What is Social Media?

Many of us are using social media without even knowing it. This article is a brief look at the phrase ‘social media’ so the next time someone uses those words together you know what they’re talking about.

Let’s start by breaking down the words:

Social. Social relates to many people, communities, freindships; it’s engaging and full of life.  By our very nature we are social beings.

Media. Media is the means of communication. It can be newspaper, television, radio, and, in this case, the Internet.

When you put the two together what you get is how the Internet is used to bring people together to engage and share in communicating ideas and thoughts.

More specifically than the Internet, what programs or tools are considered social media platforms? Email was one of the first tools in social media. You could send a letter, thoughts, documents, and pictures over the Internet. This concept of sharing and exchanging ideas grew with myspace, friendster, blogs, YouTube, reddit, and the big hitters Facebook and Twitter. Today there are numerous social media platforms for industry specific and interbusiness communications.

When clients ask me why they should be using social media because “isn’t it just a fad?” my response is the platforms may be a fad but the way of communicating and exchanging ideas has fundamentally changed through the use of social media. These tools are how we learn, how we share and how we educate each other limited only by our imagination.

Social media is the modern way of communicating and an essential tool for letting people know you’re out there and have something to share.