Why Social Media is the New Internet

The New Dot Com

In 2003, when a renowned IT and computing publisher and conference organizer, O'Reilly Media, first used the term 'Web 2' they were heralding what was considered a major shift in the way the worldwide web was organized, accessed and used. Since 'Blogging' began, in the mid 1990's, with its unique personal agenda and dissemination of user generated content, more and more people began using the web for networking: based on shared interests and concerns. With the launch of MySpace in 2003 and YouTube in 2005, this trend for User Generated Media has exploded and referring to the unique characteristics which caused and propel this explosion as 'the second generation of the worldwide web', or Web 2, might begin to seem more and more prescient as time passes.

The term 'Web 2' specifically referred to what was then perceived as a second generation of the web, or web based communities functioning on the web, which had originally begun their days as message boards, bulletin boards, newsgroups and Usenet. This new usage, by web based communities, was allied with a new way of hosting services to target and facilitate collaboration and sharing among online communities; together, these characteristics are represented by the term 'social media'. The characteristics of Web 2, and of Social Media, websites are therefore of content creation and distribution being predominantly motivated by individuals and social groups. The creation, submission and sharing of 'home grown content', or 'User Generated Media' lies at the very heart of such websites as MySpace and YouTube.

Where 'Web 1' reflected the publishing model; what Social Media achieves is a transition from interaction on the social scale in the real world of human affairs, to an online interaction which reflects, and in some cases replaces, that interaction. Where you might have interactions between networks of families, friends, neighbors, colleagues, associations, organizations and institutions; online you have blogging, MySpace, Friends Reunited, YouTube, and even eBay. What these sites create is an environment where 'chat' takes place along with the exchange of photos, videos, music and any other digital media in an environment of personalized 'spaces' which reflect and reinforce the character and disposition of the users. It is not the 'linear' environment of the old web, where website publishers, or webmasters, created content geared towards their particular personal or professional agenda; Web 2, and Social Media, are 'non-linear' and 'organic'. Some say: they represent the democratization of the web and many strongly defend the wider freedom of speech and activity which is allowed in this medium.

What this means to an online business person, a marketer or webmaster is that the voice of public opinion is ever present and moves fast. The term 'viral' is often used in the context of this 'speed of message' which can occur within the networks of sites like MySpace. Even 24 hour news stations can't keep up with the organic distribution and dissemination networks online.

Viral Marketing is a form of marketing, advertising and promotion which takes advantage of the 'network' nature of human interactions. Viral Marketing targets pre-existing social networks and, online, social media to spread a specific message or increase brand awareness. Of course, the term 'viral' is resonant with a biological virus, since a successful marketing message sent to one person will be replicated as it is distributed around that person's network and then by each of those recipients' networks, and so on at an astonishing rate. The nature of the 'viral message' is always highly targeted to the network; typically, it will also contain humor or entertainment value or some benefit to the recipient which causes each recipient to want to send it on to their network of friends.

The accumulated impact of very many versions of one message being exchanged around the internet adds to the overall currency of the message. Saying of a message that it has 'gone viral' implicates a sense of the message having taken on a life of its own and no further initiation of the message is required since it is being actively passed about at a high rate of success. When a message takes on this independent quality it is given more attention for this fact: the concept of democracy within the internet community is one which gives greater credulity to popular messages. This 'quality' of a viral message is often imitated for the purpose of creating the impression of popularity or spontaneity, whereby a marketer or publicist might use manufactured networks of false identities or non-impartial distributors to give the appearance of a message 'gone viral'to attract attention to it.