Social media is all the rage right now. It’s hard to describe as it isn’t something tangible nor specific. Social media, according to Wikipedia, is an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words and pictures.

This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and building of shared meaning, as people share their stories, and understandings. Social media use the wisdom of crowds to connect information in a collaborative manner.

With that broad definition, anything that involves interaction among a crowd of people could easily be social media.

The Big Idea and Distinction from Traditional Media

The big idea about social media is that information is shared. The content is also made more valuable through social interaction, collaboration and syndication. The whole idea is that instead of receiving recommendations or reviews from one person who may or may not be credible, we look for votes.

Presuming that when a lot of folks cast their voices about one product, service, people, or anything, it should be true and more credible than one individual.

Social media depends on a number of characteristics explained above. Interaction is one big distinction from the traditional media. It isn’t a producer to consumer one-way communication channel. Other characteristics include, but not limited to, speed of communication, breadth and depth of the content, and the ability to track the global conversation.

The Types of Social Media

Social media is a broad term used for a set of applications. There is actually no limit to how people can use the Web and Internet for communications and content distribution. As long as it fits into the characteristics above, it may be considered social media.

A few prominent examples of social media applications are:

• Blogs: WordPress, Blogger, TypePad.
• Discussion boards and forums.
• Photo sharing: Flickr, Photobuckets.
• Instant messaging: ICQ, Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, Gtalk etc.
• Video sharing: YouTube, Revver, Blip.tv.
• RSS and podcasts.
• Social bookmarking: del.icio.us, StumbleUpon.
• Collaboration tools: Google Calendar.
• Microblogs: Twitter, Pownce.
• Virtual reality: Second Life.
• Event sharing and announcement: Upcoming>
• Social networking: MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn.
• Wikis: Wikipedia.

Why Social Media?

Traditional media have their own place, but nowadays people demand more flexibility and control. Social media aim to provide advantages that traditional media failed to give. These may be the benefits of using social media, but it could also be the drawbacks for others:

• User-driven. Content in social media is produced and distributed by users like you and me. This is in contrast to mass media which always have centralized point for content production.
• Community-oriented. It’s about collaboration and participation among people with shared interests. For example, participation may appear in the forms of comments on blogs, votes on social bookmarking sites, or word of mouth.
• Open. The social part, which is an integral part of the media, makes the tools for communication and interaction more accessible for anyone who are willing to participate.
• Organic content. Content is released often and updates are available continually not just from the original producer. The faster the first draft of content reach the audience, the faster it will get responses and be improved upon. Readers comment on blogs, bloggers share, argue and add to the original posts, audios and videos are mixed with another.
• Easy to use. This point is relative from one people to another but the key in social media applications is ease of use. This encourages consumption and participation.

Advantages of Social Media for Businesses

Online business owners should pay attention to the power of social media for a number of reasons:

1. Viral effect. Due to its nature to promote participation and interaction, social media tend to cause more viral effects than traditional media. In fact, old sites have started to take advantage of this new trend by adding social components to their web pages. This promotes sharing and word of mouth through online media.
2. Interaction. Social proof has a strong value when it comes to building credibility and trust. New visitors or prospects will form perceptions about a brand or product through interactions of others.
3. More trust and visibility. When trust and interaction exist, it could lead to higher visibility. Sharing and interaction often result in viral effects. People tend to trust collective opinions more than one individual even if s/he is an expert. Wikipedia is an obvious example. The collaborative effort earns high rankings in Google search results.
4. Stickiness. Because of the trust, consumers tend to stick with the message more than when they find it by themselves. When given a medium for which they could discover more trusted sources of information, they tend to stay longer than the average time they spend on random sites.

Conclusion

Social media is a new trend that causes huge waves in relatively short amount of time. It becomes the media of choices for many people who feel sick with the lack of control in traditional media.

Don’t think about plunging into social media as a whole strategy without planning though. For example, if you think you could start with all the above applications and get results from all of them immediately, you will be disappointed. Knowing which type of social media is suitable and more appropriate for your business and then work on a strategy to use it in your business is critical.