What exactly is Social Media?

Well, that’s a good question.  And it would be crazy to run a website about the best practices to utilize Social Media technology without actually tackling this question.

Lucky for us, there’s a company called Common Craft who has produced a short, educational video that answers this question perfectly!

So rather than try and explain the ins and outs of a seemingly complicated subject matter, just sit back and watch this down-to-earth explanation of how social media works.

You should note that this video does not discuss any single social media website or service. It doesn’t mention Twitter or MySpace or Facebook .  Instead, it simply covers the idea behind social media in its most general terms.

For now however, this definition of Social Media should suffice:

The idea is simply that Social Media, rather than being a linear progression of thought and ideas from one source to the other; information is now exchanged freely amongst interested parties, where those who choose to participate in the discussion can comment, rate, and give feedback to content producers.