Social Media Friday: What is Social Media?

Welcome to the first post in our Social Media Friday series. This week the focus on the basics of social media, almost like a Social Media 101 class.

A lot of people have an idea of what social media is. Names of specific web sites often come to mind and by now, you’ve probably seen logos for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube appear in everything from television commercials, print ads and web sites. Many people erroneously assume that Facebook is synonymous with social media, and that social networking sites and social media are one and the same. Facebook is a social networking site, and its a part of social media, but by no means the entirety of social media. Social media is not a particular web site or even a group of sites– it’s the larger idea of those sites.

Ultimately, social media refers to types of web sites and applications that allows user to broadcast a message and share it with their existing connections, or everyone else in the world. This creates a powerful networks of people united by common interests, contacts and geography and nearly instantaneous responses and feedback.

What are these special social media sites? Well we already mentioned the big social networks like Facebook, but there are other types of social media methods that go beyond basic communication and include multimedia, collaboration, review and opinions and even entertainment. Let’s examine each category of social media and look at common sites that serve as an example (don’t worry if you aren’t familiar with the specific sites yet).

• Communication media sites are the most common and popular types of social media sites and the most useful for businesses. These sites includes blogs (like this one), networking sites (like Facebook and LinkedIn),  location-based networks (like FourSquare) and event organizing sites (MeetUp).
• Multimedia sites like the video gallery YouTube and the photo sharing site Flickr encourage users to leave comments, create connections, collaborate and create groups of themed content together.
• Collaboration sites allow users to create and discuss content (like Wikipedia) or bookmark clusters of sites to create interest groups (like StumbleUpon), or comment on news from around the world or your own backyard (like Digg and Reddit).
• Review and Opinion sites (like Yelp and Yahoo! Answers) focus on sharing product reviews and expertise with others.

Together these sites (and many others within these categories) make up the entire social media spectrum. And with so many choices, it is extremely difficult to use all of them, and impossible to use them all well. While it might seem overwhelming at first, with the right strategy, you can use social media to promote your business and tap into sought after markets.

With 500 million active users (and growing), there’s a good chance that your potential clients can be found on Facebook. Twitter has its 190 million users sending out 65 million messages a day. Why not have one of those Tweets feature your company? These are just a few examples, but as you can see, there’s a reason why businesses large and small are taking a serious interest in social media, and why you should too.

Now that the basics have been covered, the next Social Media Friday posts will discuss social media strategies and how social media can help your business. Questions? Feel free to leave a comment below.