Social Media is commonly referred to as user generated media. That is, it is created by everyday people rather than advertising agencies. Social media can take many different forms:
- Blogs allowed people to generate their own websites and publish their own content easily (and allowed people to comment on them too);
- YouTube allowed people to upload their own video and show the world;
- Flickr did the same thing with photos;
- Facebook allowed people to connect their friends and share social moments with them;
- Twitter allows people to share what’s on their mind (in 140 characters!).
The key distinguishing feature of social media is that it allows everyday people to share their views or content with multiple people.
Why is social media important to my business?
It’s important to think of social media in the same way you would think about how word of mouth affects your business. Many business people know the power that positive word of mouth can have on your business. Understanding this and understanding how social media works and leveraging it’s power is why social media is important.
The other thing to understand is that overall we are spending more time consuming digital media such as YouTube, Blogs, Websites and spending time on Facebook/Twitter etc, and spending less time on traditional media (TV, Newspapers, Magazines). Also the number of choices of TV channels, Radio Stations and Magazines has dramatically increased. And so our ability to use these channels effectively has decreased, hence the need to understand and create social content.
Author: Duncan Shand
