Chapter 21
Ten Reasons for Using Social Media
IN THIS CHAPTER
Recognising why social media matters
Putting social media to work in your business
Ensuring that you stay ahead of the pack
The Oxford Dictionary has a suitably pithy definition of social media – ‘websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking’. Social media can be seen as a collection of online communications channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration.
Social media has evolved in just a couple of decades, and has become a prolific, influential and mainstream marketing tool for business, evidenced by the options that are numerous and expanding fast. Aside from the usual suspects – Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter – hundreds of sector-specific sites exist. Pinterest, for example, is a tool for collecting and organising pictures of things that inspire you. YouTube provides a forum for people to inform billions of others around the world by distributing videos for free. eHarmony, Match.com and 6,000 other dating sites aim to help the lonely find love.
News aggregator and social bookmarking sites, including ...
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