Social media is about generating conversations with clients, other industry professionals or simply anyone with a shared interest in what you do! It can be an extremely valuable strategic tool if used effectively, and this is why there are floods of businesses currently wanting to 'go social'. It can be tricky understanding where you need to be and what you should be doing; this is why we run a series of Maximising Social Media workshops for those wanting to get the best out it it. As an overview, however, here are the six most used areas of social media explained:
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Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. It has become popular as a marketing tool as it allows direct contact and personal engagement with a large follower base. -
Facebook is a social networking website. Users can set up their profile, add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. Additionally, users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region.
The website currently has more than 350 million active users worldwide and is used by many businesses as a marketing tool with fan pages or groups. As user activity will show in their profile’s live feed, groups and pages are made known to a larger audience. The site also encourages interaction between users. A January 2009 Compete.com study ranked Facebook as the most used social network by worldwide monthly active users. -
LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 55 million members and growing rapidly. LinkedIn connects to trusted contacts and helps exchange knowledge, ideas, and opportunities with a broader network of professionals. Discussions are encouraged in groups / forums. LinkedIn profiles usually rise to the top of search results. -
YouTube is a video sharing website on which users can upload and share videos. Unregistered users can watch the videos, while registered users are permitted to upload an unlimited number of videos. The account profiles of registered users are referred to as "channels". As a marketing tool, YouTube can attract viewers to the channel and substantially raise brand awareness, as well as, drive traffic to the user’s website. -
Flickr is an image and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by blogger to host images that they embed in blogs and social media. As of October 2009, it claims to host more than 4 billion images. -
A blog is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. It is a tool to keep website visitors updated with regular (live) information and encourage them to interact by leaving comments on certain topics.
