New social media sites are always popping up on the web.  With that being said, It is getting harder and harder to actually define social media these days.  For most people first thought in their mind when you say social media is Facebook.  Currently, Facebook is arguably the most popular form of social networking on the web.  Myspace, Twitter, and Google+ also are at the top of my peoples lists when you ask them about social media.  In actuality these essentially are just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak.  These social networking sites are just a tiny fraction of all the social media sites out there, though they do bring in the most traffic.

Social Media and SEO

One common misconception is that social media is social networking, this is not the case.  In fact social networking is just one form of social media.  While it is very important to have your company involved in social networking, it is also important to be involved in different aspects of social media.  Perhaps you are wondering what other kinds of social media are there besides for social networking.  Here is a short list of some of the categories with some examples in no particular order:

Social Bookmarking

  • Pinterest
  • Blinklist.com
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • FourSquare
  • DeviantArt

Social New

  • Digg.com
  • Reddit.com
  • Blog Engage
  • Propeller
  • Postling

Social Networking

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google+
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace

Social Photo and Video Sharing

  • YouTube
  • Flickr
  • Vimeo
  • Screenr

Wikis

  • Wikipedia

To be fully diverse in social media it’s important to be involved in each of these categories.  How do these play into Search Engine Optimization you might be wondering.  Google has made it clear that social media is important and takes it into account when evaluating sites.  Now this is not the end-all-be-all of SEO, just merely another piece to the puzzle.

One site in particular seems to be gaining popularity, Pinterest.  This social site is very easy to use and enables you to share your interests with your friends. You basically use this site to 'pin' all the things you find on the web by saving them to your profile.  This site is not geared to any particular use.  People have used to to plan weddings show inspirations and recipes. It appeals to most people and has mastered ease of use, it will be interesting to see if it continues to gain popularity.