Understanding The Social Media

Media is a way of communication with people. Traditional media consists of print, radio, television, outdoor banners and others which have been existing for years. There are various forms of media - Broadcast Media (TV networks), Print Media (newspapers), Electronic Media (any media using electronic energy like radio, TV etc.), Digital Media (boards using digitized information) and Online Media (emails, blogs). Advertising is the biggest revenue driver of all forms of media. It enables the advertisers to reach their target audience i.e. segment of people with specific age, gender, marital statistics etc.

The increasing use of internet and web has made online communication a very powerful form of media. Emails, blogs, portals, search engine marketing, websites and podcast are various forms of online media. The latest addition to the online world is 'Social Media.' Social Media is a two way communication. All other forms of media can only create monologue. The coming of social media has made dialogue possible because it provides a platform for interaction. Social Media has enhanced communication with advanced methods of collaboration. The most important social media tools are Facebook, Linked In, Twitter, Wikis, Google +, blogs and the like. Here is an example of how companies are using social media to interact with their consumers. In Hongkong, Huggies diapers got people to upload baby photos on their Facebook fan page. They placed these photos on their subway ads which became a huge success. It resulted in 4.2% increase in their sales.

Earlier there were communities where people would come together and share their email addresses e.g. classmates.com. The user profile online communities evolved in 1990's. After a couple of websites, MySpace evolved and became a pioneer in social networking in US. In 2005 it surpassed Google in its number of daily visitors. However, Facebook was launched in 2004 and has become a worldwide leader. An interesting fact, worth noting is that the time taken for various media to reach 50 million users -
Radio - 38 years, TV - 13 years, Internet - 4 years and Facebook - 3 months.

Social networking forms the major part of social media. Whenever you meet a person, you place that person in your social network. It means you try to relate him to your school, college, hometown, relatives, friends or common interests. The social network sites ( Facebook, Google+ etc.) have this set up in their user profiles where all the information about a person is presented. This is how people connect to each other in online networks. Social networks are helping building relationships and contacts among people. Your social network profiles play an integral role in your internet credibility and over all reputation. Universities and companies are thoroughly studying applicants from their social profiles before hiring. It has become a base for online recommendation system.

The latest trends in the word of social media, according to a research done by Nielsen in 2009 are listed.
> Visiting social sites is the fourth most popular online activity, which is ahead of personal email.
> Two-third of the global internet population visit the online social network.
> Time spent on social networks is growing 3x the overall internet rate, accounting for 10% of all the internet time.

Social media has got so much attention because it is easier to reach people where they already are.