What is Social media ?

Social media

Social media are all online communication channels dedicated to contributions, interactions, content sharing and collaboration within communities.

There are different types of social media, including websites and applications dedicated to forums, microblogging, social networking , bookmarking, content editing (or “curating”), and wikis.

There are some examples of social media:

· Facebook is a free, mainstream social networking website that allows registered users to create profiles, post photos and videos, send messages, and stay in touch with friends, family, and colleagues . According to Nielsen Group statistics, Internet users in the United States spend more time on Facebook than any other website.

· Twitter is a free microblogging service that allows followers to broadcast short posts called tweets. Twitter members can post tweets and follow those of other followers using multiple platforms and devices.

· Google+ (pronounced Google plus) is Google’s social networking project, designed to mimic offline interactions more closely than other social networking services. Google announced in October 2018 that it would be closing for 2019.

· Wikipedia is a free, open-access online encyclopedia that publishes content created collaboratively by a community of users called Wikipedians.Anyone registered on this site can create an article for publication; There is no need to register to edit articles. Wikipedia was created in January 2001.

· LinkedIn is a social network designed specifically for professionals and acquired by Microsoft in 2016. Its objective is to allow its registered members to create and enrich networks of people they know and recommend professionally.

· Reddit is a community website that publishes articles edited and distributed by the members themselves. It is made up of hundreds of sub-communities called “subreddits”. Each subreddit is dedicated to a specific theme such as technology, politics or music.Members of Reddit, also called “redditors”, send content that is voted on by other members. The objective is to display the most popular articles on the site’s home page.

· Pinterest is a curation website that allows you to share and organize images available on the Internet. Image descriptions should be short, but Pinterest is all about visuals.When a user clicks on an image, the source web page is displayed. For example, if he clicks on a photo of a pair of shoes, he may end up on a site that will allow him to buy them online. Likewise, the photo of a Crêpe Suzette or an elaborate nest box can open a page of recipes or manufacturing instructions.

· Instagram is a free social networking platform and online photo-sharing tool that Facebook purchased in 2012. It allows users to edit and upload photos and short videos via an app. mobile. Users can add a caption to each of their messages and use hashtags and geotags to index these messages and make them searchable by other users of the application.

Brian Solis created the chart below, called the Conversation Prism, to classify social networking sites and services into different social media categories.

Business and social media

Social media is becoming an increasingly integral part of online life with the proliferation of social networking websites and apps. Most traditional online media includes social components, such as comment entry fields for users. Businesses use social media to market products, promote brands, communicate with customers, and grow their businesses.

Businesses use social media analytics to collect data from social media blogs and websites for analysis and decision making. The most common use of social media analytics is to leverage customer sentiment in marketing and customer service activities.

Social Media Marketing (SMM) leverages the social network to help a business increase brand visibility and expand its customer base. Generally, the goal is to create content that is attractive enough for users to share in their social networks.

One of the main components of social media marketing is Social Media Optimization (SMO). SMO is a technique for bringing in fresh, distinct visitors to a website, much to search engine optimization (SEO).

This can be done in two ways: by inserting social media links into content such as RSS feeds and share buttons, or by launching social media promotions via status updates, tweets or posts. publications in blogs.

Customer relationship management applied to social media, or Social CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is a tool that can be very powerful for a company. For example, creating a Facebook page allows people who like your brand and the way you do business to “like” your page, opening the door for communications, marketing and networking activities. On social media sites, you can monitor discussions about your brand to get real-time market data and reactions.

From a customer perspective, social media is an easy way to inform a business and the general public about their experience with that business, whether good or bad. The company can also respond very quickly to both positive and negative feedback, resolve customer issues, and maintain, restore, or restore customer trust.

Business social networks allow them to connect everyone who shares the same professional interests or activities. Internally, social tools can help employees access the information and resources they need to work together effectively and solve business problems. Externally, companies are using public social media platforms to stay close to their customers and more easily conduct research to improve business processes and operations.

Social media are often used for participatory production (crowdsourcing). Customers may use social networking sites to suggest ideas for new products or improvements to existing products. In IT projects, crowdsourcing typically involves involving and combining business and IT services from various internal and external vendors, sometimes with contributions from customers and/or the general public.

However, integrating social media into the business world can also be problematic. Social media strategies are designed to set expectations for appropriate behavior and ensure that employee posts will not land the company in legal trouble or publicly embarrass the company. These policies include guidelines telling employees when they should identify themselves as company representatives on a social networking website, as well as rules governing the types of information they can share.