Facebook All-in-One For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 1

What Is Social Media?

In This Chapter

Defining social media

Delving into what makes up social media

Understanding how Facebook compares and competes

Garnering what social media means to you and to marketers

In this chapter, we explain more about what social media is and how you can use it. We also introduce you to some other social media platforms — Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, and Instagram — and tell you how they’re different from Facebook and why you may want to check them out. Throughout the chapter, we primarily focus on what social media means to marketers, but much of what we share can be applied to your daily personal life as well. Even though you may not be selling a product, you’re still building your online reputation.

Defining Social Media

Social media is connecting with people using digital tools, such as Facebook. Facebook has taken the fundamental elements of how people connect, and made it possible to do much more with those connections. You can meet new friends in parts of the country (or world) you’ve never visited, network with business peers ...