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Social media

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Social media are primarily Internet- and mobile-based tools for sharing and discussing information among human beings.[1][2] The term most often refers to activities that integrate technology, telecommunications and 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.

Distinction from industrial media

Social media are distinct from industrial media, such as newspapers, television, and film. While social media are relatively cheap tools that enable anyone (even private individuals) to publish or access information, industrial media are relatively expensive tools that generally require significant financial capital to publish information (which often limits their use to commercial purposes)[3]. Examples of industrial media include a printing press or a government-granted spectrum license.

"Industrial media" are commonly referred to as "traditional", "broadcast" or "mass" media[4].

One characteristic shared by both social media and industrial media is the capability to reach small or large audiences; for example, either a blog post or a television show may reach zero people or millions of people. "Reach" describes one of four properties which help describe the differences between social media and industrial media[5]:

  1. Reach - both industrial and social media technologies provide scale and enable anyone to reach a global audience.
  2. Accessibility - the means of production for industrial media are typically exclusively controlled by for-profit enterprises; social media tools are generally available to anyone at little or no cost.
  3. Usability — industrial media production typically requires specialized skills and training. Most social media simplify those processes, or in some cases reinvent them, so anyone can operate the means of production.
  4. Recency — the time lag between communications produced by industrial media is relatively long (days, weeks, or even months) compared to social media (which can be capable of virtually instantaneous responses; only the participants determine any delay in response).

In his 2006 book The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom, Yochai Benkler analyzed many of these distinctions and their implications in terms of both economics and political liberty. However, Benkler, like many academics, uses the neologism Network Economy or "network information economy"[6] to describe the underlying economic, social, and technological characteristics of what has come to be known as "social media."

Information outputs and human interaction

Primarily, social media depend on interactions between people as the discussion and integration of words to build shared-meaning, using technology as a conduit.

Social media utilities create opportunities for the use of both inductive and deductive logic by their 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,instant messaging or even editing the stories themselves.

Social media marketing

"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 whose content is primarily published by users, not direct employees of the property (e.g. the vast majority of video on YouTube is published by non-YouTube employees). Social media optimization (SMO) is a set of methods for generating publicity through social media, online communities and community websites

Social media marketing 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 about building ways that fans of a brand or company can promote it themselves in multiple online social media venues.

Some social media marketers offer to write 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, including getting involved in blogs, forums, and niche communities. Others in the social media world consider this form of social media marketing Astroturfing or "fake grass roots".[7]

According to Lloyd Salmons, first chairman of the Internet Advertising Bureau social media council "Social media isn't just about big networks like Facebook and MySpace, it's about brands having conversations."[8]. In fact, most individuals who study the space believe social media is about _people_ having conversations, not brands. [9]

What is not Social Media Marketing

It is important to highlight in social media's case of what is does not stand for. Most individuals confuse it with advertising on social networking site. It is anything but that. Advertising that appears on these social networking sites there is more in the form of context or social action based. Networks monitor what the users are doing and place relevant ads next to them with the assumption that they will be clicked.

Social Media Marketing is not about spamming. It is not about copying certain links and spamming it in discussion groups and forums. It is important to create value for the people with whom you are dialoguing. Refer to Cluetrain Manifesto that sets up the premise for social media marketing.

Social Media Marketing is all about collaboration between people. It is about participating with everyone and sharing information. It is as much about giving as it is about receiving from the group. The premise of social media marketing is engaging with the consumer and providing value. It is important to maintain the sanctity of conversational economy

Examples

Social media can take many different forms, including Internet forums, weblogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures and video. Technologies include: blogs, picture-sharing, vlogs, wall-postings, email, instant messaging, music-sharing, crowdsourcing, and voice over IP, to name a few. Examples of social media applications are Google Groups (reference, social networking), Wikipedia (reference), MySpace (social networking), Facebook (social networking), Youmeo (social network aggregation), Last.fm (personal music), YouTube (social networking and video sharing), Avatars United (social networking), Second Life (virtual reality), Flickr (photo sharing), Twitter (social networking and microblogging) and other microblogs such as Jaiku and Pownce. Many of these social media services can be integrated via social network aggregation platforms like Mybloglog and Plaxo. Read the definition of the "social media terms" that are used while talking about it.

Social media software applications

Examples of social media applications include:

Communication

Collaboration

Multimedia

Entertainment

Social Media Monitoring

  • BuzzMetrics by AC Nielsen
  • SocialRadar by Infegy

See also

References

  1. ^ It's Time to Define Social Media: No More Arguing. Here's the Definition: article from Ben Parr.com website. Retrieved on August 15 2008.
  2. ^ FriendFeed conversation: on it's Time to Define Social Media Retrieved on August 15 2008.
  3. ^ http://www.ethanbauley.com/post/51599317/the-biggest-irony-on-the-internet
  4. ^ http://www.justinkistner.com/archive/traditional-media-vs-industrial-media
  5. ^ http://thoughts.birdahonk.com/2008/10/media-has-always-been-social.html
  6. ^ http://www.climate-change-two.net/wealth-of-networks/part-1.htm
  7. ^ Capture the Conversation - What is Astroturfing?
  8. ^ IAB appoints first social media council chair
  9. ^ [1]

Further reading

  • Benkler, Yochai (2006). The Wealth of Networks. New Haven: Yale University Press
  • 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
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