A Look at Social Media

 The buzz word of the last few years has definitely been "social media." As the debate about what qualifies as social media marketing and what doesn't will continue to improve and evolve as new devices and platforms are made and released, here's a review of a number of the current kinds of social media marketing and how they may be used in your life.

Communication

This group of social media marketing encompasses what most people consider if they imagine social media marketing, including blogging through tools such as for example WordPress and Blogger, Micro-Blogging through the most popular Twitter, and social networking through platforms such as for example Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn. Blogging has existed for many years now, and it may be used in a number of ways Goth Egg. From sharing your opinions with anybody which will listen, to deploying it as a forum to go over politics, technology, food, or some other niche that sparks your interest, the easy option of free blogging software causes it to be extremely attractive for those who attempting to speak their mind.

Micro-Blogging has sprung up recently, with Twitter being the absolute most well-known way to do this. With an identity limit, 140 characters, in this way of sharing thoughts, opinions, and information quickly became typically the most popular way to connect to friends, acquaintances, co-workers, and anybody that shared your thoughts, ideas, or general location.

Social Networking was initially driven by Facebook and MySpace, and while others have sprung up and fallen by the wayside (Squidoo amongst others), Facebook, and to a lesser degree MySpace, remain. As a forum for sharing photos, events, music, and games, Facebook specifically is now more and more an important the main social media marketing landscape, with many teenagers saying they can't do without it.

Collaboration

This group of social media marketing includes Wikis, which allow people to collaborate and share details about specific topic, Social Bookmarking, which allows users to fairly share their opinions on sites which they visit through tools such as for example StumbleUpon and Delicious, and Social News, which is comparable to social bookmarking, through tools such as for example Digg, Mixx, and Reddit.

When most people consider Wikis they think of Wikipedia, and it is the greatest example since, as a collaborative encyclopedia, it is consistently evolving, being edited, and being accessed by countless users. Wikis can be made for nearly any niche, and many business utilize them for sharing company information.

Social Bookmarking and Social News are extremely similar. Tools like StumbleUpon and Delicious allow users to bookmark sites and pages they like and write quick reviews of them that users that follow their accounts will then easily find or avoid, with respect to the review. Digg, Mixx, Reddit and similar tools allow users to fairly share sites with reviews as well, but tend more towards sharing of pertinent information and execute a better job of organizing sites by categories.

Multimedia

Often combined with others kinds of social media marketing, this category encompasses Photography on sites such as for example Flickr and Photobucket, Video through sites such as the popular YouTube and Vimeo, Livecasting through the ever more popular Skype application, and Music, using sites such as for example Last.fm.

Photography sites such as for example Flickr and Photobucket are increasingly being integrated into more and more sites because they allow users to upload their photo libraries and have them be accessed by family and friends for viewing, along with having them in a central location for storage should anything happen to a computer. This can be a popular way to fairly share photos from events such as for example birthdays, anniversaries, and weddings.

YouTube has existed for decades and is easily typically the most popular site for posting home made videos. Entire tv shows have sprung as much as make the most of this trend, often making fun of videos featuring "stupid human tricks" ;.

Livecasting and Music through applications such as for example Skype and Last.fm allow users to gain access to voice, instant messaging, music, and video conferencing. This helps prevent users from having to hold around large amounts of music or purchase expensive mp3 players, and saves businesses the price of having to make use of video conferencing services which may become prohibitively expensive.

Reviews, Opinion, and Geo-Locating

This category is one that's, in lots of ways, still evolving. This includes tools for Business Reviews through sites such as for example Yelp, Community Q&A through sites such as for example Yahoo! Answers, and Geo-locating through sites such as the incredible popular FourSquare.

Business Reviews through sites such as for example Yelp are becoming increasingly popular as users are far more willing to search around for quality work before spending their hard earned money. While user-generated reviews should always be taken with a grain of salt, a line of bad reviews is an excellent way to greatly help future users avoid a poor business relationship with a company.

Community Q&A sites such as for example Yahoo! Answers are a great way to locate answers to simple questions, though again, all answers should be taken with a grain of salt. Allowing users to create questions or answer questions that others have posted, these sites are in lots of ways what the forums of old used to be.

The newest addition to social media marketing may be the Geo-locating site. FourSquare is typically the most popular of those, with users "checking in" to a location they visit. More and more businesses are giving rewards to the Mayor, or individual who has visited the place the absolute most, of their location, including discounts and freebies.

While this has definitely not be an extensive list of all social media marketing tools offered to users, and to re-do this list in less than 6 months time would certainly add and subtract a number of the ones mentioned here, it will put into perspective the wide variety that social media marketing has in the current online world.