Social Media Info and Definitions
Want to learn more about social media? Here are some definitions and resources compiled by EDA Consulting LLC:
READING:
- Mobilizing Generation 2.0, Ben Rigby
- I’m on Facebook, Now What?, Jason Alba and Jesse Stay
- I’m on LinkedIn, Now What?, Jason Alba
- Facebook for Dummies, Carolyn Abram and Leah Perlman
- Blogging for Dummies, Susannah Gardner and Shane Birley
WEBSITES:
- Mobilizing Generation 2.0
- Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN)
- Network for Good
- Netsquared
- ePhilanthropy Foundation
- Nonprofit Consulting Cafe
- Beth's Blog
DEFINITIONS:
Social Media
From
Wikipedia: Social media are primarily Internet-based tools for sharing
and discussing information among human beings. The term most often
refers to activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and
the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. This
interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends
on the varied perspectives and "building" of shared meaning among
communities, as people share their stories and experiences.
Web 2.0
From Wikipedia: Web 2.0 is a term describing changing trends in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, secure information sharing, collaboration and functionality of the web. Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and its hosted services, such as social-networking sites, video sharing sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies. Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users utilize the Web.
Blog
From Wikipedia: A blog (a
contraction of the term "Web log") is a Web site, usually maintained by
an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of
events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are
commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be
used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a
blog…Micro-blogging is another type of blogging, one which consists of
blogs with very short posts.
RSS Feeds
From Mobilizing Generation 2.0:
A way to read stories from many blogs in one place. Blogs should
indicate that they provide this feature through a subscription feature.
To learn more about feeds: www.mobilizingyouth.org/feeds
Widgets and Gadgets
“They
are mini web pages that can be placed within other Web pages. Your
organization can create a widget and ask supporters to place it on
their blogs, Web sites, and social networking pages…Your supporters
have become the field stream that spreads your call to action.” (Rigby,
2008)
Microblogging
From Mobilizing Generation 2.0: Microbloggers write just a sentence or fragment at a time, and their postings are less formal and more frequent.
Twitter
From
Wikipedia: Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging
service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates
(otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140
characters in length.
Social Networking
From
Wikipedia: Social media are primarily Internet-based tools for sharing
and discussing information among human beings. The term most often
refers to activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and
the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. This
interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends
on the varied perspectives and "building" of shared meaning among
communities, as people share their stories and experiences.
From Wikipedia: Facebook is a social networking website launched on February 4, 2004. The free-access website is privately owned and operated by Facebook, Inc. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with other people. People can also add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profile to notify friends about themselves.
Instant Messaging “IM”
From Wikipedia: Instant messaging (IM) is a form of real-time communication between two or more people based on typed text. The text is conveyed via computers connected over a network such as the Internet.
From Wikipedia: LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003 mainly used for professional networking. As of December 2007, its site traffic was 3.2 million visitors per month, up 485% from the end of 2006. As of October 2008, it had more than 30 million registered users, spanning 150 industries.
Ning
From Wikipedia: Ning is an online
platform for users to create their own social websites and social
networks, launched in October 2005.
List of other resources for self-created social networks: www.mobilizingyouth.org/resources/social_network_build.
Wikis
From
Wikipedia: A wiki is a page or collection of Web pages designed to
enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content, using a
simplified markup language. Wikis are often used to create
collaborative websites and to power community websites. The
collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia is one of the best-known wikis.
Wikis are used in business to provide intranets and Knowledge
Management systems.
From Mobilizing Generation 2.0: Wikis are Web sites built through ad hoc collaboration.
Wiki
Gardener: From Mobilizing Generation 2.0: This term refers to a person
who keeps a wiki organized. Without gardening, wikis tend to grow into
an unmanageable tangle of incomplete paragraphs, odd formatting, and
links to nowhere. Gardeners also keep out such pests as spammers.
Video, Photos, and Podcasts:
From
Wikipedia: A podcast is a series of audio or video digital-media files
which is distributed over the Internet by syndicated download, through
Web feeds, to portable media players and personal computers.
Listserv
From
Wikipedia: List serv is a small program that automatically
redistributes e-mail to names on a mailing list. Users can subscribe to
a mailing list by sending an e-mail note to a mailing list they learn
about; listserv will automatically add the name and distribute future
e-mail postings to every subscriber. (Requests to subscribe and
unsubscribe are sent to a special address so that all subscribers do
not see these requests.)
Mashup
From Wikipedia: In
web development, a mashup is a web application that combines data from
more than one source into a single integrated tool; an example is the
use of cartographic data from Google Maps to add location information
to real-estate data, thereby creating a new and distinct web service
that was not originally provided by either source.
From Mobilizing Generation 2.0: Result of assembling “new software by using bits and pieces of other people’s work.”