Social media means many things to many people. Before attempting to to score higher in social media, it therefore makes sense to define the beast.
There really isn’t a single definition for social media – a one size fits all approach just does not work.
Why? Because social media is a collective word for a jigsaw puzzle comprised of products, technologies and domain areas.
Here’s a sampling of the top few in each category:
- Blogging: WordPress.org, WordPress.com, TypePad, MovableType, Posterous, Tumblr
- Microblogging: Twitter, Yammer
- Content Management: Drupal, Joomla, Mambo
- Forums, Discussion Boards, Live Collaboration: Simple Vanilla Forums, PHPBB, VBulletin
- Social Networking: LinkedIn, FaceBook, Orkut, MySpace
- Social Bookmarking: Stumble Upon, Delicious
- Social News: Digg, Reddit
- Events: Open Table, Meeup, Tungle
- Wikis: Wikimedia, Wikia
- Photo Sharing: Flickr, SmugMug
- Video Sharing: YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler
- Document, Presentation Sharing: Scribd, SlideShare
- Livecasting: UStream, JustIn
- Webcasting, Screencasting: DimDim, GoToMeeting, Vyew
- Reviews: Yelp, Epinions, MouthShut
- Community Answers: Yahoo Answers, Askville
- Expert Answers: HowStuffWorks, eHow
- Information Aggregation: Netvibes, Twine
- Social Media Marketing: Everything above – and more!
- Social Customer Relationship Management: Everything above – and more!
And this isn’t even the complete list. And that’s where we would start getting down to the nitty-gritty of social media, which is pretty much the intent of this blog.
How does social media affect you – and your business? How does social media impact the tangibles that are relevant to you and your business?
What works – and what doesn’t? What’s cool – and what’s no so cool?
I won’t have all the answers for you – but together we will be able to discover it all. Our collective intelligence will bring the right tracks – not necessarily the beaten paths – out to the forefront and in the limelight. And I’ll be your host, guide and compatriot on this journey.
Join me on this wonderful journey – on these very pages …. Welcome to the Social Media Notebook!
