What is Social Media?

Nowadays, we live in a world where we are all connected in a network by virtue of a new force—social media. It is undeniable that social media impacts nearly every aspects of our daily lives. But how do social media impact on the business world? This blog will take you to the colorful world of social media and give you an insightful vision on how this growing force influences business around the world. The topic will include what is social media, why social media is important to business, how companies are using social media for doing business, how it changed the way of marketing and advertising and etc.

As a MBA student, who was born in the early 1990s, without a doubt I am big fan of social media and use it from day to day and even from minute to minute. This is not only because I need to communicate with my families and friends, but also because I need to expand my network for business purpose. As we known, networking is a big part of an MBA student’s life. So we can’t live without social media, which is one of the most convenient, effective and efficient way to do so. LinkedIn, the most popular professional social network platform, is a good example of how social media impact my life. 

So what is social media? When we are being asked this question, it seems that we all have a lot words to say, such as Facebook and Tweeter. This is mainly because we live with them every day and even every minute. However, it is still not easy for us to give a general idea about what social media really is. So how can we define social media?

Wikipedia answers the question what is social media, by stating that:
 "Social media refers to the means of interactions among people in which they create, share and exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks. Andreas Kalpan and Michael Haenlein define social media as “a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content.” Furthermore, social media depend on mobile and web-based technologies to create highly interactive platforms through which individuals and communities share, co-create, discuss, and modify user-generated content. It introduces substantial and pervasive changes to communication between organizations, communities and individuals."

To help you better understand the nature of social media, here I would like to explain a little bit about Web 2.0 since the advent of social media is based on the development of Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is a relatively new name, compared with Web 1.0, for the all those same type of internet applications. The main feature of Web 1.0 is to help user gain information through Internet explorer. Unlike web 1.0, Web 2.0 focuses more on the interaction of users. In other words, the users will not only be the receptors of the internet content, but also the creator of it. This is also the critical difference between social media and traditional media.

To simply the definition of social media,  social media, from my perspective, is a multi-functional platform, based on the information and communication technology (ICT), on which people can create, share, exchange their personal experience, such as music, pictures and videos, and personal thoughts, such as preference, comments and critiques. My first blog would like to end with a formative video that will tell you about what social media really is, why it has been recognized the biggest shift since the industrial revolution and how it changes our world, particularly the business world. This video will also help you to know what topics will be covered in my future blogs. 

Reference: 1. videos taken from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mid8p4A6Eg
                 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media