Get Connected On-Line: A Guide to Understanding Social Media Outlets
If you have watched a video on YouTube, used a social network to catch up with old friends, followed a blog or used a wiki, you have used social media.
Social media involves one central theme–user-generated content. As opposed to traditional media such as television or radio, anyone can create and post content on the Internet regardless of their profession.
Here we will cover the types of social media that are changing the face of the Internet, giving definitions and listing popular Web sites in each category. The list includes:
- Wikis
- Social networking
- Social bookmarking
- Photo and video sharing
- Blogs
- Social gaming
Wikis
Definition: A wiki is software that allows users to create, edit, and link web pages easily. They can also be an information resource where users contribute, regulate and edit content.
Popular sites: wikipedia.org, wikitravel.org, wiktionary.org
Why they are useful: Allows large amounts of information to be shared with the benefit of a large group of contributors and editors.
Social networking
Definition: Web sites allowing users to connect with one another and share personal information.
Popular sites: facebook.com, myspace.com, linkedin.com
Why they are useful: Creates easy ways to network and connect with friends, family and business associates
Notes: The likes of Google and Microsoft have been scrambling to advertise on, create competitors to, or to buy into the major social networking sites. Last fall, Microsoft invested $240 million in the $15 billion valued Facebook.
Major retailers such as Target and Wal-Mart have created applications for Facebook. Downloaded on Facebook.com, their back-to-school oriented applications allowed users to share information with each other and explore the stores’ fashion, furniture and accessories.
Social bookmarking
Definition: A tool allowing users to organize, search and manage bookmarks of Web sites. Can be accessed from anywhere and can be shared with others. Some have tagging and ranking features. Tagging involves creating content labels for a page while ranking involves rating the relevance or usefulness of a page.
Popular sites: Digg.com, del.icio.us, reddit.com, newsvine.com
Why they are useful: Allows favorite sites to be accessed from anywhere. Provides an alternative way to search for content based on tagging and rating systems.
Photo and video sharing
Definition: A site where users post their photos and videos. Use tagging to allow searching.
Popular sites: youtube.com, flickr.com, shutterfly.com, webshots.com, hulu.com
Why they are useful: View reposted and original content. Provides a platform to post personal or promotional items.
Notes: Photo and video sharing sites have been hugely popular and are rivaling traditional television for effectiveness in reaching certain demographics. Several non-network studios, including Michael Eisner’s Vuguru, are producing an internet-only series with embedded advertising to be posted on sites such as Youtube.com and Myspace.com.
In addition, hulu.com launched this year as a joint venture between NBC Universal and News Corporation to offer their TV shows, full-length movies and other content on-demand with no charge.
Blogs
Definition: Shortened from “weblogs”, blogs are used as message boards for news, opinions, commentary, and personal diaries.
Popular sites: huffingtonpost.com, engadget.com, countless others
Why they are useful: Blogs offer new information and link to other sources. They often focus on narrow topics big media may miss.
Notes: Technorati.com, a search engine for blogs, screens more than 112 million blogs.
Social Gaming
Definition: Gaming has moved online with the creation of virtual worlds where users create avatars of themselves and interact with other gamers.
Popular sites: secondlife.com, IMVU, World of Warcraft
Why they are useful: Second Life’s virtual world has been used to conduct meetings and events in a computer setting. It brings interactive visual content to users scattered across the world. World of Warcraft is the world’s largest, multiplayer, online role-playing game.
Notes: Gaming has moved beyond traditional X-box and Playstation users. Bill Gates, speaking at the 2007 World Economic Forum, related that “he wants to see online shopping become 3-dimensional where, using a technology such as Virtual Earth 3D or Second Life, a consumer can walk into a customized store and examine products just as though he were there.”
