What is Social Media? The beginning of a plan

Although, we already feel pretty confident with the popular social media websites, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram we decided to do some research with the aim to expand our knowledge on these sites, especially from a business perspective. 

So what is Social Media? 

Social media is the collective of online communications channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration. Web sites and applications dedicated to forums, microblogging, social networking , social bookmarking, social curation, and wikis are among the different types of social media.

Social media is also often used for crowdsourcing. Customers can use social networking sites to offer ideas for future products or tweaks to current ones. In IT projects, crowdsourcing usually involves engaging and blending business and IT services from a mix of internal and external providers, sometimes with input from customers and/or the general public. In business, social media is used to market products, promote brands, connect with current customers and foster new business.

Here are some prominent examples of social media:

• Facebook is a popular free social networking website that allows registered users to create profiles, upload photos, and video, send messages and keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues. According to statistics from the Nielsen Group, Internet users within the United States spend more time on Facebook than any other website.
• Twitter is a free microblogging service that allows registered members to broadcast short posts called tweets. Twitter members can broadcast tweets and follow other users' tweets by using multiple platforms and devices.
• Google+ (pronounced Google plus) is Google's social networking project, designed to replicate the way people interact offline more closely than is the case in other social networking services. The project’s slogan is “Real-life sharing rethought for the web.”
• Wikipedia is a free, open content online encyclopaedia created through the collaborative effort of a community of users known as Wikipedians. Anyone registered on the site can create an article for publication; registration is not required to edit articles. Wikipedia was founded in January of 2001.
• LinkedIn is a social networking site designed specifically for the business community. The goal of the site is to allow registered members to establish and document networks of people they know and trust professionally.
• Reddit is a social news website and forum, where stories are socially curated and promoted by site members. The site is composed of hundreds of sub-communities, known as "subreddits." Each subreddit has a specific topic such as technology, politics or music. Reddit site members, also known as, "redditors," submit content which is then voted upon by other members. The goal is to send well-regarded stories to the top of the site's main thread page.
• Pinterest is a social curation website for sharing and categorising images found online. Pinterest requires brief descriptions but the main focus of the site is visual. Clicking on an image will take you to the original source, so, for example, if you click on a picture of a pair of shoes, you might be taken to a site where you can purchase them. An image of blueberry pancakes might take you to the recipe; a picture of a whimsical birdhouse might take you to the instructions.(http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/social-media)

These are the most prominent social media accounts out there, they are all very different except they all appear to have one thing in common: creating an online community, where users create the content. 

Analyst, Brian Solis has created the following social media chart, known as the conversation prism, to categorize social sites and services into various types of social media. 

Click to enlarge

This conversation prism allows us to see if the Social media sites we're planning on focusing are relevant to the product and business. We're planning to focus our attention on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, which we agreed with the clients at our previous business meeting. 

In relation to the prism, Facebook falls under both a social network and Discussion and Forum site, this compliments the objectives of marketing and development as well as creating a brand identity. 

Twitter is a more of a social stream, creating a face-paced environment for people and businesses to share information with other users. Twitter allows audiences to scope services out in privacy, without any commitment. People will be more relaxed and can find out what you're about without the pressures of the hard sell. 

Instagram is a social media site focusing on pictures and short videos. It has become a popular platform to use for photo contests. Companies can easily ask users to use a particular hashtag for the contest by tagging their pictures and create a community of cat lovers, making our target market aware of our product. 

We discussed creating a YouTube account for the social media campaign, however, we all agreed that the amount of content we would need to manage and maintain a successful account would be very difficult at this stage. 

This research has helped us to realise just how important understanding social media is, especially as we are just beginning to get involved with social media from a business perspective.