What is Social Media?

What is Social Media?

Maybe you know what Social Media is and maybe you don't. If you do, pat yourself on the back. If you don't, there's no need to feel bad. A lot of folks in your position don't know, either.

On the surface, Social Media is a small subset on the World Wide Web - sites like Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, and the like. But those who are media savvy know that these are the places where all the action is. They also know that this "small subset" is a lot bigger than most people realize. For an example on how large this landscape has become, checkout this recent post on the blog NextMark features a "Top 100 Cheat Sheet" for social media, listing them by categories ranging from Aggregators to Wikis. It's out there and it's growing explosively.

But there's more to the story than just being able to name some websites. It is of vital importance to our businesses that we understand what social media is. Rather than being a passive media that acts by coming to us, Social Media is something we go to. It's a media that we can interact with. Further, it's media that lets individuals publish their opinions, preferences, hopes, dreams, aspirations, and more at will. There is no longer a need for traditional media in order to have a voice.

With so many people out there able to broadcast their opinion about your business, is it any wonder that social media needs to be a part of your e-marketing plan?