselves. Content in social media can take the form of text, graphics, audio, or video. Several formats can be mixed. Social media is typically available via feeds, enabling users to subscribe via feed readers, and allowing other publishers to create mashups.

Social media signifies a broad spectrum of topics and has several different connotations. In the context of Internet marketing, Social Media refers to a collective group of web properties that are driven by users. For example, blogs, discussion boards, vlogs, video sharing sites and dating sites. Social Media Optimization (SMO) is the process of trying to get one's content more widely distributed across multiple Social Media networks.

Social Media has two important aspects. The first, SMO, refers to on-page tactics through which a webmaster can improve a website for the age of social media. Such optimization includes adding links to services such as Digg, Reddit and Del.icio.us so that their pages can be easily 'saved and submitted' to and for these services.

Social Media Marketing, on the other hand, is an off-page characteristic of Social Media. This includes writing content that is remarkable, unique, and newsworthy. This content can then be marketed by popularizing it or even by creating a “viral” video on YouTube and other video sites. Social Media is about being social so this off-page work can include getting involved in other similar blogs, forums, and niche communities. Search Engine Marketing or SEM involves utilization of all available Social Networking platforms to brand a product using Search Engine Optimization or SEO techniques of communication, to the end consumer.

See also

  • Web 2.0Web 2.0

    Web 2.0, a phrase coined by O'Reilly Media in 2004, refers to a supposed second-generation of Internet-based services such...
  • User-generated contentUser-generated content Overview

    User Generated Content is a term that has come into the mainstream during 2005 in web publishing and new media content produ...
  • Social televisionSocial television Summary

    Social television is a general term for technology that supports communication and interaction in the context of watching t...
  • Social media optimizationSocial Media Optimization

    Social Media Optimization is a way to optimize websites so they would be more easily connected or interlaced with online com...
  • Social media measurementSocial media measurement

    Social media measurement refers to the tracking of various social media content such as blogs, wikis, micro-blogs, social ne...
  • Social webSocial Web

    The Social Web refers to an open global distributed data sharing network similar to today's World Wide Web, except instead o...
  • Virtual communityVirtual community

    A virtual community or online community is a group of people that primarily or initially communicates or interacts via...
  • Brian SolisBrian Solis

    Brian Solis is a public relations executive, author and frequent speaker about the convergence between traditional media an...


Further reading

  • Johnson, Steven (2005). Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today’s Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter. New York: Riverhead Books


  • Scoble, Robert, Israel, Shel (2006). Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers. New York: Wiley & Sons


  • Surowiecki, James (2005). The Wisdom of Crowds. New York: Anchor Books


  • Tapscott, Don, Williams, Anthony D. (2006). Wikinomics, How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. New York: Portfolio

External links