What is Social Media?
Human beings are a social lot. They need social interaction. With the advent of the Internet, a new avenue to communicate and socially interact with other people, on a global scale, was born. This avenue can be called social media. Some of the best features of social media are its high level of accessibility and easy publishing techniques. Using the latest web-based technologies, social media can transform the way humans communicate or conduct dialogues.
Offering complete democracy on how information and knowledge is shared, it has managed to convert content seekers into content generators. Social media can also be defined as a set of web-based applications that are supported on the technology of Web 2.0 platform, allowing for constant creation and exchange of content generated by the end user. Technically, many businesses refer to social media content as ‘User-Generated Content’ or UGC or ‘Consumer-Generated Media’ or CGM. Typically, websites that facilitate social media content to be generated are known as ‘Social Media Websites.’
Components of Social Media
People from across the globe, from countries as diverse as Kenya and Indonesia have taken to social media interaction with gusto! So much so that the ‘current’ period in the history of the Internet is now being called the ‘Attention Age.’ So the reasons for this medium’s popularity are guided by the three components explained below.
1. Concept – like art, culture, and information
2. Media platforms – like physical, verbal and electronic
3. Social overlapping – like at a one-to-one close level, at community level, electronic broadcasting, or social viral (chain reaction) or print etc.
Various Types of Social Media
There are many different types of social media depending on the above mentioned three factors. Some of these types include:
1. Excitement based – slogans, innovative concepts, attention grabbing statements, high memory holding content that can easily excite, titillate etc.
2. Direct action based – demonstrations, public speeches, installations and other actions where direct interaction is made.
3. Electronic media based – syndication, web-based searches, mobile based searches, etc.
4. Print media based – content that is designed to be spread around for better absorption.
Examples of Social Media
It would not be incorrect to suggest that social media, today, has taken various forms and has pervaded the Internet completely. There is very little content available over the web that can’t be qualified as social media. Some of the best examples of social media include:
1. Internet forums
2. weblogs
3. social blogs
4. wikis
5. podcasts
6. pictures
7. video
8. bookmarking
Some of the main and most popular technologies that are used by various social media websites include:
1. blogs
2. picture-sharing
3. vlogs
4. wall-postings
5. email
6. instant messaging
7. music-sharing
8. voice over IP (VoIP)
The beauty of social media is that most of its services and technologies can easily be integrated using social networking platforms and made available to everyone quickly and painlessly.
Top Social Media Websites
The top 5 social media websites include:
1. facebook.com
2. youtube.com
3. digg.com
4. twitter.com
5. stumbleupon.com