What are the social media users who produce and share content, such as blogs and videos, known as?

Refers to web-based tools, platforms and applications which enable users to create, co-create, share, comment upon, modify or otherwise engage with content over the Internet. There are a wide variety of social media sites and applications, many of these customized for mobile platforms. Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) propose a classification of social media sites according to three dimensions: social presence (the type of sensorial interaction afforded, e.g. visual, acoustic), media richness (amount of data transmitted in a time interval) and self-presentation/self-disclosure (the degree of freedom and control in creating one’s personal cyber-identity). Text-based applications such as crowdsourced encyclopaedias (for example Wikipedia) and blogs score lowest with respect to social presence and media richness. Blogs and social networking sites such as Facebook score high with respect to self-presentation, as they allow users to express themselves and personalize the content they produce and share. Facebook, alongside video-sharing sites such as YouTube and Vimeo are also examples of platforms that afford high media richness. The highest level of social presence and media richness are afforded by virtual games and social worlds such as World of Warcraft and Second Life, which provide virtual replicas of real-life places and patterns of behaviour and interaction.

Social media are fundamental tools for contemporary participatory cultures both for their role in enabling access to information, and for supporting user-generated content-sharing, self-expression, co-creation and social interaction in virtual communities.

Sources:

Kaplan, A. M., and M. Haenlein  (2010) Users of the world unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business Horizons, 53(1).

This question is a question that people have asked me a few times, and each time, I see it as a trick question.

So in this article, I will answer this question and other similar questions that I’ve received.

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc., are often confused with social mediums. What exactly is the difference between them?

Social media platforms allow their users to create profiles to share information, photos, videos, and other content. These social media networks also enable users to interact through comments, likes, shares, and other activities.

A social medium is a way to connect with people. For example, LinkedIn allows its members to create a social media account, share social media posts, build professional networks, and communicate with colleagues, individual users, and potential customers.

Table of Contents

What is Social Media?

Social media is a way for individuals to connect through the internet. The term “social” refers to the ability to share information about yourself and others.

Social media sites allow users to create profiles, post messages and interact with other members. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Snapchat are the most popular social media platforms.

What Is Social Medium?

As far as I’m aware, there is no word like “social medium”. Instead, social media refers to Web 2.0 internet-based interactive applications that provide social interaction for the social media user. These include user-generated content such as videos, comments, images, blogs, tagging, podcasts, microblogs and other digital data.

It also describes a website or service where people connect and communicate, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. We have also known these websites or services as social media platforms and are available on desktop and mobile devices. People use these social media platforms to get to know each other, create friends, business connections/groups and share things among themselves.

By 2025, Statista predicts that 4.41 billion people will be on social media, up from 3.78 billion in 2021. While it is ubiquitous in America and Europe, Asian countries like Indonesia use social media.

Is Social Media a Media or Medium?

A powerful form of communication, social media has a worldwide reach. However, it is only part of the global digital revolution we are experiencing. Social medium refers to a particular website or application, such as Facebook, Instagram, etc.

Each of these platforms provides a social medium for social media. However, social media is an umbrella term that describes any website, service, or tool.

Is social media a media or medium? A powerful form of communication, social media has a worldwide reach. Click To Tweet

But social media is not just for people. Organisations have also tapped into it to use it to promote their causes. Therefore, we now have social media marketing. Social media marketing involves having a social media strategy focused on connecting with your target audience through social media platforms. An active social media presence is increasingly vital for businesses, so they now use social networks to build their brand, increase sales, and drive website traffic.

What is the Difference Between Social Media and Social Medium?

  • Social media is an online platform that allows users to share information with others through text, images, videos, etc.
  • Social mediums are websites that allow users to post content on their websites.

What Is the Difference Between Social Media and Media?

When we talk of media, what readily comes to mind is newspapers, television and radio. These are ubiquitous, so we often refer them to as old/traditional media. Traditional media is physical and capital intensive. The high cost of production and distribution characterises it.

So now that we know what traditional media is, what about new media? This article characterises new media by its digital-first nature and low physical production and distribution costs. New media formats include:

  • Mobile apps
  • Video
  • Blogs
  • eBooks
  • Email
  • Podcasts
  • Smart device apps
  • Video games
  • Interactive content

The article mentioned above notes an exciting distinction between new media and social media. Social media relies on one fundamental principle that new media doesn’t rely on: the network effect.

A new media property like a blog has inherent value, whether that blog has one reader or a million readers. A social network like Twitter would be valueless with one user. Social networks become more valuable only as the number of users–and contributors–rises.

Each of these platforms provides a social medium for social media. Click To Tweet

The key difference between new media and social media: social media requires the network effect, while new media does not.

