The enormous popularity of Social Media tools such as Facebook has caused some new users to believe that social media is the Internet. But what is social media really?
With over a billion users and growing; social media is proving itself a most powerful tool of the internet. The term “Social Media” is used to describe various forms of electronic communication through which users participate in online communities to create and share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as videos). Examples include: Facebook, 𝕏, Instagram, YouTube and WhatsApp. Facebook is the world’s largest social networking site, with more than 1 billion users worldwide. Social media can be used for many things: staying in touch with friends and family, promoting your cause, and keeping up with trending topics and news. Knowing how to use social media is an essential 21st century skill.
More recently social media has been used as an avenue for which persons create their own employment and these too take many forms. Businesses both small and large use the tool as way to get to their customers; a powerful form of marketing, branding and data collection reaching from, thousands to millions of people everyday.
Imagine you’re at school. You might be talking to one person, or a small group of people about sports or carnival, but other people, who may have an interest in the topic being discussed, can join the conversation. This is basically how social networking sites work. Conversations are more open and public, which can provide a richer social experience than other forms of online communication. Social Media platforms are essentially tools for social networking. Social Media platforms are essentially tools for social networking.
Once you’ve joined a social network, you can start posting your thoughts, questions, pictures, links, videos, or anything else you’d like to share with your friends and others on the same network. These are called social posts because, because unlike email or text messaging, they are visible to other people on the site.