This is such a common term now in society that it seems it comes up in every conversation, but to easily define it, it’s about having conversations online that are two-way, not one, as so often happens in standard marketing campaigns.
So what is social media?
Essentially, social media incorporates the online technology and methods through which people can share content, personal opinions, swap different perspectives and insights into world issues and generally discuss the evolution of media in itself.
Social media website content can come in many shapes and forms:
* Text – text is often used to put across opinions, comments, thoughts or in the form of blog posts
* Images – images and photos can be from your phone to professional photographs.
* Audio – create your own audio channels, interviews, podcasts or even radio station
* Video – sharing video with your customers, family, friends or strangers
The most popular types of social media websites are growing at such a vast rate across the globe, some of these are:
Social networking – websites that allows you to create a personal/business profile about yourself then chat, discuss and share information with others such as friends, family and businesses.
Micro blogs – these websites allow you to post short/quick posts to announce what you are currently doing, also embedding your location if you allow it. http://twitter.com falls into this category.
Wikis – wikis are websites that allow you to create, edit and share information about a subject or topic. Wikipedia, for instance, is one of the world’s most popular wikis. http://www.wikipedia.org
Video sharing – video-sharing sites allow you to upload and share your personal videos with the rest of the internet community. YouTube is one of the largest but there are lots of other offerings available as well. http://www.youtube.com
Photo sharing – photo-sharing websites allow users to upload pictures and images to a personal account which can then be viewed by web users the world over. One of the largest is http://www.flickr.com which has a vast offering of pictures ranging from personal to business use.
Content sharing – Online sites that allow you to share presentations, documents and generally become your own publisher are available for free useage in the main, thus allowing you as a business to promote your brochure online for no cost, http://www.slideshare.net is one that allows you to publish your presentations online whilst http://www.scribd.com/ allows you to self-publish your own content.
News aggregation – news aggregators provide a list of the latest news stories published by users from a range of different websites. Digg, for instance, is one of the web’s largest news aggregators with one of the most dedicated communities.
Social bookmarking – social bookmarking sites allow users to publicly bookmark web pages they find valuable in order to share, http://delicious.com is one of the most favoured
Thus social media is all about sharing and engaging, using tools to listen to your audience, talking to them and emmersing yourself or business in the community you serve. It’s about being part of a large village, and being able to talk to people up close even if they live thousands of miles away about diverse subjects, share knowledge but also educate oneself with more information to be quicker, nimbler and faster in the business environment we all operate in.
So what are you going to do next? Go and start to look, listen and engage. Social media isn’t scary, it’s exciting, new and helpful. It can’t solve all problems. If your product isn’t great, then it isn’t great. Social media can’t help resolve that. But if your product is amazing, it can help spread the word quick, fast and through passionate people who love your product.
Stewart Townsend is an advisor to small business and start-ups across Europe. Also known as ‘the man in the shirt’, he discusses their brand strategy, how to engage new technologies and utilise social media to increase market awareness with measureable ROI. He is an advisor to multiple businesses and sits on numerous judging panels, whilst also being asked to speak at events in the US and Europe.
Contact him at Twitter: @stewarttownsend
For more information: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/stewarttownsend
