Options, Options, Options

As noted in the previous post once a company decides to use social media as a business tool, which platforms are the best to use?  The simple answer is there is no simple answer.  Depending on the industry you are in some of the more popular platforms are Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, WordPress, Google Plus, FlickR, 500px, to name a few.  So where do you begin.  Let's break things down a little further.


These are the main types of social media: 1) Weblogs 2) Internet Forums 3) Podcasts 4) Social Blogs 5) Microblogs 6) Social Networks 7) Bookmarking sites

1) Weblogs are sites that contain a log of links to sites or pages that the author finds interesting.  Many major newspapers have Weblog sites where they simply provide links to related articles on topics they have already written on.

2) Internet Forums are online discussion sites or message boards which enable people to hold conversations or discussions.  Zerply would be an example.

3) Podcasts which also include video are sites where users can record and post an on going series relating to a specific theme or topic.  Youtube would be one of the most popular examples of a hosting sight geared towards hosting a video podcast.  The user posts a series of videos.

4) Social Blogs are sites where users can post articles or simply photos or images.  Common Social Blog sites are Blogger, Wordpress or Tumblr

5)  Microblogs are sites where users can post short limited messages or provide links to other sites. Twitter is a well known microblogging site.  Twitter

6) Social Networks are essentially sites where users can network, share pictures, upload files. Facebook, Google Plus, FlickR.

7) Bookmarking sites are places where you can store: recipes, links to your favorite websites, interesting articles that you have read etc. Common Bookmarking sites are Digg, Pocket, Delicious, StumbleUpon

Sometimes these categories will be broken down further or condensed into 6 types of social media, for example at the OutThinkGroup webpage social media sites are broken down into 6 categories.

For an interesting look at the types of social media users head over to Pam Dyer's article on Socialmediatoday's website.