Social media
Considered to be synonymous with “social media” by some, Facebook is the one site where you’re likely to find friends, colleagues, and relatives all floating around. Although Facebook is mainly centered around sharing photos, links, and quick thoughts of a personal nature, individuals can also show their support to brands or organizations by becoming fans and Facebook’s use of profiling provides essential marketing intel.
One of the only mainstream social media sites that’s actually geared towards business, LinkedIn is to cyberspace what networking groups once were to local business communities. It’s great for meeting customers, getting in touch with vendors, recruiting new employees, and keeping up with the latest in business or industry news. If it matters to your company or career – you can probably do it on LinkedIn.
If you’re looking for a quick, convenient connection between the camera feature on your smart phone and all your social profiles, then Instagram is your social media answer. Not only will it allow you to share via Twitter, Facebook and the Instagram website, you can also choose from a variety of photo filters and invite friends to comment on your images and ideas.
Perhaps the simplest of all social media platforms, Twitter also just happens to be one of the most fun and interesting. Messages are limited to 140 characters or less, but that’s more than enough to post a link, share an image, or even trade thoughts with your favourite celebrity or influencer. Twitter’s interface is extremely easy to learn and use, and setting up your new profile only takes minutes.
As a video sharing service, YouTube has become so popular that its catalogue of billions and billions of videos has become known as “the world’s second largest search engine” in some circles. This social media site has everything from firstperson product reviews to promotional clips and “how to” instruction on virtually any topic or discipline. Users have the ability to share, rate, and comment on what they see.
Social media’s big up-and-comer has really arrived over the past few years! By combining the best of Facebook and Twitter into one site, and backing it by the power of the world’s largest search engine, Google has given users a social site that has something for everyone. You can add new content, highlight topics with hashtags, and even separate contacts into circles. Best of all, a G+ profile only takes a few minutes to get set up.