Social Media... are u familiar with this?

For most people, the term social media is unfamiliar to them. But the truth is its what people use when they are online.

DESCRIPTION
These are the different activities that incorporate technology and social interaction for online users. It is presented in different forms like internet forums, message boards, web blogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures and videos. The technologies included are blogs, picture-sharing, wall-postings, email, instant messaging, music-sharing, voice over.

APPLICATIONS OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Communication
Microblogs – allows user to write a brief text update and publish them right away
Examples: Twitter and Jaiku

Social Networking – build online social networks who share interests and activities
Examples: Facebook and MySpace

Events – Sharing event and party info with your friends
Example: Socializr

Collaboration
Wikis – collection of web pages that enable anyone to contribute and modify content
Example: Wikipedia (Wiki = collaborative websites + encyclopedia)

Social Bookmarking – to store, organize, search, manage bookmarks of web pages
Example: Digg is a website made for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the Internet


Multimedia
Photo sharing – transfer of a user's digital photos online, thus enabling the user to share them with others
Example: Flickr

Video sharing – Youtube, video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips.
It was created in mid-February 2005. In January 2008 alone, nearly 79 million users watched
over 3 billion videos on YouTube.


Entertainment
Virtual Community – group of people that primarily interact via online communication media for social,
professional, educational or other purposes

Example: Second Life – Internet-based virtual world launched in 2003
Its users, called "Residents", can interact with each other through motional avatars (representational of his self). Residents can explore, meet other Residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities.

Online Gaming
Example: World of Warcraft – It’s a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), genre of computer role-playing games (CRPGs) in which a large number of players interact with one another in a virtual world.