We all heard the buzz about Social Media but not everybody knows the true meaning of this phenomenon. What is it really? A news from of media, a social club, a business networking circle. Most people have failed to define this term despite the fact that they spend half an hour on average using some form of Social Media websites.
Social Media can be defined as a new form of media that grew around Social Networking websites. Social Networking is a grouping of people together in specific communities, often like a club or a neighborhood. Social Networking is possible in person, and some online communities do actually gather offline and socialize in the real world. However is is most popular online, where thousands of people can interact with each other. This is because the Internet is filled with millions of people and thousands and thousands of them share the same interests, looking for like minded individuals, and develop friendships.
There is a tremendous need for places online where people can get together in a form of social environment. This is how Social Networking sites were born. Social Networking sites, in a way, is an online community of users who share the same interests. As a result, a lot of different social networking site were created around various topics.
An average social networking web site has a membership system, users are encouraged to register and fill in their profile. They share information about their age, sex, interests, things they like to do, books they like to read, movies they like to watch and similar thing. Social networking web site then matches the people with a similar interests. They may get in touch with each other, become online friends, exchange and share information and more.
The other important part of any social networking web site is groups or communities. Users can join this groups and communities and share information not just with each other, but with the whole community or group. Groups and communities are usually formed around the common topic or interest, like movies, celebrities, music artists, anime, crafts, religion, and every other topic you can imagine.
Groups and communities often share links, articles and other various information on their topic of interest. However, each individual user of social networking web site can also share information in form of blog posts, links, status updates, photos and more. Keep this in mind, because understanding this will lead to the understanding of what social media is.
Nowadays news are distributed by ordinary people online and shared among communities, and community or group decided what is worthy or not by voting, tagging, and starring. Here come social media, the new form of media generated by ordinary people for other individuals like them who determine what is worth spreading a word about and what is not.
In the new world of social media everybody has a voice that can be heard by hundreds of thousands of people. Now, unhappy customer will not only tell about their negative experiences to their ten friends, they tell to their ten thousand online friends. This is the reason social media in changing and will continue to change the way business and marketing is done online.
In a conclusion, if you have not yet started to look into the world of social media websites, you should definitely do it because in the nearest future social media will be the dominant way of getting information that will replace radio, television, and newspapers. Join Facebook, open a Twitter account, watch some videos on YouTube. Get ready today while it is not too late.
Igor Volkov
Leave a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.