User Defined Social Media

A recent blog post by Ari Herzog asks the readers to define social media in 140 characters or less ( a la twitter style.) This is an exceptional idea since social media is exactly what it’s users make it. It’s about so many different ideas, thoughts, relationships and people that I’m not sure that it can be easily defined. I mean isn’t that like trying to define the result or outcome of every single interaction we have with each other online? On the other hand, the beauty of trying to define social media via the style of one of the bigger social media sites almost perfectly epitomizes the whole of concept of what is social media. However, I’ve also been reading other opinions about how social media has been died or been killed or has become the green eyed monster of ME, ME, ME where people know they are “supposed” to be creating relationships and connections but not blatantly selling themselves, but that in reality so many are just pretending to create relationships and be personal while covertly selling themselves. So which is it? Is social media about the users creating these connections and relationships with other users or has it just become another form of media that will be used to sell us something? In my opinion, it’s both. People are still using social media to form relationships and make connections while marketing themselves and their business at the same time. But there’s a right way and a wrong way. Using social media as a social tool first and as a marketing tool second creates more trust in...