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Social media. What does it mean to you?
From a personal perspective, it's a way to communicate with friends, relatives, and seemingly people you didn't realise you knew in some cases – whoever it may be, social media is a fantastic medium for building links, and strengthening communications with people.
The term 'social media' is an interesting one. Wikipedia would define the word social as “... the interaction of organisms with other organisms and to their collective co-existence, irrespective of whether they are aware of it or not, and irrespective of whether the interaction is voluntary or involuntary.”
It's an interesting point regarding “whether they are aware of it or not”. Are we ever totally aware of who and what we are socially part of? Am I socially part of the Carlton Football club, purely because I barrack for the team? Am I a part of the HouseMD fanclub because I have memorised almost every single line of every single episode?
We all would know what the word media means so I won't delve into the details of that one too far – or should I? Many people underestimate the breadth and power of the simple term media. Many would simply say to the question “what does the word 'Media' mean?” with a brazen “It's tv radio and print of course!”. However on a simple scale media has become so much more than in was back in 550 BC when (supposedly) Persian Emporor Cyrus the Great devised the method of the first postal system.
In the small time we have been around on this planet we have gone from that one simple type of media to a plethora of methods, deliveries and contexts of media that it is hard to compare in some respects to other ground breaking features of our civilisation. To name a small few, we have the obvious advertising media, electronic media, published media... and thats just part of it.
Now that social media is currently a force to be reckoned with – how does a company keep track of their brand name, their products, and the public's perception of them? It's an issue that has only just started to rear it's head. As a business you want to know when you're being mentioned on twitter. You want to know when someone is talking about your customer service on friendfeed or facebook. The power of these social media tools can be a great assest for assessing how your business shapes up in it's 'local' landscape.
Which brings me back to the first question, with a slight addendum;
Social media. What does it mean to you, or your business?
