So What is Social Media?

Hey Everyone,

Hope you’re all well. Right, as you can see, I have started off this blog with the SEO side of things in mind, starting with the basics and the thought of progressing onto more techniques.

Now that I have a good amount of SEO content rolling, I thought I’d start to cover the Social Media side of things to build up this topic.

As with the first SEO post, I thought it would be an idea to outline what I believe Social Media to be. Now, these are my thoughts and opinions. In fairness I don’t think (within reason) there is particularly a right or wrong answer to what Social Media is, so feel free to put in the comments what you believe Social Media to be. I like to hear from you guys.

OK so what is Social Media? Well to be honest it’s just an umbrella term that covers the elements for people to communicate online. Web 2.0 plays a big part as without such an advancement of the internet technologies out there, we would still be using forums as our social media channel. After all, they were how a lot of like minded people originally came together.

With the advent of Web 2.0 – it’s paved the way for all sorts of places to be set up to allow people to share videos, pictures, stories – you name it. There is almost a meeting point for any niche out there.

When people think about social media, they tend to think of social networks. The site that seemed to kick things off was Myspace – very famous but has really lost its way in terms of popularity. This sparked a whole array of copy cats, with most recently Facebook becoming the “go to” place for most people. Over 300 million users and growing shows that Facebook is indeed a force to be reckoned with.

So what does this mean for you? Why should you care? In simple terms – it’s democracy on steroids. People come together over anything and everything. People now have a voice with review sites, video sharing sites, social networks – you name it – people can now be heard.

Every day people like you and I are actually becoming famous just by using places like YouTube to get recognised. I will be covering individual case studies as I find it very impressive as to how people have managed to achieve this. It’s gonna be a big ask, but I wanna try and interview them too, so fingers crossed!

The fact that every day people now have the channels in which to be heard and taken more seriously is a very big deal. I love a phrase from a guy called Gary Vaynerchuk (I’ll cover him more another time)

“It’s not your company that controls your company message – it’s your customers”

A powerful yet true statement. Businesses are now becoming increasingly aware as to how powerful the whole social media sphere is. The crazy part? It’s only just starting. Businesses and individuals can crash and burn or reap and prosper and it’s all down to the public as to which one it is.

To be honest – if you’re in business and you choose to ignore social media, or think its a fad, then I’m genuinely worried for you. You have new competitors and they are sitting in their bedrooms. Scary huh?

Social media is only a fad if you don’t do it right. The second the thought enters your head about “oh how can I make money out of social media” or “how can I exploit this?” then get out – you’re not welcome within that space. Carry on with your traditional broadcast mentality. You mess with it and you know about it. Simple.

The types of people that truly are successful in social media, are the ones that are there for genuine reasons. The ones that want to share their knowledge and passion with not a single marketing reason behind their actions. That attitude gets rewarded – trust me.

OK – I’ve already gone on a bit and realised I haven’t given a solid answer as to what social media is truth be told – that wont happen in one blog post. Is that a cop out? Maybe But there is no way I’m gonna explain social media in one post – that would just be criminal.

This topic is something I’m deeply passionate about and I want to do it justice so I will be covering this more in the future that’s for sure.

However, in the mean time – please I encourage you to drop by and let me know your thoughts on Social Media. Is it just hype or a genuine way in which we will communicate and absorb content for years to come?

Please, I would love to hear from you, so get commenting, get sharing and get connected!
Until next time,