Explaining Social Media

Social media is taking the world by storm.  Millions of people blog, podcast, belong to social networks, and participate in other forms of social media.  It has become the hub of communicating and marketing.

According to Michael Stelzner’s Social Media Marketing Industry Report from 2009.

-88% marketers use social media in some capacity

-72% have only used it for a few months (they’re just getting starting)

-64% use it for 5 hours or more per week and 39% for 10 hours or more per week

-30-39 year olds are most likely to be using social marketing

(http://www.whitepapersource.com/socialmediamarketing/report/)

YouTube has millions of monthly viewers, and billions of videos posted.  Social networks like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter are growing by the millions across the world.  Facebooks’s traffic has “grown immensely in one year’s period, especially in Europe where it grew 314%.According to comScore, it has grown a staggering 2,721% in Italy from February 2008 to February 2009. In other European countries, its growth was also immense: 999% in Spain, 607% in Belgium, 518% in France, 499% in Switzerland,” (http://mashable.com/2009/04/17/web-in-numbers-social-media/)

Yet, there are still many people who don’t understand what it’s all about.

For example, my parents know very little about what social medial actually is and the value and potential it holds.  In an attempt to explain it without getting into much marketing jargon, I found a helpful video on YouTube.  Not only did this video expose them to YouTube, but it broke down the basics of social media on a level that even my 7 year old could understand.

Now that I’ve broken the ice with this cute little video, I’m able to expand on the definition of social media, and how it is used from both a user side and a marketing side.  Eventually I’m hoping to be able to have a substantial conversation with my parents, and even some friends who are inept when it comes to this topic

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