Agreed | Pittsburgh, PA, USA | Sep 2003

Your first reaction to “defining social media” might be a big roll of the eyes and to click to something else, but bear with me…

Can we define social media? What’s standing in our way?

Voce Nation: What is Social Media?

The first problem we uncovered was the need to delineate popular usage from what feels like the need for some standards of the term. As companies move further into the social web, the need grows for a common language with shared meanings. Our assessment is that it would be good for people looking at the Wikipedia entry on social media to explain the difference between:

* Current, popular usage of the term “social media” and;
* The need for a more rigorous, standardized definition for a bevy of interconnected terms, social media included.

This discussion was kicked off by Ethan Bauley, bounced around for a month with Justin Kistner, Bryan Landers, Clinton Schaff and myself, and finally summed up by Justin to take the conversation to the rest of the web to kick off a more rigorous look at “social media.”

Social media is an oddity, dropped into our lives by technological shifts we have yet to grasp, and we don’t really know what’s hit us (Bryan):

“Social media” has landed in the lap of the marketing industry like a complex, alien contraption dropped upon Earthlings struggling to make sense of its origins, ethics, capabilities, and meaning.

The professionals still struggle to define what they do (Justin):

For years, I’ve put social media up against “traditional media” as a point of reference. That comparison has been the source of confusion at best and an argument at worst. I knew the juxtaposition of social media with “traditional media” wasn’t working, but how else could I explain it?

Defining social media cannot be based purely on what it is not (Ethan):

At the core, my contention is that if we’re going to call some media “social”, there has to be some apropos name for “non-social” media. A lot of people go on and on about “traditional” or “broadcast” or “mass” media but that’s more wishy-washiness as far as I’m concerned. I’m looking for something much more clinical.

… Ladies and gents, I give you: “social media” vs. “industrial media”.

(Read the rest: the academical underpinning is seriously worth it, a range of ideas, concepts and frameworks to chew over…)

Essentially, we use social media throughout our personal and professional lives, but we don’t fully understand the impacts, opportunities and pitfalls because we don’t really have a grasp on what we’re doing. Breaking down social media into its key components and characteristics is the first step; first, let’s figure out what we’re debating about. Empowered by that better understanding, we can move past the cacophony of conceptual misunderstandings littered throughout the web and move on to the real work.

I’ve participated in SocialDevCamp and thrown in some questions on the Wikipedia talk page, but its still just that: questions, not answers.

How will you contribute: how will you help ask the right questions and develop the right answers?