Understanding Social Media – The Basics

Social Media has been the buzzword for quite some time now and we now have companies such as Red Bull who are designing their complete advertising and media campaign around their social media presence. But do you know what you need to do if you are just starting your social media campaign? If you are new to the world of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. , I am here to help you. Starting with the basics, I shall try to help you use the wonderful new opportunity, i.e. social media to promote yourself and your business easily.

Let's start with the basics of social media. What does one mean when the phrase 'social media' is mentioned? This is how our age's Dr. Johnson, urbandictionary.com defines the term -

Social Media – Your electronic Second Life.

Social Media can be best described as:

1. Facebook - I like doughnuts
2. Twitter - I'm eating #doughnuts
3. Instagram- Here is a polaroid-esce photo of doughnuts
4. Foursquare - This is where I eat doughnuts
5. Youtube - Here I am eating doughnuts

To put it in simple (boring) words, social media is your presence on the most popular networking sites on the internet. The most used are the ones you most hear about, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube etc. However, the way you use them and even if you should use one or all of them depends on your product/service, your industry and the message you want to get across.

The next post would deal with the basics of the biggest social networking sites of all – Facebook and how you can make your presence felt on a platform that has over a billion active users. Till then – ciao!