According to Wikipedia:“Social media can take many different forms, including Internet forums, weblogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures and video. Technologies include: blogs, picture-sharing, vlogs, wall-postings, email, instant messaging, music-sharing, crowdsourcing, and voice over IP, to name a few. Examples of social media applications are Google Groups (reference, social networking), Wikipedia (reference), MySpace (social networking), Facebook (social networking), Youmeo (social network aggregation), Last.fm (personal music), YouTube (social networking and video sharing), Avatars United (social networking), Second Life (virtual reality), Flickr (photo sharing), Twitter (social networking and microblogging) and other microblogs such as Jaiku and Pownce. Many of these social media services can be integrated via social network aggregation platforms like Mybloglog and Plaxo.”

As social media took off, more and more people started using it to market their products and services. Special offers on Twitter, business groups on Facebook and Myspace, business profiles on Bebo, products for sale in Second Life, and more.

Why can’t you afford to miss out?

1. Whether you like it or not, people will talk about you. The spread of interaction throughout social media sites is vast, so a shout won’t get you heard. You need to engage in these conversations and make people excited about what you have to offer.
2. You won’t get a better audience than this! The growth of people joining social networking sites on a daily basis is staggering. This is where your customers are. You really don’t want to miss them.
3. The pace of the online world is a reflection of current attitudes to advertising. People have short attention spans and their trust in advertising is limited. Word of Mouth is far more effective than any other media campaign, it’s what your customers trust.

Social Media is here to stay.

Social Media in plain English