subject: What is Social Media and Why Do We Need It? – Pt II [print this page] In a previous blog posted titled "What is Social Media and Why Do We Need It?" I discussed how social media can be applied to a method of delivery or types of information and what those delivery types consisted of. This post will cover additional delivery methods for getting our message out across the internet as we will be discussingblogs, TXT and Wikis.
BLOGS
Blogs are among first ways that allowed the average or casual user to create and distribute their message online in a broad based manner.
The beauty of a blog is that you are able to create awebsite or web presence quickly and efficiently without being technical.New content can be added quickly and stress free.RSS andXML feeds let you distribute content quickly. Many websites and blogs have links labeled "XML" or "RSS" or "Atom". All of these are ways of saying that you can find out about updates to that site without having to visit the site in yourweb browser. Simply look for a RSS button that looks like the image above or a small orange button like this and subscribe to their feed. In this manner you will be able to keep up with websites whose content changes on an unpredictable schedule.
My blog is a WordPress platform blog. WordPress is a state-of-the-art publishing platform that I highly recommend for its ease of use, and it is also free. You can publish your blog to your own domain or you can go toWordPress.com and set up a free blog. Be sure to educate yourself on the differences. WordPress.com has a LOT of restrictions. I suggest that you publish your own WordPress blog using either a free or purchased template.
TXT
Combined with blogging and social networking, text messaging andSMS are the most used technologies used by adults for communication.
WIKI
Communities that are established so that anyone who is part of the community can add a site and edit content. Sometime they are wide open and in other instances an administrator controls them. The collaborative encyclopediaWikipedia is one of the best-known wikis.
PRESENCE APPLICATIONS
These are hybrid-messaging applications. Through a mobile device or web presence you caninstant message. They are generally limited to 160-character limit.Most of the messaging presently revolves around people texting the world about the minutiae of their lives. However it is easy to the evolution towards more substantive and diversified communication across all areas of our personal and
business lives. Why? Because presence applications ultimately are real-time communications, messaging and routing supporting collaborative applications for user-to-user interaction, but also communication between applications and users. Now you understand why we should all be excited! It's a communication
revolution outside of corporate infrastructure easily accessible by a mobile device if a computer isn't available.
Some popularSocial Networking applications are:
Twitter
Pounce Now part of six apart.
Haiku Requires a bit more tech savvy as Haiku is an open-source operating system designed from the ground up for desktop computing. Haiku aims to provide users of all levels with a personal computing experience free of any unnecessary complexities. Considered in some circles as an alternative to Linux.
At present I'm a "Twitterer" and loving it! Please follow mehere.
