The Digital Media Landscape

The Basic Forms of Social Media

 “I am on Facebook, I did my share to participate on Social Media Platforms”

Social Media Landscape

Facebook is a great way to start but it doesn't cover the whole of Social Media. It actually is just the tip of the iceberg. There are countless other instruments of Social Media which allow us to interact, share and act in response.

Social Networks

Social Networks allow people to build personal landing pages and connect with friends, share content and interact. These social platforms offer targeted advertising and their huge user base makes them an ideal marketplace for various brands. Facebook alone for example, has 845 million users worldwide and it provides marketing departments, despite external privacy concerns, with very specific data to zero in on their respective target audiences.

But it doesn't stop there. Just look a bit into Barack Obama’s last election campaign where he employed various Social Media Tools to create deep and meaningful discussions with people from all social backgrounds from all across the U.S.

Many people use the social networks of their choice to search for information as well. This makes Social Networks one of the most important the most important media vehicle.

Blogs

Major Blogging Sites

Blogs are online periodicals where people write for specific groups keen to consume information and experiences by means of text, videos and photos. Sites like Blogger or Wordpress are great tools to “get the word out there” and as well to brand and market your services or products.

Many blogs have a huge fan base and are in fact quite powerful when it comes to shape opinions. They have become immensely influential and carry a lot of weight with potential buyers of products and services.

Wikipedia

Julian Assange - Knight of  Information

Wikis allows people not only to place and access information but also to modify and update content. They add a completely new spectrum to information sharing by giving a new meaning to the term “shared workspace”

Wikipedia has fast become the preferred source of information for students and professionals alike. It’s an easy-to-use encyclopedia for primary research and rapidly replaces most other means of unearthing information.

But one can not underestimate the influence of these sites.... just keep Julian Assange and his Wikileaks in mind....

Content Communities

These are groups who share a specific kind of content. Flickr for example is formed around sharing photos and other communities like YouTube share videos.

Not unlike other social networks you have to register, create a landing page and connect with your friends and other people. The only difference is that these content communities aim is to share a specific type of content.

Microblogging

This is social networking with bite-sized blogging of content where very small amounts of information are handed out online and primarily through mobile networks. The market leader in this field is clearly Twitter.

Podcasts

These are video and/or audio files that users can subscribe to. They are posted on the net and only subscribers have access.

When a new podcast is posted, all subscribers’ podcast services (eg. iTunes) are automatically notified and hence get downloaded to the respective computers’ hard drive. Users have the possibility to listen directly on their computers or download it to external media like MP3 players.

Groups and Forums

Forums & Groups normally are clustered around specific subjects and interests. Forum-discussions are known as “threads” and various threads can be active at the same time.

This makes forums a great place to gather information as you can type a specific question in your browser and will get explicit answers. Forums can also be places for sharing news, engage in discussions, flirting or simply chat away.