CoachStrategies

Why Social Media is Hot

Social media, social networks and communities are nothing new.Bulletin board systems (BBSs), AOL and sites like Bolt.com (from the late 1990’s and early 2000’s) are good examples of online communities. Amazon and other sites have made use of community features such as user submitted product reviews for some time. Message boards, newsgroups, list servers, forums and dating sites have been around for a while too and allowed people to build relationships, share content, photos, videos, etc.

A few things have changed during the past few years though:

• It’s now incredibly easy and inexpensive for regular people like you and me to generate and publish content. The tools are easy to use and in most cases free.
• More of us are on the web now and we are more knowledgeable and capable.
• The tools used to create social media platforms have become easier to use and less expensive.

The barriers that existed to user-created content have fallen and continue to fall. The same goes for barriers to developing new forms of social media and social networks.

The results of these developments:

• More people creating content.
• More social networks springing up.
• New forms of social media being created.
• Traditional sites increasingly making use of social media features.

As social media becomes widely present across the web, its ability to reach people increases. That is why it is becoming such a powerful promotional tool and social media marketing is getting so much attention.