Social Media

Social media can be explained as a term in several ways, and also expanded by its use in terms such as social media marketing and social media consultant.  This writeup starts first with some elementary definitions, and then goes to examples, to allow an understanding of this term.

Starting with the second half of the term, the word media in this context generally means content: something that can be experienced via reading, seeing, hearing, and to a lesser degree tasted, touched, or smelled.  Examples include a website, a video, a sound clip, a cartoon, and a widget (or gadget).

Going back to the first half of the term, the word social means interaction and sharing with others, with others usually meaning human beings. 

Combining these two definitions, though, is not enough to describe social media.  The element of technologically linking the content and the social aspects, along with evolving distribution means of exposing the content, creates a dynamic interaction.  The linkages can typically be represented in one or more ways (usually on a computer, and usually online, or on a handheld or mobile device).

The linking can be from a person to the content, or of a person to a person via a piece of content (such as a comment on an article), or in any number of ways.  Someone can create an expression of an idea via a video, and then upload that video to a website.  Others can embed that video in their websites or blogs, and then with others can comment on the video, and in some cases people can comment on yet other sites about the comments.

Socialized media is in essence result of the creation and sharing of interesting ideas (expressed as content),

When people refer to socializing, they usually mean conversations.  And in this case the conversations are currently mostly written, rather than spoken.  While online video is very popular, the ability to share the comments usually depends on writers entering text, and not as much on "video responses".  And conversations, especially ones stored online for people to refer to and build on, can allow for a form of "shared meaning" to evolve.  Yet, this sharing can also mean an agreement to disagree on meaning, and in fact this discussion over differences arguably gives social media its character as an evolved form of participatory information dissemination.

So how do I know it when I see it?

Examples number in the thousands, and include: the communities and sharing of media on MySpace, Facebook, and other social networking sites; the sharing of news on Digg, Mixx, and other news sharing sites; video sharing on YouTube, Vimeo, Revver and other sites, and the live streaming of video on places such as Qik, Ustream, and Stickham; photo sharing on Flickr and similar places; sharing bookmarks and sites on Delicious, StumbleUpon; and evolving forms of sharing across multiple sites (or the promise of this) with technologies such as OpenSocial and Facebook Connect, and finally... mobile sharing on iPhones, Blackberries, and devices such as GPS's that can broadcast their location.  Whew.  That's just getting started, as there are also the areas of games & gaming, job listings & employment search, donation & public good, wikis (for collaborative writing), events, microblogging on Twitter, Jaiku, Plurk, Pownce, and others sites that mash up the microblogs including the surreal Twittervision & Twittearth, and basic writing and commenting on blogs such as Blogger and Wordpress.

What's the big deal about it?

Marketing (Business, causes, and more).  Because people react differently to social recommendations, marketers of product & services & ideas have been catching on to the effectiveness of social media marketing.  Consultants to help in this area also are evolving new skills and techniques, although there is still debate on what exactly defines this type of person.  Beyond business marketing, non-profit organizations and politicians are also learning how to reach out more directly to supporters.

Fun (and perhaps addictive).  Many people enjoy interacting with each other via social media.  They discover new ideas, new friends, new things to do (such as movies), new music, and in general new ways to have fun.

This writeup itself is a form of social media, as it is on a platform that allows others to attach their reviews, their comments, and collaboration on the text of this definition itself.