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50 Definitions of Social Media

The Social Media Guide6 January 2011

188 4 minutes read

If you ask a heap of different people, “What is Social Media?”.. they will all give you a different answer.

Here are 50 definitions,

About.com – Media is an instrument on communication, like a newspaper or a radio, so social media would be a social instrument of communication
Affilorama – Social media is content created and shared by individuals on the web using freely available websites that allow users to create and post their own images, video and text information and then share that with either the entire internet or just a select group of friends
AG Communications Group – Social media essentially is a category of online media where people are talking, participating, sharing, networking, and bookmarking online
Answers.com – The online forms of communicating to the masses, which include blogs, microblogs, social networking sites and podcasts
BlackBox Social Media – Social media is any online media platform that provides content for users and also allows users to participate in the creation or development of the content in some way
Briancee – Social Media is the sharing of user (human) created information and interacting on-line using Internet technology
Brian Solis – Social Media is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers. It is the shift from a broadcast mechanism, one-to-many, to a many-to-many model, rooted in conversations between authors, people, and peers
Common Craft – Social media in plain English (video)
CubixDev – Social Media is the new term for socializing online. It allows people to freely interact with each other online where-ever they are and whenever they want
Daily Blog Tips – Social media are the various forms of user generated content and the collection of websites and applications that enables people to interact and share information online
Duct Tape Marketing – Social media is the use of technology combined with social interaction to create or co-create value
Fresh Networks – Social media is people having conversations online. These conversations can take a variety of forms; for example, blogs and comments or photo sharing
Get a Social Boost – Digital word of mouth
Harish Dabasia – Social media is people having conversations online
Health is Social – Social Media is the meeting place between people and technology
Hudson Horizons – Social Media is often used as another term for user-generated content
iContact – An umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words and pictures
Integrasco – Social media explained (video)
Investopedia – Internet-based software and interfaces that allow individuals to interact with one another, exchanging details about their lives such as biographical data, professional information, personal photos and up-to-the-minute thought
Just Ask Kim – Social media is any media form that displays itself to an open public and encourages interaction between the host and all observers
Kyle David Group – Social media is the technological path of least resistance for two-way communication and distribution through a large audience who would otherwise be unconnected if it were not for the technological medium
Luke Hayes – Social media is a group of Internet-based applications that allow the creation and exchange of user generated content. This content is then shared through social interaction
Mahalo – Social media is content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies. At its most basic sense, social media is a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content
Marta Kagan -What is Social Media (presentation)
Michelle Digital – Social media is life online
One Zero One – Social Media, by definition, is the collection of strategies, practices and tools for communicating, creating, sharing and discussing news, information and other media online
Online Schools – Social media is technically a means for social interaction through the web
Optimize Your Web Presence – Social media are online venues, such as social networking sites, blogs and wikis that enable people to store and share information called content, such as text, pictures, video and links
Orange Soda – Social media is about interacting with and sharing information with others online
ProPR – Social media are online communications in which individuals shift fluidly and flexibly between the role of audience and author. To do this, they use social software that enables anyone without knowledge of coding, to post, comment on, share or mash up content and to form communities around shared interests
Radian6 – Social media is game changing, not a closed system, not just another media, transparent, more than blogs, decentralized and real-time and measurable
Rapid Learning Life – What is Social Media? In Simple English
Relationship Economy – Social media is communications
Scobleizer – Internet media that has the ability to interact with it in some way
Search Engine Land – Social media itself is a catch-all term for sites that may provide radically different social actions
SEO Zodiac – Social Media is simply people having conversations online
Social Media Optimization Services – Social media is people meeting other people
Social Media Vision – Simply refers to communication/publication platforms which are generated and sustained by the interpersonal interaction of individuals through the specific medium or tool
Squidoo – Social media also includes social networks that insist on people to come together online that shares a common interest
Tech ER – Media is an instrument of communication, like a newspaper or a radio, so social media would be a social instrument of communication
Telezent – Social media explained visually (presentation)
The Financial Brand – Social media isn’t about the media, it’s about being social
The Social Election – Social media is people talking to people online
Tjongolongo – Social Media is word of mouth on steroids
Web1Marketing – Social Media consists of media that support and encourage social interaction among user
Webgeekly – Social Media is generally any website or service that uses Web 2.0 techniques and concepts
Webopedia – A term used to describe a variety of Web-based platforms, applications and technologies that enable people to socially interact with one another online
Wikipedia – Social media are media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques
WiseGeek – Social media mainly consists of user-generated Internet content

And finally here is my definition of social media,

The Social Media Guide – Social media is user generated content that is shared over the internet via technologies that promote engagement, sharing and collaboration

As you can see from above there is certainly a wide range of definitions.

I would love to know your definition of what social media is.. so please leave a comment below!