Pseudo Tech Girl

An almost weekly rundown of social media trends/stories

1.One Billion Tweets Later: GigaTweet has been keeping track of the tweets that we all have shared back and forth and it appears that the One Billion Mark has been passed on November 12th. If you check out the GigaTweet site, you’ll be amazed with how quickly the counter continued to grow. Current count:

2.Old media meets new media: Gabriel Madway of Reuters published an article “Tech firms turn to social media to reach consumers” on November 18th noting the trend of tech firms to utilize social media. Why this less than surprising trend? A lot has to do with the ability to reach customers on a relationship level but another big factor is the economy. With economic crisis looming, companies are looking for ways to get the most “bang for their buck” and social media has become the way to do that while building authenticity. Social media does require that companies give up a level of control in exchange for that authenticity, so it’s not right for everyone.

3.What is Social Media? With all this talk about social media, you think we would all know what it is. The word is really a blanket term since social media is rarely media at all. Yes, we all use Twitter to follow different media targets and outlets but it’s a stretch to refer to what social media is as “media”. According to Mark Hopkins of Mashable, media is referring to the message while the word in front of media is the method which it is delivered. Old, new or social, the message is still the same. For more on this discussion, be sure to check out Mark’s full article “Just What is Social Media?”.