The fundamental difference between social media and media is that media is physical rather than digital. We characterised social media by its digital-first nature and low production and distribution costs.

Thus social media is far more accessible for the average individual or small organisation to produce, which we can see by many active users on various social media sites.

Difference Between Social Media and Social Networking

Social media is a communication tool used for social interaction between individuals, groups, organizations, businesses, etc. Social networking is a website that allows users to interact socially through profiles, messages, photos, video clips, etc.

What Are the 5 Types of Social Media?

The following are the five types of social media.

1. Social Networking Sites

Social networks are one of the most well-known types of social media. While much of the big-picture social network concept applies to all major social sites, Facebook is the most prominent example. Social networks aid you to:

  • Create buzz about your brand
  • Find new customers
  • Establish relationships with customers
  • Provide customer service and more
Social media marketing involves connecting with your target audience through social media platforms. Click To Tweet

Many people call social networks “Relationship platforms” because they allow people to connect and build relationships. Of the various social media, networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn represent the bread and butter of modern marketers. Whether as friends or fans, engaged social following signals clout for marketers and brands alike.

2. Image Sharing & Messaging Sites

With image sharing sites, Instagram is the chief attraction. The photo and video sharing site Instagram attracts over 1 billion users monthly, thus a great place to share your businesses’ photos and videos. Despite its negative reputation as a place where only selfies and celebrity gossip happen, Instagram is an effective social media tool to market your business. Another engaging platform to consider is Pinterest. These are the two biggest platforms that specialise in photo sharing.

3. Video Sharing Sites

Like image-based social sites, video hubs like YouTube and Vimeo attract visitors in droves via visual content. YouTube provides another avenue to show off their products and services for business owners. Through tutorials and unboxing, brands simultaneously teach and sell to audiences en masse via video. If you’re looking to engage people through videos, YouTube is an excellent channel for it.

Vimeo has the distinction of being the first video site to support HD video uploads. Vimeo’s content is typically elegant and eye-popping, a far cry from the world of car vlogs and off-the-cuff videos.

Along with YouTube and Vimeo, the more traditional social networking platforms have embraced video marketing more aggressively.

The key difference between new media and social media: social media requires the network effect, while new media does not. Click To Tweet

4. Social Blogging

Despite the many social media platforms out there, there’s still plenty of power in blogging. As a result, social blogging sites like Medium and Tumblr have emerged to provide marketers with fresh ways to engage their audiences via written content. The benefits of such platforms for marketers include:

Squeezing the most out of your blog content in terms of SEO performance.
Part of the beauty of the platform is that it’s open to anyone from aspiring bloggers to industry rockstars.

While many people have a blog on their website, platforms like Medium and Tumblr might be great to use if you haven’t set this feature up – or want to see what others in your industry are blogging.

5. Social Community and Discussion Sites

These types of social media platforms tap into the Internet’s never-ending thirst for questions and answers. People see content threads and join them to see what people are commenting or saying. Even if you have a lesser-known brand, you can still see what people are saying about different topics in your industry.

Many people turn to these forums for answers or to see if people have similar problems. People post about topics that vary from finance to politics to funny videos.

Social networks are one of the most well-known types of social media. Click To Tweet

When people use Quora or Redditt, they ask questions that people from the community can answer. Review networks allow people to find, review, and share information about brands and their products.

Yelp and Glassdoor are social review platforms where people can share their opinions and experiences with a business.

Conclusion

So there you have it. I hope I’ve been able to help you understand the difference between all these terms and the social media landscape in general.

Do you need help with your social strategy, social media content or social media campaign? Would you like to learn more about a particular social platform, social media channel or social media application? Schedule a one-on-one consultation session with me today if you have any further questions or help grow your business using social media.

Which social media metric is the most common metric and the easiest to measure?

The first – and easiest – social media metric to measure is volume. What is the size of the conversation about your brand or your campaign? Volume is a great initial indicator of interest. People tend to talk about things they either love or hate, but they rarely talk about things they simply don't care about at all.

What's a reason why working with influencers and encouraging user generated content is important?

What's a reason why working with influencers and encouraging user-generated content is important? True or false? Influencer marketing and user-generated content will help you bypass some social media platform rules to help you reach your audience.

Which is a basic form of social media?

Social networking is possibly the most traditional form of social media. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are often called “networking” platforms because they allow user accounts to interact with each other in a variety of different ways.

Is the process of identifying and assessing what is being said about a company individual product or brand?

Social listening, also referred to as social media listening, is the process of identifying and assessing what is being said about a company, individual, product or brand on the internet. Conversations on the internet produce massive amounts of unstructured data.