The question on many people lips at the moment is
What is Social Media?
The best web description I found is
Social Media are primarily Internet- and mobile-based tools for sharing and discussing information among human beings
The social movement to me is the action of sharing and communicating on “open online platforms”. Social media is being open and communicating to friends and complete strangers on topics of interest.
Social media to many is where they log onto Facebook and chat to their friends online or tag their friends in a photo uploaded from the previous weekend’s events. But there is a lot more to it!
Social media is different to many people however here are my examples -
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Google Buzz
Youtube
Stumbleupon
Delicious
Digg
Yahoo answers
Wikipedia
Believe it or not social media is not new technology, it has been around for a many years, however it has rapidly become more and more popular. The more modern social networks started 2002.
Why has social become really important? Social media and social networking has become really popular because it offers quick communication, new communication methods and replaced older technology.
2009 was the year that Twitter exploded across the world, its growth was over 300% and recently Twitter released very interesting statistics of 50 million tweets per day. That’s one part of the power of social, updating your friends at every given opportunity.
Facebook has officially become the most visited site in the US it actually gets more visitors than Google.
The average Facebook user spends 55 minutes per day on it……that must be the longest time spent on a site online apart from catching up with TV shows on the iplayer.
The new breed of social media -
Ning – Ning is a social network application where you can create your very own social network, it takes around 5 clicks to create. There are many options and many communities have taken advantage of Ning and maybe more will this year.
Location or geo tagging is not exactly new but new services are becoming increasingly popular. My picks are -
Foursquare – Foursquare for me is just about the best lo-so service around. I must admit I am a little bit behind using it but like most social networks its become a bit of a ritual and addictive. Foursquare rewards you for “checkin in”, I am currently the Mayor (that’s a good thing) of Nitro Digital. If you have an iPhone, Blackberry or Android based phone you can download the apps for free. Check it out, you might become the Mayor of Starbucks in your local area.
Gowalla – Very similar to Foursquare, it offers cool trips and also rewards you for unlocking features. It is available on the most popular mobile platforms.
Both Foursquare and Gowalla integrates with Facebook and Twitter and informs them of where you are and what badges you unlock.
Chat Roulette – Much has been made about chat roulette already, it can be very funny and well worth experiencing. Be prepared to see certain things you might not want to.
So what is social media…. social media is interacting with friends, making new connections, peer to peer sharing of information online and via mobile phones.
If you have any questions let me know 
Danny Denhard
