If you’re not involved in the Social Media revolution then you are missing out on everything the information age has to offer.
Social Media defined by Wikipedia:
Social media is an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and “building” of shared meaning among communities, as people share their stories, and understandings.
Now my interpretation:
Social media is THE KEY to make the internet yours. Did you know that you can customize your entire experience based on what you like? You can keep up with friends, listen music you like , find interesting videos and even find websites that you’re almost guaranteed to like by using social media?
Where to start?
The first place I went was Facebook. Facebook is a social utility (similar to MySpace) that allows you to connect to your friends, family, and the world. You can share pictures, have conversations, and find people with similar interest. It’s the perfect place for a beginner.
The next step I took was social bookmarking:
If you know how to bookmark a page, then this should be a snap. The idea behind social bookmarking is sharing. When you bookmark a page on your browser it can be cumbersome to share. Social bookmarking sites make it easy to bookmark and even easier to share.
The same concept that applied to facebook applies here, find people with similar interest, befriend them and start sharing.
My 2 favorite sites for social bookmarking are:
#1 StumbleUpon is an internet community that allows its users to discover and rate Web pages, photos, and videos.
Stumbleupon is the best thing I’ve ever found on the internet. I’m not sure what I was doing on the internet before stumbled upon it. Basically you can surf the web, find sites that you like, bookmark, comment and share.
It gets better when you start using the stumble button. When you sign up it takes you through a questionnaire to determine what you like, then when you use the stumble button it delivers websites based on your interest. Once you start using it you can give websites a thumbs up or thumbs down. When you use the thumbs up it figures out what you really like and gives you more of it.
#2 Digg is a website made for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the Internet, by submitting links and stories, and voting and commenting on submitted links and stories, in a social and democratic spirit.
Digg is a lot of fun. I use it for political news, odd ball stories, and even some business news. The great thing is that you get to vote on what you like and it moves the page up the ranks where more people will see them.
Don’t forget Blogs. Believe it or not blogs are part of social media.
You may be asking yourself, “How is a blog part of social media?”
It’s pretty simple, blogs are maintained by people and they are available on the web. Most blogs have a comment section which gives readers a chance to interact with the blogger and fellow readers.
If you’re just reading blogs and not commenting you’re actually missing out on all the fun. This is your chance to add your two cents. Take advantage of this opportunity by telling me what you think of this post in the comment section below.
How to get started:
- Participate in the discussions
- Be honest about what you like and dislike
- Find friends with similar interests
- SHARE (sharing is the basis for all social media)
** It’s Uber important to learn Social Media etiquette before you dive in, so check out this post.
I hope this was helpful to you. I plan on writing more about social media and WEB 2.0 in the future, so take a moment to subscribe to my feed so you can keep up to date.
