Social Media Means More
Some days we tire of the term “social media” and the instant association many people have in thinking it means using Twitter and Facebook. Social media is more than that.
At its core, the word social means to seek out companionship, relationships, connections, or a gathering. Media is just the means or the way that people communicate. Therefore, social media describes the type of media used to make connections and relationships online. So what else is there besides Facebook and Twitter? Lots.
Blogs (it’s estimated that there are more than 400 million active blogs in 2010)
Microblogs (besides Twitter like Jaiku, Plurk, etc.)
Flickr
Foursquare
LinkedIn
Groupon
LivingSocial
Digg
MeetUp
Delicious
Wetpaint
Yelp
Kongregate
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Epinions
ReverbNation
Plaxo
And scores more.
The point is there are a lot of really exciting, useful, and engaging social media tools out there. Some of which can be a marketer’s dream (or nightmare!) Start looking beyond the obvious buzz sites and you might find “social media” is more meaningful than you ever imagined.