Social media is a widely used term these days. Many people use the term to refer to everything you can find on the internet that gives you information. What is the real interpretation of social media?
A true social media site is one that not only allows you to gather and read information but also allows you to interact somehow in the process. My Space and Facebook are perfect examples. You can receive information about a person or a business and then leave comments, share the information by sending it on to someone else or placing the information on your site, or contact the owner of the information directly. That’s what makes it social.
Social media can be likened to standing outside the local hamburger hangout and getting news of someone that has just left for the military. You absorb the information, can ask questions, make comments, and then choose to share the information with others, spreading the word so to speak.
Social news, on the other hand, would be like hearing about it on the local news at 11. Perhaps you’d read it in the newspaper. You wouldn’t have the direct opportunity to comment or take the information and attach it to your website directly.”Social media can be likened to standing outside the local hamburger hangout”
One of the reasons that people may be confused about the difference is the tendency to refer to news reporters and news talk show hosts as the media. That’s where the similarity ends, though. The media has nothing to do with social media in general. Even those Hollywood reports claiming to be news aren’t really social media.
Interactive social media sites allow you to connect with others and your social media circle can grow exponentially. That means you can grow your social media community by multiplying those that read your posts or your tweets. For example, when using Facebook to advertise one of your favourite products, you may make remarks that catch someone’s interest. That person places your information, or post, on his or her Facebook page.
Now you have gained the opportunity to be read and seen not only on your friend’s list but now by the other person’s list, too. If someone in their friend’s list is interested in the post, they will make comment or post it on their page, giving you another multiplier of exposure through their friend’s list. This goes on and on and multiplies your comment or information. Can you see how this can work to expose your business interests?
