The big buzz on the Internet is all about social media, especially with the social media giant Facebook and now Google entering the field with Google Plus. So what exactly is social media?
The best way to understand social media is to understand the difference between social media and industrial media. Industrial media consists of elements such as television, magazines and newspapers, books, and internet websites that have fixed content that does not change. These forms of media are considered to be permanent because once they are produced, it becomes impossible to change them. Here is one of the main things that set social media apart. Social media can be edited and changed by the very people who use it.
Industrial media are generally produced from a single centralized location and disseminated in an ever expanding circle. Social media is produced in many different locations and collected into centralized points where it can be accessed by anyone with access to the internet.
It usually requires some specialized skills and training to be able to produce industrial media. This typically requires the combined efforts of several individuals, each with their own unique skill set that contributes to the whole.
Social media, on the other hand, is created by virtually anyone and does not require any particularly specialized skills. Anyone who wishes to create content may do so with the skills and tools at their disposal with only minor, if any, modifications.
Perhaps the largest, and most important, difference between the two types of media is the immediacy of social media. Industrial media is produced and disseminated with a lag of hours, weeks, months, or even years between the beginning of production and it reaching the public. Social media, on the other hand, is produced and disseminated into the reach of the public immediately. As soon as the content is generated, it is available to anyone interested in receiving it.
Through the creation of several different social media sites on the internet, it has become possible for users to create their own social networks that can be separated by thousands of miles while being able to converse in real time. Individuals can publish information for those in their network to see or hear and receive feedback immediately through comments and other communication.
Many businesses try to use social media to attract new customers. One problem they face is that people in social networks are usually repulsed by overt advertising. It, therefore, becomes the job of these businesses to establish themselves as experts in their field by producing content that is useful and interesting to users. They must raise awareness of themselves and their products without using any sort of sales pitch to get their message across.
Social media has introduced a whole new way for people to interact over great distances. It has become the preferred source for information and entertainment in many different ways.
