Social What?

A few years ago, I set up a facebook and myspace account to keep in-touch with friends after college graduation.  I had no clue until 3 months ago when I started research for a grad school class that there was an acutal term for what I was doing called Social Networking.  Upon further investigation I learned social networking is a component of social media.

So what is Social Media?  It includes web sites that allow you to create an on-line social network (Myspace, Facebook, LinkedIn ect) create, comment and view text, photos and videos (blogs, YouTube, Flickr) write or read reviews of products and discuss specific topics in depth (discussion boards). 

It is evident people have adopted this new media through the millions of blog posts, uploaded videos and shared pictures. This phenomenon gives the average joe the ability to speak out and share their thoughts with people all over the world. Besides individuals, many companies have embraced this new marketing tool.  For Example, Dove Beauty Brand (which makes soaps & lotions for women) has launched a site devoted to help younger girls discover their beauty not what the media hypes ups. http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/home.asp.  Very empowering site. Target created a successful  back-to-school campaign last year on Facebook. The page gave ideas to teens how to decorate with style. 

Many other companies are in the social what? category.  They either are clueless like I was a few months ago or they fear what the consumer will write and share about the company.  Either way, social media isn’t going anywhere, if anything its going to mutiply.  My suggestion to those companies would be to jump on the bandwagon and start slowly into the newage of marketing.

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