How to Classify Social Media for a better Online Strategy

Thousands of different social media content platforms exist which are categorized below. This list is by no means extensive as new social media emerge almost on a weekly basis. The examples are also few as numerous others exist. This categorization, some of which are already acknowledged by social media marketers, provide us with an idea of how social media can be used in terms of their many possibilities.

The categorization of social media can be the following:

General networking sites are used for finding and keeping in touch with friends and family or participating in online groups or fan clubs covering different topics of interest (for instance, Facebook and Google +) .

Facebook is still the most popular social network. As a result, users are increasingly flooded with information and now want more control over their newsfeeds. Social media marketers need to consider how they will use Facebook if users had more control over the marketing content they receive. Google + has the potential to become a serious competitor for Facebook in terms of management of information and better privacy. Facebook and Goolge + can be used by marketers to discuss products and services.

Niche market networking sites are used to connect with other users with specific interests (Buzznet - music and culture, Focus - business to business world wide, Goodreads - book lovers and Raptr - video game players). Some social media experts are convinced that MySpace still has much potential as a "niche" market.

Professional networking (for instance, LinkedIn is a social networking site aimed at only business and professional networking or Academia.edu directed at academics and researchers). Some social media experts are convinced that Google+ may even become a competitor for LinkedIn as a professional social network.

Micro blogging is used to convey information with more or less only 140 characters available (for instance, Twitter). Users can follow other users' tweets and retweet them to their followers. Micro blogging is a powerful communication tool for positive viral marketing (word of mouth). Unfortunately the opposite can also happen if users are unhappy with a company's products or services. Twitter, for instance, can be used to alert users to a product or service.

Blog publishing platforms where users can generate and publish their own blogs (for instance, Wordpress, Windows Live, Livejournal and Blosxom). Social media marketers often create product blogs to generate more traffic to their companies' websites.

Blog networking communities ( for example, Blogster). Blog networks host numerous different sites and pay their users with advertisement revenue, a monthly salary, or even per blog posting provided that the content remains excellent.

Social bookmarking sites are used by users to locate and save web content that are of interest to them (for instance, Digg, Delicious, and Stumbleupon. These sites can also be used by social media marketers to increase traffic to their companies' websites or to their marketing postings. I intend to write about this strategy in another lens at a later stage.

Social news websites allow its users to submit news stories, articles and multimedia to share with other users or to the general public (for instance, Propeller). Numerous such applications, are now also available on tablets, for instance, Flipboard on the iPad.

User generated worldwide video sharing communities (for instance, Youtube and 4videosharing). Different types of video sharing communities are also emerging that specialize in specific content (for instance, Metacafe). Videosharing communities can be used by marketers to demonstrate a product.

User generated worldwide photo and photographic sharing communities (for instance, Flickr, Photobucket, webshots and fotki). Some of these communities also share videos.

Social media search engines track user generated content such as blogs, comments, bookmarks, events, news, videos, etc (for instance, Socialmention, Whostalkin).

Web based encyclopaedia are written and edited by volunteers around the world (for instance, Wikipedia, Britannica and Bartleby).

Social web content discovery tools allow users to find interesting Internet content by subscribing to a feed (for instance, RSS feeds).

Community answer sites where questions are posted and answered by members of the community (for instance, e-how.com, about.com).

Social media aggregators make accessing users' and their friends' favorite social-networking sites fast and easy (for instance, Friendfeed and the free software Flock).

Social event calendars are community driven websites where users can find and promote social events for free (for instance, Google calendar, 30 Boxes and social web).

Mobile based social networking are used to connect and stay in touch with friends and family at the tip of their fingers (for instance, MXit and Foursquare). Numerous Smartphone applications also allow web based social networking sites to turn mobile, for instance, for Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Can you think of more types of social media not listed above?