Social Media is all the rage online these days. Many families in the military community are starting to use social media to keep in contact with their service member, family members out of state, friends.

So, what exactly is social media?

According to Wikipedia social media–

“uses the “wisdom of crowds” to connect information in a collaborative manner. Social media can take many different forms, including Internet forums, message boards, weblogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures and video. Technologies such as blogs, picture-sharing, vlogs, wall-postings, email, instant messaging, music-sharing, group creation and voice over IP, to name a few.”

In order to give you a leg up on the top social media applications, let’s talk about a few of the social media applications according to survey done recently by New Media VA.com . There are tons of social networking and social media sites popping up each and every day.

Some of the most popular are: Twitter, Facebook, Utterz, and Ning.

1. Twitter – Twitter is a free social network and micro-blogging site that allows users to send instant updates to the Twitter website or with other applications such as Twitterific these updates are seen by those following the user through the Twitter network. A user must sign up to receive updates from others and can restrict delivery to those who are not in his or her circle of friends.

2. Facebook – Facebook is a free social networking website originally founded only for the students of Harvard University. Users create profiles or pages about themselves, which often include pictures and lists of likes/dislikes. Profiles are grouped according to their networks, relating to their high schools, colleges, and places of employment or geographical region.

3. Utterz – Utterz is a free social networking and micro-blogging site that allows users to send updates via cell phone to their blogs, social networking pages and their Utterz homepage. Audio and voice utterz can be recorded from any phone and text messages can be sent . When a user creates a new utter notification is sent to other users who have signed up to receive notification.

4. Ning – Ning is slightly different in that it is an online platform where users can create their own social networking sites and networks. Ning allows a user to create a site that can compete with Myspace or Facebook yet be targeted to the user’s specific audience or target market. Ning allows the user to use its templates to create a group website, photo website and video website of their own.

It’s not just a ‘teen’ thing!

Social Media is definitely becoming the wave of the future and it certainly changing the way we communicate with others. It’s great just to keep up with what others are doing but also to meet others for support,etc.

So let’s here from you

What types of social media are you using? Are you connecting with others in social media/social networking? Are you planning on it? Feel free to leave a comment in the comment section. First 5 comments get a free prize pack courtesy of MIlitary.com : )

Want to connect with me on the various social networking sites? I’m on lots of different social networking sites (part of my job as a Social Media Manager) but here are my Top3!

Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/tammymunson
Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=667580989
Linked In : http://www.linkedin.com/in/tammymunson