What Is Social Media?

Tweet

Think back to school: When you wanted to know what something was, you went to the dictionary for words and the encyclopedia for most everything else. So where do you look for a “current” definition of social media? How about the reference that is itself built on the principles of social media. That is, of course, Wikipedia. This socially built online encyclopedia is an example of both “social media” and the social processes that make this emerging form of media so powerful. You may be thinking, “Hey wait! Who says Wikipedia is accurate? I’ve heard that people can write anything, whatever they want!” That much is true: in Wikipedia you can write whatever you want. However, it’s also true that just as soon as you do — often within a few minutes — someone else will look at what you just wrote and either validate it or revert the passage to its prior state.

Is Social Media Accurate?

This may seem the question of the day but it’s really a red herring. Consider that the same line of thinking that results in the dismissal — rather than attempted understanding — of Wikipedia because “anyone can contribute” can do the same for the collective message in a social conversation. After all, all of this is really nothing more than “a few comments from the people on the Internet” right? Don’t make that mistake. This is not to say “believe everything you read…” but rather that if you build a solid process around listening via the Social Web — in good part what this book is about — then you can learn a lot about your products and services directly from your customers. This is knowledge that you can put to good use as a marketer, in applications ranging from product development and evolution to practical applications like increasing average sales in your online checkout process or reducing expenses by lowering return rates.


    The Wikipedia process for arriving at a definition of “social media” is an excellent example of social media: social media is used in this context to tap the collective expertise and arrive at an acceptable conclusion. It is the wisdom of the crowd, with all caveats fully present. Think about this a bit if you’re still skeptical: it’s actually a rather insightful look into social media. The Wikipedia process provides a great example of why social media is useful to you as a marketer. When I first started writing this book, Wikipedia did not have an agreed-to  definition of social media. Instead, Wikipedia had an emerging, in-process definition of what more accurately described activities on the “Social Web” — the total of all of the applications and uses of online tools aimed at enabling consumer-generated and shared content, and facilitating conversations relating to that content between people. This short definition was followed by an intense discussion of what social media might or might not be. This discussion, which began late in 2006, only recently stabilized with a fairly solid definition.