Social media is simply a place, tool or service allowing for digital publication that engages users who use it to share their life, insights, likes, dislikes, and so on with others in their "social" community.
Any site can integrate a social media element -- and often it's beneficial to do so. Not only does it create a community and give unprecedented insight into your client-base, it leverages peer-to-peer communication lines to spread word of your business, services, etc.
A simple execution to connect to social networks is implementing a "Share This" bar. This allows a visitor to your site to post a link to your site from a social media service or tool of choice. This has additional benefits (outside of the obvious) of adding to your
SEO rankings.
Another popular tool for generating this social aspect is a blog. The blog is a platform for a business to informally communicate with their audience -- something they wouldn't otherwise be able to do with such scope. Blogs often allow for reader reponses, which provides forward-thinking companies with invaluable information on their public image.
Some examples of tools are categorized as follows:
Publishing Tools:
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Blogs (blogger.com, Wordpress), Wikis,
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| Sharing Tools: |
YouTube, FlickR, del.icio.us, Digg
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Discussion Tools:
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Forums, instant message, VoIP (e.g Skype)
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A common type of service is a social network. Some examples are:
| Facebook |
| MySpace |
| LinkedIn |
| Bebo |