Sarah DiffleySarah.Diffley@lyit.ie

What is Social Media?‘Social media describes the online tools that

people use to share content, profiles, opinions, insights, experiences, perspectives and media itself, thus facilitating conversations and interaction online between groups of people. These tools include blogs, message boards, podcasts, microblogs, lifestreams, bookmarks, networks, communities, wikis and vlogs. A few prominent examples of social media applications are Wikipedia (reference), MySpace and Facebook (social networking), Twitter and Jaikue (presence applications), You Tube (videosharing), Second Life (virtual reality), Upcoming (events), Digg and Reddit (news aggregation), Flickr and Zoomr (photo sharing).’ (Solis, 2007).

What is Social Media?A number of developments have occurred

resulting in the proliferation of social media utilisation. It is often stated that the concept of social media itself is not new. People have always been ‘social’ and felt the need to communicate with one another with regards to interests, opinions, hobbies, abilities, and more.

However, technology has allowed this to occur in a new and more evolved manner. As a result it can be said that the concept of social media itself is old and it is the technology that is new.

Why is Social Media Important?Facebook – over 500 million active users.

Twitter – 1, 382% growth from Feb 08 – Feb 09.

LinkedIn – adding a new member every second

Adults aged 15-24 are more than two and a half times more likely than the average to use social networking sites regularly.

Why is Social Media Important?

Why is Social Media Important?

http://www.facebook.com/notes/biz-growth-media-digital-marketing-and-social-media-agency-ireland/facebook-statistics-in-ireland-april-2010/122621301087647

Why is Social Media Important?The long tail of social networking

Enders et al. (2008)

Differences between traditional and social media

Consumers no longer play a passive role

Consumers now have control

A shift from push to pull means of communication

The move from telling to talking

Flexibility

Social Media ToolsBlogsPodcastsContent AggregatorsSocial NetworksWikisForumsContent CommunitiesMicro blogsVirtual Worlds

Various Social Media ToolsBlogs

Blogs are also known as web logs and are online diaries or journals. It is a website to which a “blogger/bloggers” post comments and which others can comment upon. These posts appear in reverse chronological order.

http://www.mulley.net/ - example of a bloghttp://wordpress.org/ - blog creationhttps://www.blogger.com- blog creation

PodcastsA podcast is an audio or video file. These files are subscribed

to and subsequently are automatically distributed to the user. Once distributed to the user, they may then play it back on computer or mobile devices.

http://podcast.com/ - examples and free guide to podcast creation

http://podcastgen.sourceforge.net/ - podcast creating software.

Various Social Media ToolsContent Aggregators

Content aggregators are applications that allow people to receive a feed, informing them that podcasts, blogs, news feeds and websites they have subscribed to have been updated. Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is one of the most well known content aggregators. The RSS feed provides the user with a URL to which they can view this new content.

http://www.rapidfeeds.com/ - RSS publishing http://www.irishtimes.com/ - example http://www.mulley.net/ - example

Various Social Media ToolsSocial Networks

Social networks online communities of people who share interests and activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. They typically provide a variety of ways for users to interact, through chat, messaging, email, video, voice chat, file-sharing, blogging and discussion groups.

www.bebo.comwww.facebook.comwww.myspace.comwww.ning.com –creating your own social

networking site.

Various Social Media ToolsWikis

Wikis are websites that allow people to add, change or even delete the content on them.

http://www.wikipedia.org/http://www.wikispaces.com/

ForumsA forum represents an area where users can create and

discuss particular topics and interests. It is an area where participants gain and share knowledge regarding that topic.

http://affiliate-marketing-forums.5staraffiliateprograms.com/

http://www.forumbuild.com/ - forums especially for non-technical people

Various Social Media ToolsContent Communities

Content communities are those communities that centre around a particular type of content - as opposed to social networks which focus on communication as its main focal point. Content communities also differ to social networks in that members need not always create profiles to participate, upload and share content.

http://www.flickr.com/http://delicious.com/ http://www.youtube.com/

Micro blogsMicro blogs combine elements of blogging, instant

messaging and social networks. Users communicate with one another via short posts of less than 200 characters.

http://twitter.com/

Various Social Media ToolsVirtual Worlds

A virtual world is a computer based simulated environment intended for its users to inhabit and interact via avatars. These avatars are usually depicted as textual, two-dimensional, or three-dimensional graphical representations.

http://secondlife.com/

Various Social Media Tools

Of all the social media tools, Social Networking Sites (SNSs) and blogs have experienced the most prolific growth. SNSs accounted for nearly 17% of total Internet time in 2009 among and as of 2010 this figure has increased to 23%.