The word Social Media is everywhere

The word Social Media is everywhere.

You read about it on the internet. You hear it from your friends. You might even get to read about it in the newspaper these days. And since it’s so commonly available everyone considers self as an expert.

social-media-bandwagon

Look at Twitter. Every second Twitter follower I get calls himself a “Social Media Evangelist”; whatever that means. But the truth is, this medium is still evolving. A very funny tweet recently from Avinash Kaushik, Google Analytics Expert sums it up:

“Social Media is like teen sex. Everyone wants to do it, but no one actually knows how. And when finally done there is surprise it’s not better”

Marta Kagan also has some interesting thoughts on Social Media in her new presentation over at Mashable. Let’s look in deeper.

So what exactly is this Social Media?

In the simplest of terms that I can think of, “Social Media is an online conversation”

When you tell your Facebook buddy about how hot Kareena is looking in the new movie, that’s Social Media. When someone gives us the Mumbai terror attack updates via Twitter or Flickr; that’s Social Media. The word speaks for itself. It’s ‘social’ because it thrives on communities and word-of-mouth spread. And it’s ‘media’ because it’s a format for presenting information. And it comes with added advantages of being quick, interactive and viral. True, its major downfall lies in the fact that it might not be accurate 100% but as I said, it’s still evolving. And it’s here to stay.

Social Media is not a fad.

It is a fundamental shift in the way we communicate.

Personally I think true Social Media lies somewhere between the realms of Public Relation, Brand building, Marketing and Feedback. It’s a bit of everything, and is doing it much better and faster than the traditional methods.

One point which I would really like to stress here is the findings of the Nielsen report on ‘Trust in advertising’ July 2009. It was found that more than 93% of people trust recommendations from other consumers to help them in purchase decisions. And social media platforms like twitter and discussion forums are proving to be the forerunners in peer-to-peer communications. The old communication model of pushing the content out to the user is dead. You can’t expect to spray the advertisements out there and pray.

Because now, the user has a choice. He can change the channel when he wants to. He can look away from the banner advertisements if he feels like. He can mark your email as spam when you piss him off with your offers. In this internet age your aim should not be to control the conversations but to interact, influence and engage with potential customers.