The term social media is a ubiquitous one these days. But at the same time there are still many people who know the phrase but don’t really understand the meaning. A proper definition of social media does exist on Wikipedia. I find the definition that’s located on Wikipedia to be quite convoluted. My definition of social media is uncomplicated and based on common sense. My hope is that by sharing my definition of social media I can help clear up any misconceptions about the phrase.

Social Media is:

• Media (audio, video, text, image) that is delivered via the web;
• Media that is easily shareable;
• Media that allows for feedback;
• Media that allows for discussion.

Web Based

The media should have its own unique link (also known as a permalink) that points to a specific item of content. All major blogging systems (like Blogger, Typepad and Wordpress) and media sharing sites (like YouTube and Archive.org) offer permalinks as part of their standard functionality.

Shareable

The media should be easily shareable with links ( to sites like Digg, Del.icio.us or sending via email) that are prominently displayed to facilitate such sharing. Services like Add This and Share This make adding these options very simple. A link to an RSS feed to facilitate subscription is a key component of sharing as well.

Feedback

The media may have some sort of a basic feedback mechanism that allows the visitor the opportunity to indicate whether or not (or how much) they enjoy the content. This could be a star rating system or thumbs up/thumbs down feature. A service called JS-Kit makes it very easy to add ratings to your content. While feedback is a nice to have feature, its presence is not critical in defining media as social.

Discussion

The ability for visitors to add comments is a crucial element of any media you want to call social. Many publishers include a comment area directly beneath the content. In some cases the publisher may link each post to a separate forum area where the discussion takes place. All blog publishing systems offer the ability to include discussion. Some web services like Disqus, coComment and IntenseDebate aim to enhance the discussion functions associated with your content.