An Introduction to Social Media

Social media may not need an introduction for many of us, especially now a days. However, for those who are not very tech savvy, here is an article about introduction to social media. This will help make every one familiar with the basics of social media.

Social media refers to various Internet sites through which people can interact with one another along with creating, sharing and exchanging information and ideas using personal messages, pictures, videos and audio.

Through the use of social media, people can exchange photos and videos. They can share news stories and current affairs, post their thoughts on blogs, and participate in online discussions. Social media also allows individuals, companies, organizations, governments etc to interact with masses online.

Social media differs from traditional media in many aspects. For example quality, accessibility and immediacy. Keeping the criticism aside, according to survey, Internet users continue to spend more time with social media sites than any other type of site.

What is Social Media?

 The various internet services which constitute the social media are as follows:

• Blogs: Blogs are online journals usually displayed in reverse chronological order. Various sites where blogs can be posted for free are WordPress, Tumblr and Blogger.
• Wikis: It is a collective website where a users are allowed to modify any page or create a new page using his/her Web browser. Wikipedia is a well-known example which is a free online encyclopedia that uses wiki technology.
• Social bookmarking: These sites allow users to organize and share links to websites. For example Reddit, StumbleUpon and Digg.
• Social network sites. These sites allow users to create public or semipublic profiles within the website and form relationship with other users who can access their profiles. Most popular social network sites are Facebook, LinkedIn etc.
• Status-update services. Also known as Microblogging services, status-update services allow people to share short updates( a sentence, video-clip or image) about people or events and to see updates by others. For eg, Twitter
• Virtual world content. These sites offer game-like virtual environments in which users interact.
• Media-sharing sites. These sites allow users to post videos or photographs. Popular sites are YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram.

The Benefits of Social Media

Key benefits of social media are:

• Bringing people together and strengthening relationships: By facilitating open communication and enhancing information discovery and delivery, it allows everyone to find new people, meet new friends and communicate to their love ones all over the world. Social media allows people from the different geographical locations to express and share their views at a single point.
• Increasing knowledge and technical literacy: Through social media, it is easier to know or find out different information or something about almost anything in the world through a connected media. All social media relies on advanced information and communication technologies that support technological literacy for people.
• More exposure for business: Social media not just allows employees to discuss and share ideas, ask questions, post news and share links but it reduces the cost of advertising and also improves business reputation.
• Attracts attention: Social media can attract attention to your website, product and services.

Apart from the benefits, social media has its share of disadvantages too. For instance, some of the disadvantages include cyber crimes, distraction from work, health issues etc.

Nevertheless, it is considered as a revolution of our century. It has changed the way people interact, share and exchange information, although the implications of sharing personal information cannot be analyzed as yet.