Show of hands of the people who know what Social Media is…or mean? That is what I thought. About 1% of you know the true definition of Social Media.
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websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking. |
Ever since 1997, the beginning of social networking, people have tagged Social Networking as being ‘Social Media’…or was it the traditional media who gave social networking the tagline of social media because they saw online social networking as a threat to the traditional media they only used back then. Either way, the use of the term Social Media has been misused far too long.
Where the Mistake Was Made
True, Social Media is an accurate reference to the content that is being posted on Social Networks, but it is not true that a Social Network is Social Media.
You would think that the thousands of keynote speakers of social media who use the term ‘Social Media ‘ to mean Goolge+, Facebook, Twitter, in their speeches at conferences would hire a historian to fact-check the terms they use during their keynote. It all started when someone influential to many unknowing social mediaist in the crowd misused the term Social Media as a cute way to tag social networking. That reference was taken as fact by the trillions of people who heard the keynote and who wanted to be the first to use it in their keynote speech. That is when the trauma of defining social media to none tech business leaders who went to those conferences began for today’s digital marketers But, I’ll leave the rest of this rant for another time.
Social Media in 2018
Today, the true meaning of Social Media is starting to surface. This could be due to nearly every industry in every market is using video to communicate with their audience who usually reside on social networks. So, to accurately describe exactly what they are doing they refer to the videos as Social Media.
The reference to the term Social Media to describe Videos should be heard more soon since more business are using videos. Any business not using video to deliver their message to consumers they must be trying to execute their 1997 marketing plan.
Videos = Social Media
Videos have become the most dominant form of social media to be posted on a Social Network as well as websites. 85% of the 2 billion users of the internet prefer watching a casually entertaining short video demonstrating a product than reading an overly wordsmithed article written by a copywriter getting paid by the word. That means that four out of the five people you know are presently looking at a video instead of this form of Social Media…my blog.
So why aren’t I using a video instead of this blog? Answer: How else would I get this message to you?
Different Forms of Social Media
Social media comes in a few different forms other than video.
Types of Social Media
- Discussion forums—Share news and ideas
- Consumer reviews—Find and review businesses
- Blogging —Publish content online
- eCommerce—Shop online
Of course, there are a number of different types of Videos as well:
- Profile Videos – Used to show the person running a business or selling a product
- Explainer Videos – Demoing a product or service
- How-To Videos – Showing how to do something
- Infomercial – Long videos produced to pitch the product or service
- Testimonial Videos – Interviews with satisfied customers
- Documentary Video – A fact-filled storytelling video of the developing of a product or business.
- Motion Graphic Video – Animated characters and/or flashy moving text that tell a story.
It is easy for people to be confused when someone who still lives with a 2008 sales pitch tells them they “should be on Social Media” when they really meant they should be posting social media on social networks. These seemly little details, or slips of using the wrong terminology, are starting to sift out the digital marketers still listening to keynote speakers at conferences who are more worried their appearance fee funds have been transferred to their account than worrying about what they have to say to the crowd is accurate.
Find a video-centric digital marketing agency to set you straight on what is what with your internet marketing.
If you are still confused, contact SyncLab Media. They have a number of consulting packages to offer that will rebrand your business or aline your marketing strategy to include a video-centric digital marketing strategy. I should know. I was part of the development staff for all of SyncLab Media’s products and services.
Then of course, once you contact SyncLab… let me know how I can help.
