Forever Students of New Media

Hello again, folks!

Today, I'll be delving further into Brian Solis' Engage, specifically chapters 3 through 6. These chapters explore Integrated marketing tools, blogging, crowd-sourced content communities, social bookmarking, livecasting, and much more.

As in my last post, there is once again a lot of really good information in these chapters, so I'll be doing my best to do it justice (if you haven't gotten the book yet, you should, though).
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These chapters are in section II of the book, and belong to a chunk called The New Media University. Chapter 3 begins with Social Media 101, which Solis introduces with the thought that, "we are forever students of new media." He goes on to say that we learn it every day, through practice and reading, but states that social media is evolving so quickly that we "should never strive to master" it.

A key portion of the chapter explains the tools of integrative marketing:
-blogs
-socialized networks
-forums
-livestreams
-Wikis
-audio livecasting
-social bookmarks

...and many, many more.

To begin, he defines social media as "a platform for the socialization of media." All of these tools he has listed (along with several examples of each) are very important in today's PR world. I use several of these, personally, including blogs (this one, as well as my Wordpress account), Wikis (for classes), and social bookmarks (Delicious + Diigo). I have found all of these to be beneficial both in and outside the classroom.

In the next two chapters, Solis takes an in-depth look at many of these social media tools. He states the importance of videos and images, as well as tips for using other sites (for instance, using URL shorteners on Twitter). I personally love bit.ly. It has helped me become successful at Tweeting links, without having the URL take up all of my characters.

I have only began to scratch the surface of all that was written, however I do feel that all of the tools described are important. Social Media Today has a great article talking about The 39 Social Media Tools to Use Every Day. How about you? Which tools do you use?

-V

Here is something useful I found in explaining how social media works. Social Media in Plain English.: