Social Media:
The best way to define social media is to break it down. Media is an instrument on communication, like a newspaper or a radio, so social media would be a social instrument of communication. What Are Some Social Media Websites? Now that we have answered the question of what is social media, we can move on to social media websites. Because social media is such a broad term, it covers a large range of websites. But the one common link between these websites is that you are able to interact with the website and interact with other visitors.
Here are some examples of social media websites: * Social Bookmarking. (Del.icio.us, Blinklist, Simpy) Interact by tagging websites and searching through websites bookmarked by other people. * Social News. (Digg, Propeller, Reddit) Interact by voting for articles and commenting on them. * Social Networking. (Facebook, myspace, twitter, Hi5, Last.FM) Interact by adding friends, commenting on profiles, joining groups and having discussions. * Social Photo and Video Sharing. (YouTube, Flickr) Interact by sharing photos or videos and commenting on user submissions. * Wikis. (Wikipedia, Wikia) Interact by adding articles and editing existing articles. Benefits of Social Media: As the prevalence of social media continues to rise, organizations of all types and sizes are recognizing the ways in which social media can help them better understand, respond to, and attract the attention of their target audience. As a result, businesses are now jumping on the social media bandwagon at a rapid pace, embracing blogs, social networks, wikis, and other vehicles to achieve their marketing and public relations goals. * More online conversations about your brand * Hitting a front page of major social video, news and bookmark sites will send you huge amounts traffic and almost instantly. * A comprehensive SMM strategy may provide a partial or full replacement of traditional advertising and marketing at a fraction of the costs.