What is Social Media?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Debbie Kessler on October 18, 2010 at 7:19pm

I will begin by defining each word:
social-the act of being friendly, interesting to others, and making connections to form alliances
media-any form or medium used to influence or reach other people.

My definition of social media is any medium for reaching others with the intent to show friendliness, honesty, and experience in order to influence others for the good.

Celebrating You,
Debbie Kessler
http://happymarriage4us.com
http://debbiekessler.blogspot.com

Permalink Reply by Larry Brauner on October 18, 2010 at 7:40pm

Thank you Debbie for being the first to post and for your input.

Permalink Reply by Jack Goldenberg on October 18, 2010 at 10:04pm

Social is some form of public or private communication. TV, radio, billboards, the Internet and a print ad in a magazine or newspaper (remember them) are all types of media. Social implies the interaction between two or more people. So, I guess social media is a vehicle for people to communicate with each other about something they want to share or learn.

And, I might add that I'd like to amend my statement that people should not only communicate with each other through the medium, but that to some extent they own it too. (ADMISSION: All right, I didn't actually think of the second paragraph on my own, I read Larry's REPLY and edited my previous comment.)

Permalink Reply by Larry Brauner on October 18, 2010 at 10:09pm

I agree, but in my article I suggest a dual meaning, i.e., that the people not only communicate with each other through the medium, but that to some extent they own it too.

Permalink Reply by Marcelle Paisley on October 19, 2010 at 3:35am

Social media is the channel that provides the ability to interact in a normal unstructured way. As opposed to conferences and email marketing, where topics and breadth of discussion are limited to the topic usually, social media allows the sparking and follow up of new ideas at the time.

Permalink Reply by Jack Goldenberg on October 19, 2010 at 10:04am

I just wanted to compliment Marcelle for defining social media as a "channel." It's a word I was trying to come up with, but, simple as it is, it eluded me. A channel suggests something tangible; it suggests the action of something flowing, and in the case of social media, it flows back and forth.

A channel suggests a visual picture of how the medium works.

Marcelle Paisley said:

Social media is the channel that provides the ability to interact in a normal unstructured way. As opposed to conferences and email marketing, where topics and breadth of discussion are limited to the topic usually, social media allows the sparking and follow up of new ideas at the time.

Permalink Reply by Larry Brauner on October 19, 2010 at 8:32pm

Jack, that is so poetic. I'd like to suggest that each social medium is a channel, and each has different attributes.