So last week, we hammered out the Social Media Starter Kit series, reviewing some of the basic tools of social media and a few tips on using them. This week, I want to focus more on the “what, why and how” of social media and tackle some of the questions you’ve asked of me.

This is only effective if you’re telling me what I can help answer or at least give you my take on, so please do me a big favor and leave your questions in the comments, or email them to me at amber@altitudebranding.com. I’ll answer as many as I can this week, and then put them all in a tidy little PDF at the end of the week for you to download (and maybe share with your boss??) 🙂

So let’s get started.

What exactly is social media?

Ask ten people this question and you’re likely to get ten different answers, ranging from the very technical to the very philosophical. But for my part, I say social media is a broad collection of communication tools and practices – largely online – that foster the individual creation and sharing of content, and encourage the dialogue around that content at a human level.

No, that’s not all encompassing. Why? Because social media is very much defined by each person who engages in it, and that definition will be different if you’re a business or an individual. I’d also say that you need to loosen up your definition of “media” in this sense, and not be thinking newspapers or magazines or TV, but the purest definition of media that includes all potential methods of delivering information.

Instead of a rigid definition, I’d instead venture to say that true social communication shares a few characteristics:

  • It’s delivered in a human voice, instead of a corporate or “messaged” one
  • It invites feedback, dialogue, and discussion, whether positive or critical
  • It asks creators to be abundantly forthright about who they are and whose viewpoint they represent (if not their own)
  • It’s participatory and interactive
  • Its goal is to build relationships and contribute to a larger whole, not push messages or an agenda

The most typical examples of social tools include social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, publishing platforms like blogs, YouTube and podcasts, and practices like user-generated content, audience voting and rating, and crowdsourcing.

So that’s my overview. What would you add?

Why should I care about this?

This is probably an entire post in itself, but I’ll try to be brief.

Social media have opened up the floodgates of communication around the web. They’ve put far-reaching and impactful communication in the hands of each and every person with an internet connection and something to say.

As an individual, you should care because social media helps you connect, converse, and contribute to the world around you in ways that you could never have imagined. The tools are largely inexpensive, easy to use, and give you your own stage, microphone, and millions of niches to tuck into that can help you find like-minded communities and friends.

As a business, these myriad conversations mean that more than likely, your industry or even your brand are being discussed. You have an opportunity to be an active and trusted participant in that dialogue, provided you contribute from *within* that community (instead of from some holy corporate tower somewhere). As a business, you can stand out immensely by offering your customers a voice in your business, and communicating openly back to them as humans, not logos. Being a company that people want to interact with is undeniably good for business.

You have phones on your desk and email on your computer to allow people to communicate with you. Social media are simply new mechanisms for the communication we’ve always done. But their visibility and ubiquity force us to do it better.

The truth is that social media still has uncharted waters. But it’s not going away. It’s evolving the global communication landscape for individuals and businesses alike, and you can choose to make things happen as a result of it, or have things happen *to* you because of it.

There are plenty of questions worthy of discussion: the risks of open dialogue, the question of scaling human interactions, what really constitutes the “ROI” of all this (a topic I’ll tackle later this week. Again.). But if these numbers (or this resource) are any indication, it’s a true groundswell that you can’t afford to ignore.

Your Turn

So that’s a start. A couple of questions I’m asked often. I’ve got a bunch more that I’ve heard from you so far, and I’m looking for more. There’s no question too simple, and no points for being overly philosophical. 🙂 I’m here to help, so let’s tackle some of the things that are bugging you. I can’t promise to have all the perfect answers, but that’s the whole point. There’s a community here full of knowledge. Let’s tap it.

Photo credit: Jan Tik

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