So what is social media?
Essentially, social media incorporates the online technology and methods through which people can share content, personal opinions, swap different perspectives and insights into world issues and generally discuss the evolution of media in itself. Social media website content can come in many shapes and forms:
- Text - text is often used to put across opinions or write blog posts.
- Images - images and photos can display anything from holiday photos to shots by professional photographers.
- Audio - social media lets you create podcasts for users to download.
- Video - video sites mean that you'll be able to record a video of your child's birthday for friends all over the world to see.
The most popular types of social media websites are huge at the moment. A few examples of these social media websites are:
Social Networks – Social Networks are platforms designed for users to interact with one another and allow people to create personal profiles in which they can communicate with fellow users –most often friends, family or business associates. Social Networks allow users to chat and share content – be it through text, photo or video. Currently, the most popular social networking sites include Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Bebo
Wikis - wikis are websites that allow you to create, edit and share information about a subject or topic. Wikipedia, for instance, is one of the world's most popular wikis.
Video sharing - Video is a content medium that can be uploaded and shared online. A prime example would be YouTube. Users can comment on posted videos and increase viewer numbers through links, word of mouth and by uploading the video to other online portals/sites.
Photo sharing - photo-sharing websites allow users to upload pictures and images to a personal account which can then be viewed by web users the world over. Flickr acts as a great example of a successful photo-sharing site.
News aggregation - news aggregators provide a list of the latest news stories published by users from a range of different websites. Digg, for instance, is one of the web's largest news aggregators with one of the most dedicated communities.
Social bookmarking - social bookmarking sites allow users to publicly bookmark web pages they find valuable in order to share them with other internet users.
Online gaming - online gaming is often based around communities. World of Warcraft is prime example of online gaming.
Presence apps - these websites allow you to post micro blog-like posts to announce what you are currently doing. Twitter is a good example of a presence app.
Blogging/Forums – Blogs and forums are types of websites usually maintained by an individual, a business or an online community. The way in which a blog differs from a standard static website is in the regular updates or entries made. These can be made up of a multitude of things be it a running commentary, event updates, latest news or rich media. Blogs are also highly interactive and most blogs allow for readers to post comments or add to an article. Micro blogging is a more recent phenomenon allowing users to post very short text posts on a regular basis – Twitter is the best example of this.
Social Bookmarking – Social bookmarking sites allow users to share their thoughts on content across the web. They can comment of all types of content whether it is an overall website, a blog post, a news article or even a photo or video. By publicly bookmarking this content it becomes suggested to other relevant users who in turn read and can also bookmark the item spreading it across the internet. Popular social bookmarking sites include: Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit and del.icio.us.
This list is by no means exhaustive and there are many more types of social media sites available on the internet. And because the social media front is moving so fast, even if it was possible to list all the varieties of social media websites that exist, it would likely be out of date by the time you read this article as new and innovative social media sites spring up nearly everyday
