SOCIAL MEDIA

From Wikipedia:
“Social media are primarily Internet-based tools for sharing and discussing information among human beings. The term most often refers to 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 experiences”.

That is perhaps not so helpful, we think one of the better definitions comes from Antony Maynard of UK company iCrossing who described it as follows;

Social media is best understood as a group of new kinds of online media, which share most or all of the following characteristics:

Participation
Social media encourages contributions and feedback from everyone who is interested. It blurs the line between media and audience.

Openness
Most social media services are open to feedback and participation. they encourage voting, comments and the sharing of information. There are rarely any barriers to accessing and making use of content. Whether this be open to all or within specifically constructed communities, sharing is encouraged.

Conversation
Whereas traditional media is about “broadcast” (content transmitted or distributed to an audience) social media is better seen as a two-way conversation.

Community
Social media allows communities to form quickly and communicate effectively. Communities share common interests, such as a love of photography, a political issue or a favourite tv show.

Connectedness
Most kinds of social media thrive on their connectedness, making use of links to other sites, resources and people.

Really what a lot of this boils down to is people having conversations on-line, and they are having these conversations whether or not you are listening.

Social media can be best thought of as an opportunity to add value via these conversations. It requires a shift in thinking from a broadcast message ‘push’ mentality to a dialogue driven ‘pull’ mentality whereby
participants seek out and pull our messages to them.

Basic forms
These are the current social media tools, and that is all they are - tools. It is by developing a clear strategy as to who you are trying to engage, and why, and with what outcome in mind, that these tools then become useful.

Currently there are basically eight kinds of social media (see below). This is a rapidly changing area so new tools and uses of those tools will emerge over time.

Social networks
These sites allow people to build personal web pages and then connect with friends to share content and communication. The biggest social networks are Myspace, Facebook and Bebo. There is also the professional focused Social Network called LinkedIn.

Blogs
Perhaps the best known form of social media, blogs are online journals, with entries appearing with the most recent first. The simplest way to think of blogs is that they are a style of webpage designed to be easily and quickly updated by people with little knowledge of how to build a website.

To continue reading this article and to find out how you can build your customer base using Web 2.0 tools, download a complementary copy of our Online Strategy Document here.