For many of you, the term social media is a familiar one, and so this post may not contain a lot of value for you. But I’m sure there are some readers who would like to get a broad overview of social media and what it entails. Like many things on this blog, I don’t think it makes sense for me rehash definitions and explanations that others have already written, so I’d like to point you to the some of the better sources about what social media is and how we can use it.

First up is a video by Common Craft, who always does a great job at explaining things in a visual format to make understanding it easy and fun. Take a look at their other videos as well, especially social networking and twitter.

Social Media in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.

Further reading:

• Among the Audience - Article in the Economist from 2006 that discusses the history of media and communications up to the present-day development of social media.
• Social Media Optimization - Article in Social Media Magazine that talks about the growing field of SMO, or leveraging social media to build a brand or spread a message.
• Evolution of the Press Release - Recent post from TechCrunch about how PR is changing today due to the rise of social media.  Good example of some of the practical uses of social media.

Finally, just for fun, here’s a clever and fun video from a couple years ago about Web 2.0 and the power of the medium.  Enjoy!