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The buzz about social media

Written by: Andrew Rondeau

Article Overview: Social media is content created, whether on the desktop or using online tools, which is posted onto the internet for all users to discover, comment on and share. What has made this possible is the profusion of highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies.

The buzz about social media

Social media is content created, whether on the desktop or using online tools, which is posted onto the internet for all users to discover, comment on and share. What has made this possible is the profusion of highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies. As with all newer trends the marketing, technology and media gurus amongst other disciplines, have attached some kind of mystique to this community. Important people have risen out of obscurity to proclaim that they know how this works and how business can benefit, people can make money and in general how the world can benefit from this.

In this instance however, the whole point about social media is that it is not driven by important people. Marketers whether offline or online specialists can but guess as to what this space will deliver. And the business world is scratching its head wondering how to go about invading and plundering this huge market.

The underlying principle about social media is that it is driven by users. Which is why it is often referred to as user-generated content or consumer-generated content. Anybody with a computer, some cheap or free software tools such as a browser, and access to the internet can contribute to the content.

The media that most people have been consuming falls under industrial media. Amongst these are newspapers, magazines, TV and radio. What distinguishes this media from social media is that traditional media has been a one way conversation.

TV programmes, radio or newspaper has delivered the news, information, education or entertainment with little opportunity for the user to interact with the presented content. Of course there are phone-in sessions for radio and TV and letters to the editor for print, but on the whole this media has been a one way street.

The main reason for this one way system has been the cost of production. The costs of setting up a radio or TV studio are high. Printing newspapers and magazines is a price beyond the affordability of the average person.

Of course initially the internet was also a very expensive technology. Computers were expensive, internet subscription for just an email service was high and the cost of renting server space somewhere to host a website made many companies go in-house to save money.

The spread and uptake of the internet however, has resulted in the costs being reduced at a rapid rate with access to broadband in developed countries reduced to almost nothing and even computer costs coming down. A one year hosting fee for a website can be the equivalent of buying a coffee at Starbucks.

The advancement in technology and the reduction in cost has allowed everyman to use the internet. Now people or users can publish articles, poetry, novels, reports, presentations, video, podcasts and much more.

The internet allows every person to be their own broadcaster. What's even more exciting is that the internet delivers an untold possibility of recipients of this publishing cornucopia. Add to this the ability of every participant to be able to comment, share and contribute and an astonishing new world is open to all.

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Article Tags: affor, business world, free software tools, huge market, information education, magazines tv, marketers, marketing technology, media gurus, mystique, obscurity, online tools, printing newspapers, profusion, programmes radio, publishing technologies, radio and tv, tv programmes, tv studio, user generated content



Related Forum Posts
Re: Twitter, Social Networking: What's Your method? - The bottom line: You can have thousands of friends, and it takes only a second to add one, if you don't make conversation with them, it is a useless tool, like all social media sites. I know many people who concentrate mainly on social media marketing, and they make money, but it takes time. Personally, I rather skip social media and focus on other stuff, like article marketing, and I use social media only for fun and communicate with best friends.
Re: Real Estate via social networking? - Now day’s people love to busy on Social media websites especially on Facebook. They are also using internet for all other usual task of their life. They are getting all things on social media sites that's why social media transfer lot traffic to website.
Re: Social Media Marketing Ignorance - Has anyone read any good books on social media they'd like to share? I've been considering reading one, but wanted to see if anyone had any recommendations on an informative one. Someone earlier mentioned a lack of time. That is one reason I'm still in the dark ages as well but I realize that I may be falling behind the times by not at least considering the business case for social media against the time consumption. I'm also hesitant to use facebook and the like fearing it will turn into a platform for old friends to reconnect v. a way to grow my business. I also am unsure how much time it really takes to maintain various social media...any thoughts? Anyone made any mistakes or had any huge successes using social media for business that they'd like to share?
Re: How much is social media part of your marketing strategy? - Most of the companies make gross mistake by using techniques listed on the internet without even looking into whether they are suitable for their business or not. If you are dance company, music company etc etc then you simply cannot afford to ignore social media. There are several other businesses which perform well in social media promotion. You need to look whether social media will help your business or not. If you see huge pool of customers who are searching for your services on Youtube, metacafe, then surely you must jump for it.
Re: FILL IN THE BLANK: My favorite way to market my business is: - [quote="Evan":14pe90vp]Trent - agreed - people who come from SEO have the most willingness to take action and are the most likely to convert![/quote:14pe90vp] Yep, that's what I try telling other marketer's all the time, but too many of them are stuck in the social media clouds and not getting anywhere. I like social media to an extent but I'll take ONE visitor from Google via my SEO efforts over 10 visitors from [insert any social media site here] any day!


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