Exploring Social Media Tools Series

In October of 2008, I started a series called “Exploring Social Media” on the Blog Herald. The challenge was to dig into the myriad choices and options to dance the social dance online, to network, share, inform, and educate with the various tools available. I began by asking people to define social media, since it is often hard to explain as well as define. What is it really? Do you know? Or do you just think you know? We use the word “social media” like a favorite trendy phrase. This past year at Blog World Expo, instead of being a room full of bloggers and web consultants, it felt like every other person I met specialized in social media. It was the buzz word of the conference, and all the conferences I’ve been to for the past year. Everyone’s talking social media, but few understood what it really is. The best definition came from a comment by Alistair Shaw: Tools that help connect people. Social media tools connect people. The challenge is which one to use. Which s ...