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 you as a person and a business so that your use of social media for marketing is effective. Joining the social media bandwagon soley to market your products or services is a big no-no, is most obvious and usually seen as unauthentic and annoying- which totally defeats the purpose of using social media in the first place. Recently there was a great guest blog post on Chris Brogan’s which related this type of fly-by participation as “blurting”- especially when it happens on twitter. The point is, with social media, you have to remember to participate in the “social” part of it.
So to get back to Herzog’s original request about what is social media, I submit my definition of Social Media in 140 characters or less: Social media is collection of users connecting thru various social streams, platforms & niches to relay and receive the messages of others.