By OCI
When you hear people discuss “Social Media” you undoubtedly think of Facebook and Twitter if you have any familiarity with the phrase to begin with. The big, stand out names are the brands that have come to define this emerging yet rapidly changing form of media, but the truth is there are countless other names and entire genres that get overlooked. Social Media is a big umbrella term for a lot of unique sites and services. In this article I’ll go through some of the major types of social media and share some examples of each.
1. Publishing Media
These are websites (or platforms) that allow for the easy publishing of articles and information, usually in a longer, slightly less casual manner. Good examples of publishing media are blogs and wikis. The main ones are:
2. Content Sharing
These are sites and services that allow you to share content with your social network. What you share can be anything from music to photos to movies or links you found online. Most allow for some amount of commenting and discussion as well.
3. Discussion
Many services have been developed for the simple task of quick communication through chatting or video conferencing. Some of the most commonly used are:
4. Social Networks
This is what most of us commonly think of when we think of Social Media. These networks can vary greatly in how difficult they are to become apart of as well as how specific their area of interest is. For example Facebook is a social network with a very general area of interest and is open to most of the public, Behance is a social network only for people interested in art and design and you must go through a review process to be accepted into the network. Here’s a list of some of the more popular social networking resources:
5. MicoBlogging
Microblogging is very similar to regular blogging and the publishing media except that’s its done in much smaller chunks. Twitter only allows 140 characters for example. Many of these services are very easy to set up and are built for the users to share information frequently and freely.
6. Livestreaming
These are mainly applications that allow the users to create a one-stop-shop for all the feeds that they are generating through other social media. It aggregates a users activity around the web and presents it all in one location.
7. Livecasting
While broadcasting your entire life may not be for you, it has become an internet sensation with a lot of users. Below are some examples of sites that allow you to broadcast your life or sit back and watch others.
8. Virtual Worlds
Virtual Worlds are entire online environments, usually in a digital three dimensional environment where users can create personalities and avatars and interact with other users with a more graphic representation of a physical space. These are only a few of the main ones:
9. Social Games
As we all know, games are extremely popular online and maybe none more so than the ones that include your friends in the game play. Some of these can be stand alone websites or they can also be applications that are used within existing social networks.
10. MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) Games
These are very similar to a combination of #8 and #9. They usually take place in a digital 3D environment, but unlike a virtual world, there is usually a common goal or task to accomplish that you share with your friends. Here’s some of the most well known:
11. Location
Probably the newest genre in the mix, location based networks are of course based around your location. Sometimes there are games involved or competition. Sometimes they are just used for reviewing businesses. The three standouts in the field so far are:
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Hello Brandon,
I’m a student at Hiram College. I’m doing a research paper on Social Media. I need to know when this article “All the different types of Social Media” was written.
Thank you,
Desire’e
Hi Desire’e, it was posted in April of 2010.
[...] Google -ing the phrase, social media, I came to this O’Neill Communications Blog, which I found the most helpful. In this blog, “OCI” describes some of the different [...]