Nucleus - Marketing and Design Newsletter

Leading lights from the national social media scene shared insights and got social with area professionals from agencies, businesses, nonprofits and other organizations. The burning question on everyone's mind: How can I get in on the conversation and harness the awesome power of social media.

Of course, before that can be answered, there needs to be a better understanding what is meant by social media. With that in mind, here's a quick run down of some of the more popular social media channels.

Social Media: A Primer

Social media takes on many aspects—networking sites; blogs; microblogs; podcasts; video-, photo- and file-sharing site; and many more. Broadly, a few of the more familiar social media channels include:

• Social networking sites, including Facebook, the 800 lb gorilla of the social media world. Create a page and put a friendly human face to your business. Listen, cultivate relationships and encourage interaction. LinkedIn—Facebook's buttoned-down, business cousin—is great for connecting internally and with small, specific groups.

• Microblogging sites like Twitter offer more than instant updates on your every move. It can be great tool to deliver content to interested and engaged followers—press releases, Webinars opportunities, promotional offers, etc.

• General news sharing sites like Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon allow users to submit news stories, articles and media (videos/pictures) and share them with other users or the general public.

• Photo and video-sharing platforms such as YouTube and Flickr. Individuals and organizations can upload and share videos.

The bottom line is that there are countless ways for smart marketers to use this rapidly growing phenomenon. Social media is here to stay (at least until a Sci Fi-Channelesque apocalypse renders all technology defunct and all humanity is enslaved by mutant cockroach overlords.). And we as marketers have much to gain by getting in on the conversation.