There is this slight notion out there that social media tools are only social networking which is not actually the case.  Social networking in fact happened because of social media.

If you think or have been told that social media is only social networking then you have been misinformed.  Social media consists of a variety of tools and social networking would be one of those tools which make up the whole of social media.  In this blog I’m going to give you a brief of the various social media tools out there.

Blogs

Most of us are familiar with blogs but if you are not, blogs is a type of website which can be updated quickly and easily and published chronologically.  You can post text, images, video, podcasts pretty much anything on blog sites.  Blogs are is a good place to get started if you are a new start up.

WordPress (my favourite)
Typepad
Blogger
MSN Spaces
Movable Type
PMachine
Greymatter
B2 Evolution
Text Pattern
Express Engine

I’m only familiar with Word Press and Blogger but to get a good break down of the pros and cons here is what Problogger has to say.

Social Bookmarks

Social bookmarking is just really another way to bookmark your favourites but the difference is that you do it online instead of offline.
Digg, Delicious, Stumble Upon, Tweetmeme, Reddit, Mixx, Propeller  are just a few social bookmarking tools out there.
Find out more about social bookmarking sites.

Microblogging

Microblogging to me is like sending an sms but too many rather one person.  It is short live updates.

Twitter
Jaiku
Tumblr

Here ReadWriteWeb compares 10 of them,  10 Micro-blogging tools compared.

Aggregators

The web definition of an aggregator is a person who collects things, so picture an online web aggregator as a social media tool which collects information and brings them together in one place.

Aggregators allow us to syndicate our content in one place, it is very much like having your own newspaper because you determine the content and you do this by adding RSS feeds from various sites to your chosen aggregator.  Other terms for aggregators are RSS readers, feed readers, news readers.

Netvines
Friendfeed
Techmeme
Google reader
Alltop

Read further on top 10 social news aggregators

RSS Feed

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication.  RSS is a very powerful tool as it allows you to distribute your content easily in various places.  It also allows others to share and distribute your content easily or to add it to their aggregator  or email if they want to keep up to date with your content.

Example:  I take my RSS feed from my blog and I add it to my Twitter account, Facebook and Linked In account this way each time I blog those sites are updated automatically.  I also take RSS feeds of blog sites I like reading and add their feeds to the same accounts so that my audience can benefit from this if they like the content of course.  I also subscribe to receive email updates or add the feed to my aggregator  so that I can read the updated blogs and comment if I wish to.

Photo sharing

Photo sharing sites is a place where you can post your digital photos online and share them with others.
Flickr
Photobucket www.photobucket.com
Picasa

Read more about photo sharing sites

Podcasts

A podcast is basically a multimedia file or another simpler term would be audio file which you can upload online and users can download it to their computer which can then be added to a mobile device.
Here is a good blog which explains all things related to podcasts which you may find useful.

Video

The use of video online is becoming more and more popular with both companies and the general public.
Youtube
Metacafe
Break
Google Video

Wiki’s

A wiki is basically software which allows multiple users to work collaboratively to add, remove or edit content.
Wikipedia

Forums

People use forums to ask questions, answer questions and discuss topics.  Companies generally have their own forums where their customers can post questions, find answers, or get help.

Apple Forum
Vodafone Forum
UK Business Labs Forum

Community Sites

There are many community sites, business community sites, social community sites and your more niched community sites where people can network online and share common interests.

LinkedIn
Facebook
MyGenius
Better Networking
Ecademy
Myspace

If you have a particular hobby then search online for your hobby you are bound to find a community.

And this is pretty much it for social media tools.

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