Social Media

What better way to research social media than to find out what people who use social media are saying in their blogs, tweets, interactive dictionaries, commenting capabilities, and more?  There is a lot of information out there.  The most simple definition of social media that I have found is the one that Viren and Boriss mentioned previously from Chris Shipley:

"Social media were spaces on the web where people could hold public conversations." (Shel, 2010)


Most of the articles that I have found restate this in different words.  Basically, social media isn't Facebook or Myspace.  Those are tools that make social media possible.  Social media is the concept of people holding conversations through internet.   How social media is applied is where the difference lies.


Mike Johansson from Fixitology wrote an article about how there is a difference between "Living" and "Existing" through Social Media.  "Existing" is a more passive state - the social media tools are only used to post announcements, is not a high priority, and follows no set plan or strategy.  "Living" is a more active state - the social media tools are used to generate a conversation.  Relationships are built, there is a strategy in place, customers are asked questions and get responses to what they post. (Johansson, 2010) "Existing" is "I have facebook", "Living" is "I have a social media strategy and facebook is a part of how I reach such-and-such market." 

References

• Shel, 2010. Defining the term 'Social Media'. Global Neighborhoods blog, retrieved from http://redcouch.typepad.com/weblog/2010/01/defining-the-term-social-media.html 28 March 2010.
• Johansson, M., 2010. Are you 'Living' or 'Existing' in Social Media?. Fixitology blog, retrieved from http://forfreeblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/are-you-living-or-existing-in-social.html 28 March 2010.

Other good articles:

• 8 Social Media Mistakes to Avoid: great for companies as a "watch out" guide.  Supports Social Media integration through the entire company.
• Abandon all thoughts of gaining tons of fans and followers: points out the fallacy of focusing exclusively of having lots of fans and followers.
• 9 Social Media Topics that Need to Die: made me laugh.  Has some really good points about social media in general.  The "Content" section points out that it doesn't matter how much content you have - if people can't find it, use it, and act on it, then it's useless.