A Social Media Primer

When thinking about social media marketing, the first things that usually come to mind are popular social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and YouTube. YouTube has about 258 million users, and more than 50 percent of them log in weekly. Facebook has about 101 million users with more than 50 percent who log in daily.

Social media is essentially a form of online media where people are engaging with their social (real-life or otherwise) networks online. They talk, participate, share, network, and bookmark online. Most social media services encourage discussion, feedback, voting, comments, and sharing of information.

It's a two-way conversation, rather than a one-way broadcast.