Digital Marketing for Vets Social Media Tools Bag
8 Types of Social Media Tools
What are the various types of Social Media Tools? We’ll explore eight types in this article and take you on a virtual BOOT CAMP. so relax no push-ups or sit-ups required for this small biz boot camp. But, if you’re just that kind of person and want to stand on one leg while you’re reading this, hey be my guest!
Let’s get started!
While some of this information may seem basic to some, I get questions about this all the time, so let’s establish some groundwork before I go into more detail about information business tools in the future.
1) Social Networking Sites – As you can guess, these are the most popular type and are focused purely on people connecting with others. This can be friends and family or related to professional information. The most popular are Facebook, Google Plus, Linkedin, MySpace (yep, they’ve made a comeback) and Plaxo.com
2) Blogging Tools – The word Blog comes from the term weblog. Posts or updates are stored in reverse chronological order. Various types are journal entries, articles, videos, Pictures with comments, or other interesting information people like to share with others. One very common feature is the ability to allow user comments. The Big names are WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, Xanga, and Weebly. I would also include Facebook.
3) Microblogging:: This form of blogging allows the user to send short messages to followers. Twitter.com which is the most popular tool by far for example allows up to 140 characters per post. These tools are very popular due to their ease of use and the ability to use on many devices such as smartphones and tablets.
4) Photo and Video Sharing: Pinterest.com and Flickr.com are a couple of the most popular Photo sharing online tools around today. These tools allow you to share personal photos, interesting and inspiring images, and other graphics with others. YouTube needs no introduction, it has the most viewed videos on the web today. It also ranks as a “how to” search engine used by millions looking for training on countless subject matters.
5) Bookmarks: Remember that one great website you checked out last week? If you like me, sometimes (ok, maybe a lot of times) you forget what that site was. Bookmark sites help you (and me) with this. You can even share your favorites with others. Delicious.com is the best example of this.
6) Social News: Do you have an awesome news story? You can publish these stories at Digg.com. They are designed to be rated or voted on by other users and the most popular ones are placed on the company’s home page.
7) Podcasts: As you know, audio or video files can be shared online. This method of sharing content is sometimes the preferred method of communication over the options used on a text-based blog. Subscribers to your content/feed use tools that automatically grab new events or episodes as soon as they’re available online. YouTube and UStream have this feature available.
8) Online Forums: One of the oldest types of social media is online forms. These are websites that have countless numbers of subjects in which you can interact and share comments with others. They usually revolve around a specific topic such as social, sports, technology, or health.
We’ll be moving into more details and examples of how to use these tools to start or grow your online business in the near future. Did I forget one? or is there one you like more than the other?