WHAT ARE SOCIAL MEDIA ZONES AND WHY SHOULD YOU CARE?

Social media zones… what comes to people’s minds at the mention of this word may not be exactly what it is, and I’m no exception. I for one thought it was a place where free internet connectivity is provided for the sole purpose of accessing social media, but after learning about it… I look back at this thought and see how silly I really was.

So go ahead, take a minute and let your thoughts go wild as you try and make a guess what social media zones are then read ahead and find out, I promise you won’t forget… the silly thoughts you have about it won’t let you.

Social media zones include -:

1.       SOCIAL COMMUNITY

2.       SOCIAL PUBLISHING

3.       SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENT

4.       SOCIAL COMMERCE

You could think of these zones as the different ways in which you use social media and if you really think about it… you have most probably used at least two out of the four social media zones.

Each of these zones has its own unique uses and social media applications and services that are used in the zone.

ZONE 1: SOCIAL COMMUNITY.

Social community simply describes the channel of social media used for social interactions between individuals and groups and other activities undertaken by a community of people like collaboration and sharing of information. It was probably the most popular initial use of social media.

Social media channels used in this zone include social media sites, forums, and wikis. A few major examples are -:

1.       Twitter

2.       Facebook

3.       LinkedIn

4.       Google plus

ZONE 2: SOCIAL PUBLISHNG

 Social publishing zone simply deals with dissemination of content or information about a certain topic to an audience. Examples of social media channels used in this zone are -:

1.       BlogSpot/ blogger

2.       Tumblr

3.       Twitter

4.       Picasa

5.       Flickr

6.       Scribd

7.       YouTube

ZONE 3: SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENT 

This zone, as the name suggests, comprises of social media channels used for play and enjoyment. This includes games, art, videos etc.

Examples of channels in this zone are -:

1.       Myspace

2.       Come2play

3.       Nosteam

4.       Windows live

ZONE 4: SOCIAL COMMERCE

This zone is specifically for online buying and selling of goods and services between individuals and groups (Trading). Channels in this zone include -:

1.       Facebook

2.       TripAdvisor

3.       Payvment

With the above descriptions of the social media zones, you could probably come up with more examples of social media channels you may have used in each zone since social media sites and apps are coming up every other day and that makes it impossible to make an exhaustive list.

It is important for businesses and entrepreneurs alike to have substantial knowledge of these zones and be conversant with their uses and the channels involved. This is essential if they are to be successful in their online business dealings as they should be able to know which channels are the best for their business, their target audience, and how best to maximize the use of social media for optimum results.

Now that you know this valuable information, don’t keep this gold mine to yourself, share with your friends and let others know about us.