According to Wikipedia (July 2009), social media is online content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies. At its most basic sense, social media is a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content. It's a fusion of sociology and technology, transforming monologues (one to many) into dialogues (many to many) and is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers. Social media has become extremely popular because it allows people to connect in the online world to form relationships for personal, political and business use. Businesses also refer to social media as user-generated content (UGC) or consumer-generated media (CGM).
Social media can take many different forms, including Internet forums, weblogs, social blogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures and video. Technologies include: blogs, picture-sharing, vlogs, wall-postings, email, instant messaging, music-sharing, crowdsourcing, and voice over IP, to name a few. Examples of social media applications are Google Groups (reference, social networking), Wikipedia (reference), MySpace (social networking), Facebook (social networking), MouthShut.com yelp.com (product reviews), Youmeo (social network aggregation), Last.fm (personal music), YouTube (social networking and video sharing), Avatars United (social networking), Second Life (virtual reality), Flickr (photo sharing), Twitter (social networking and microblogging), Open Diary (blogging), and other microblogs such as Jaiku. Many of these social media services can be integrated via social network aggregation platforms like Mybloglog and Plaxo.
What is Social Network?:
According to Wikipedia (July 2009), a social network service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Most social network services are web based and provide a variety of ways for users to interact, such as e-mail and instant messaging services.
Some Reasons Why You Should consider Joining a Social Network:
Social networks have been around for some time now. They have being evolving from time to time to become a powerful communication tool on the Internet today. Now you can do many things with a social network than just meet people (for personal and/or business purposes) and send messages. You can create photo albums, share bookmarks, add videos, listen to your favourite music, connect with old friends, chat and so much more.
Meet New People:
This is the main purpose for creating online social networks, so people can meet and find new friends around the world. Every social network allows you to browse the network and meet new people. You can decide to find people from certain cities, countries or make as many friends as you can (that is my style anyway, lol ).
Find Old Friends:
Social networks help you to find lost contacts in your life. It gives you an opportunity to find old friends from high school, college, a distance family member or someone you used to work or fellowship with, etc. Using social networking sites, all you need to do is type in the Name (e.g. Godwin Delali) of your friends or family on the SEARCH BOX and find them, if they are already members of that network. Hurray!
More of your precious friends and family are probably on popular sites like Facebook, MySpace, Hi5, Friendster, Bebo , Orkut, PerfSpot and/or Twitter. Join any of these if you are not a member and create your Profile to begin your search. Good luck!
Join the Forum:
Most social networks have Forums. This is the place to post your thoughts, questions and opinions. It is also where you can communicate with people with the same interest or problem. There are different categories of Forums to choose from.
Join Interest Group:
Many social networking sites offer Groups. You can browse Groups by categories. If they do not have a Group you like, you can usually create one of your own. Groups care basically a place where a collection of people with the same or sometimes opposing views meet to discuss and debate. There can be Groups on anything, from Religion to Rocket-Science, etc.
Blog Your Thoughts:
Blog (weblog) are available in many social networks. Here you can write about anything whether personal or impersonal/professional. Blogs helps you to keep your fans, friends and family updated on your life, concerns and accomplishments among others.
When you add photos to your blog you take it to a whole new level. Naturally, people love to see what they are reading about.
Create Photo Albums:
They say a picture is worth thousand words, that is true for social networks as well. Almost all the social networks offer Photo albums. Here you can add all your favourite captured moments and scenes and break them into albums. Certain networks allow only one album, but soon they shall evolve to offer multiple Photo albums in order to survive the social networking race.
Photo albums are wonderful asset to your social network Profile. People love to look at interesting photos and may leave comments about the photos. Photos can also let distance friends and family see your current Photo albums.
Add Videos:
Social networks allow you to add homemade videos or other interesting videos to your Profile for your friends and family to watch and comment about. It can even become viral over the Internet and turn you into and Online Celebrity. Try it!
Add Music:
Some social networks let you add music, some do not. Due to copyright issues, certain social networks only all you to add music available in their vast music library.
Get Advice:
There are Groups, Forums and even social networks on just about every subject and you can often find the advice you need.
Help Others:
Social networks are powerful platforms you can make good use of, in terms of offering advice to those in need of it most. You can search for, find and join a social network on the topic of your interest and answer questions that benefit others. Talk to other people who are going through similar situations you are going through or already went through.
Belong:
One fundamental reason why people use social media and especially join social networks is to try and quench an inner thirst of being wanted or needed, i.e. a sense of belonging. Naturally, we humans as social beings want to belong and social networking sites try to help us belong. Join a social network today and create your own Profile and Circle of Friends. Before you realize, you will belong. Thank you.
