A Beginner’s Guide To Social Media (by a beginner): Lesson 1

Hi James,

Over the next two months I will be covering the fundamentals of Social Media before (hopefully) going a bit more in-depth and looking at how it benefits local communities and businesses.

If you've just started reading, here is my first post on what I'm hoping to cover:

http://aarongouldagency.com/blog/a-beginners-guide-to-social-media-by-a-beginner/

Can you cover what this whole bit.ly malarkey is on about at some point? Probably an advanced lesson there.

Hi there Mike,

I shall certainly endeavour to do so sometime soon! Keep watching this blog for more info.

Hey Johnny,

Cool post - looking forward to where this is all going. Think it could be a really good thing for people new to the idea of social media and what it can mean for them and their business.

What other things will you be covering?

I'm not sure if there is much more to say. That was a good definition, although Joeeeeeee's suggested ammendment made sense. I guess things could be complicated by a definition of 'anti-social', which often isn't simply just about an absence of communication between people. Anti-sociality is more about an inability to communicate effectively in a way that is perceived as friendly.

I guess the adjective 'social' is a word that can be used to denote the cause, medium and result of interaction. For example I could say 'Clive is a social animal', and mean that Clive has a personality which means that he is tends to frequently interact effectively with other people. I could also speak of a 'social network' as a means through which social interaction is carried out. And I could also use the phrase 'social life' and mean the resultant future interactions that occur as a result of the successful interactions of the past.

I haven't yet worked out which of these the 'social' in 'social media' corresponds to. It's probably all three.

Wow Tom - you've managed to cover the whole gamut of what 'social' means!

Thanks for your input. I only wanted to cover the most basic definition, but I'm glad you've taken the initiative to expound on it!

Interestingly, even when one engages in 'anti-social' behaviour, it is still 'social' as it engages (admittedly negatively) with another person. Perhaps it should be rebranded as 'anti-socially social'.

Keep watching the bog and contributing your thoughts. I hope it will be informative.

I would change "The interaction between one person and another" to "The interaction between two or more people" since the former only applies to two people!

That aside, you have demonstrated the meaning of 'social' in an easily understandable way. Nice one.