Social Media Masterclass

Introduction

Blogs , wikis, social bookmarks, tag clouds – new words for new things, and new ways to use words. You may be living in the world of social media, but to many it’s a jumbled jungle with no clear structure. 

The many facets of social media are also called Web 2.0, consumer generated media, citizen media and new media. In fact, comparing social media to traditional media is probably the most useful way of defining what exactly this means.

Most simply put, social media are media (from written to visual to audio to audio visual) that are designed to be shared. Sharing means that it is easy to comment on, that it is easy to send, and that there are no high costs associated with viewing the media. And, because of the connected nature of the Internet, it means that sharing, commenting and viewing can all be tracked and measured.   

The Internet, and the software developed to run on it, has made it simple for anyone to publish and distribute. It has also made it simple for anyone to access the content that has been published.

The realm of social media is about collaboration, users generating content, sharing and, most of all, it is about connecting.