What is social media?

Kassie Mouchakkaa | January 19, 2020

Hey, welcome to my blog! I want this blog to be informative, entertaining and a place to connect. Here I will be discussing social media and how it applies to businesses as well as consumers. I think we should start with what even is social media? 

I think asking what social media is, can be redundant or sound dumb these days. But social media didn’t always exist and is a term that could be new to people, especially if they didn’t grow up with it. Here is just a simple dictionary definition: “social media refers to websites and applications that are designed to allow people to share content quickly, efficiently, and in real-time.” (Hudson 2019) Most people know social media by application in their phone, but social media is basically a form of communication. Businesses use social media in their strategy plans. Companies need to use social media as much as their advertising efforts. 

I think today, especially in the millennial and Gen Z age groups, we classify social media as only social networks. There are so many types of social media that we tend to look past.  

Here are some different types of social media from Hootsuite: 

• Social networks: helps you connect with people and brands online. 
• Media sharing networks: share photos, videos and other media online.
• Discussion forums: find, discuss, share; news, information and opinions. 
• Bookmarking and content curation networks: discover, save, share and discuss new/trending content. 
• Consumer review networks: find, review and share information about brands, products and services
• Blogging and publishing networks: publish, discover and comment on content online. 
• Social shopping networks: sport trends, follow brands, share great finds and purchase
• Interest based networks: connect with others around a shared interest 
• Sharing economy networks: advertise, find, share, buy, sell and trade service or products between people 
• Anonymous social networks: gossip, vent, snoop, and bully 

Seeing all these types of social media really puts into perspective how many applications there are and how businesses can utilize each type. Personally, I think of Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, etc. as the only platforms of social media; I tend to forget that there is so much more and many more applications I can learn from. 

https://www.thebalancesmb.com/what-is-social-media-2890301

https://blog.hootsuite.com/types-of-social-media/

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