Chapter 1: Understanding Social Media
In This Chapter
Discovering what social media is
Checking out key social media sites
Adding social media to your web marketing strategy
What in the world is social media (as opposed to “antisocial” media) — and what’s it have to do with web marketing? Good questions. Social media (as a concept) traces its roots back to the first bulletin board systems, discussion forums, IRC (Internet Relay Chat), and newsgroups. (It might also trace its roots back to the first time when two particularly advanced apes grunted at each other. But for Internet marketing purposes, you can ignore the animal world.)
Today, social media is a complex web of sites and software that allows you to bookmark, discuss, vent, and then share with other people. Social media users represent an enormous market. Facebook alone has over 800 million active users. That number is according to Facebook, but hey! — even if it’s exaggerated and you divide that number in half, it’s still a lot of people.
You need to understand this space of social media. Even if you’re not doing any social media marketing, your customers are there, talking about you. Knowing where they talk and how to ...
