The Distinction of Today's Social 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.
Note: This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims.
Examples of social media applications include:
Communication
- Microblogs / Presence apps: Twitter and Pownce
- Social networking: Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and Avatars United
- Events: Upcoming.org
Collaboration
- Wikis: Wikipedia
- Social bookmarking: del.icio.us and StumbleUpon
- Social News Sites: Digg, Mixx and Reddit
- Opinion sites: epinions
Multimedia
- Photo sharing: Flickr and Zooomr
- Video sharing: YouTube and Vimeo
- Livecasting: Ustream and Justin.tv
- Audio and Music Sharing: imeem
Entertainment
- Virtual worlds: Second Life
- Online gaming: World of Warcraft
- Game sharing: Miniclip.com
Other/Specialty
