“Social media is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media supports the human need for social interaction, using Internet- and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many).” – Wikipedia

Now that wiki has given us a definition of social media, let’s break it down to an even simpler form. 

Social media, to me, is just like our yesteryears dating agency. People use to go to dating agency to look for new friends, or most of the time, a future partner, for interaction with people they do not know. But now, with social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace, people are no longer going to dating agency to meet new people. Social networking sites have basically taken over the role of a dating agency. 

What’s more, social networking sites help us sieve through the many weirdos and people that have no common interest by giving us information of the person, i.e. his/her photo, likes and dislikes, interests and friends. That by itself tells very much the whole story of who and what the person is like. And by the way, your boss would do the same check on you before hiring you. 

Social media has somewhat taken over our lives. People without a Facebook account will be called “old-fashion”,”not keeping up with the trend” and so on. Is it really so important to have a social media account? 

Well, my personal experience is, yes, you can live without an account, but that would mean you are cutting off all connections with the world. I had a Friendster account, and it was THE THING a few years back, until Facebook took over. Everyone i knew had a Facebook account and they slowly just stopped going to Friendster altogether. I had no choice but to switch to Facebook in the end. It is all conformity but that is how you can connect with your friends, through seeing what’s happening in their lives(photos, status update, or even chatting on Facebook) and they are able to see what’s happening in your life. 

Social media has also allowed advertisers to advertise their products to a more targeted  market as social networking sites will have the particulars of the users and advertisers are able to ride on it for their advertising campaigns. 

The PR departments are also making use of social media. Using it to create an account for their companies and creating their brand existence on the different social networking sites. Allowing people to get access to them through the social networking sites and building relationships with their customers. 

I’m sure more and more business opportunities can sprout out through using social media. We just need a brilliant brain to think of it and many will join the joyride. For now, let’s just sit back and relax and see what’s going to happen next or maybe you will be the genius, coming up with that brilliant idea.