“How do you define "social media" as opposed to "social networking"? Have you noticed that the first term is becoming ubiquitous while the second term is not used much anymore?”
September 29 at 4:14 pm
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Sharon McPherson, Alex Barredo and Jonathon D. Colman liked this
I usually say that 'social networking' or 'social networks' are the 'private side' (facebook, linkedin, etc) , and 'social media' the 'public side' (digg, delicious, flickr, youtube, twitter, friendfeed) - Alex Barredo
Great point, Laura, something I've been thinking about as I'm helping my organization write up a social media policy. I first learned the term "social media" from Beth K. and agree that "social network" and, esp. "social networking" are going by the wayside. Another question to throw on the heap: how do you refer to a place where one finds social media? A social media "presence"? An "outlet"? Something else altogether? God help us if it's "social media network" -- arrrrgh! - Jonathon D. Colman
You mean like a place where an organization might bring in all their social media RSS feeds? How about a "social media hub"? Although I suppose that could be ambiguous also! - Laura Norvig
I would interpret 'social media' as being either an individual item of or a collective noun for an information delivery technology or platform e.g a podcast, a blog, RSS, etc. and 'Social networking' is something that happens as a result of infornation sharing using social media - Tony Molloy
I rather like danah boyd's definition of a social network site: We define social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. The nature and nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to site.(http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/...) - Fitzgerald Steele
what's interesting to me is how people define the word 'media'. I was originally thinking of it as mediums that go beyond words so, photos, videos - hence flickr and youtube as 'social media'. There is also the sense of media in its common use as 'news'. However, there is another thread on FF, which I can't find now, that defines media as 'the medium in which people communicate' hence blogs, email, discussion groups are all social media. - Laura Norvig