What is a social media site? For the purposes of this article it’s a site centered around user-generated content that is created by an open community. Well, that’s a delightfully stodgy definition, but what does it mean? It means we’re talking about web sites where the text, photos, video, and other content is created by the masses.
The people who built or own the site may also contribute content, but they aren’t the only ones. Instead other users of the site contribute content and develop their voice and brand in that community. Some of the contributors establish themselves as thought leaders and build a following.
So for the purposes of this article, that means blogs are out. Although many people can contribute comments to a blog, the main content is created by a select group of authors, and the comments are ancillary content. (You should absolutely have a blog, we just aren’t talking about it in this article.) That also means wiki sites (like the famous Wikipedia) are out. Anyone can contribute, but since no one can claim their content the community lacks a social aspect. What does that leave?
1.) Microblogging (ex: Twitter)
Microblogging is a community that allows participants to post tiny, bite-size nuggets of information. Using Twitter as an example, your posts are limited to 140 characters. Everyone’s posts exist in a public data stream, but you can filter those posts to just the ones that interest you by keyword, location, author, and other criteria. You can choose to follow other users and see their posts regularly. Building a large group of followers is one way you measure your success and influence with Twitter.
Bottom Line: You can build your brand, extend your network, do market research, and find customers.
2.) Social Bookmarking (ex: Digg)
You have a bookmarking or favorites feature on your web browser. Imagine that was linked to the bookmarks of everyone else you know. You could see which web pages were saved by almost everyone and which ones were only saved by a few. You could even get suggestions from the system: people who bookmarked many of the same sites as you, also bookmarked this other page that you might like. A social bookmarking site does all this. You can also tag a web page with keywords. Then look for other sites that people have tagged with a particular keyword.
Bottom Line: Getting people to bookmark your sites on these networks can greatly increase your traffic.
3.) Mobile Networks (ex: BrightKite)
A mobile network allows users to broadcast their location to the network. (There are privacy settings so you can control how much information you give away.) At an out of town conference and looking for who you can meet up with for lunch? Have a few hours before your next meeting, and it’s not worth driving back to the office only turn around and come back? Use a mobile network to see who’s nearby or let them see you.
Bottom Line: Set your preferences to send you a message when someone in your network is nearby.
4.) Photo Sharing (ex: Flickr)
Beyond being just an extra storage space for images, a photo sharing site lets you easily group photos into albums, distribute them under several different licenses, and email someone a link to view your photos instead of adding each photo to the message as an attachment.
Bottom Line: Create albums for your product catalog, staff, facilities, company picnics, and any other images that tell your story.
5.) Video Sharing (ex: YouTube)
Although you can use a video sharing site as just a storage space for the streaming video that you embed on your own web pages, some of the players in this market (notably YouTube) allow you to customize a profile page. All the videos you upload are grouped in once place. You can include simple bio information and make minor tweaks to the appearance of the page to match your brand. Visitors can leave comments.
Bottom Line: Upload professional commercials you’ve had made and candid videos to give your fans something to talk about and pass around.
6.) Social Networks (ex: Facebook)
Social networks are specifically created to allow people to meet and stay connected to each other. They often combine many of the features mentioned above, allowing you to upload photos and videos, share links, and publish status updates.
Bottom Line: Aggregate the content you’ve created on other social media sites into one place where people on that network can get a feel for what your business does and how you do it.
