Understanding Social Media

• Ian Hamilton deemed all media as social media.
• Social media success requires a reporter to be a person first and a journalist second.
• In social media, the audience follows the writer, not the reporting.
• Journalists should be members of the social media community because they are objective observers.
• Social media consists of computer-mediated technologies facilitating the creation and sharing of information, ideas, career interests, and expression via virtual communities and networks.
• Terms synonymous with social media include "social networks" and "social networking."

Defining Social Media

• Web and mobile technologies turn communication into interactive dialogue between organizations, communities, and individuals.
• Social media uses interactive Web 2.0 Internet-based applications.
• Social media is ubiquitously accessible.
• The general term "social media" is difficult to define due to the numerous channels, which is why it’s useful to list common features.
• User-generated content includes text posts, comments, digital photos, videos, audio, multimedia, and data from online interactions.
• Social media facilitates online social network development by connecting a user's profile with others or groups.
• Social media is a platform for broadcasting information.
• A social networking site is a platform for communicating with one another.
• Social media has multiple functions for individual needs, viral buzz potential, and the ability to attract interaction with published content.
• Disadvantages of social media include limited interactivity leading to little feedback, spam content and potential to spread "fake news."

Social Media vs. Social Networking

• Social networking relates to relationships with the audience; social media involves sharing content.
• Social networking's main goal is discussion and relationship building; social media focuses on marketing.
• Social networking involves two-way communication; social media delivers a message to a large audience.
• Social networking targets specific audiences, while social media may not have specific target audiences.
• Social networking enhances timely responses through direct communication, while social media may not have fully interactive or timely responses.

Types of Social Media/Social Networks

• Social Networks: Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit
• Media Sharing: YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, SoundCloud
• Bookmarking: Pinterest, Delicious, StumbleUpon
• Blogging: WordPress, Medium, Blogger, Wix, Squarespace
• Social News: Reddit, Digg
• Microblogging: X (Twitter), Tumblr, LinkedIn, Reddit, Weibo
• Overlap and new technologies frequently emerge in social media.
• Social networks facilitate connecting with people of similar interests, often with profiles, interaction methods, and group capabilities
• Bookmarking sites enable users to save, organize, and manage links to websites.
• Social news sites enable users to post news items or links to outside articles for voting, determining item prominence based on community votes; popular examples include Digg and Reddit.
• Media sharing services enable the upload and sharing of media with features such as profiles and commenting; popular examples are YouTube and Flickr.
• Microblogging combines blogging and instant messaging, allowing short messages in various content formats to be shared online; examples include Twitter.
• Blog comments and forums facilitate online conversations through posted messages, focusing on blog post topics.

User Statistics (2025)

• In February 2025, there were 5.24 billion social media users, representing 63.9% of the world's population.
• Social media user identities increased by 0.5% (+24 million) quarter-on-quarter and 4.1% (+206 million) year-on-year.
• Social media users spent an average of 2 hours and 21 minutes daily, a 1.3% decrease of two minutes year-on-year.
• Social media user identities aged 18+ accounts for 86.6% of the population aged 18 and over.
• Social media user identities account for 94.2% of individuals using the Internet

Social Media Trends (2025)

• Short-form video dominance
• Emphasis on Quality over Quantity
• Rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Building Strong Communities
• Authenticity as a Differentiator
• Social SEO Becomes Essential
• Growth of Social Commerce
• Emphasis on User Generated Content (UGC) and Employee Generated Content (EGC)
• Data Protection and Security Focus
• Embracing Experimentation and New Features

Social Media Stories

• Short photo or video clips that disappear within 24 hours.
• Social Media Stories originated on Snapchat but are now available across platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram.
• They are often spontaneous and are used by brands to showcase behind-the-scenes content.
• Social Media Stories create FOMO, encouraging frequent check-ins.

Social Media and Communications

• Social media is used for tracking trends, finding story ideas, knowing what people want to know, and providing constant updates/commentary.
• Social media serves multiple purposes for journalism and news consumption.
• Trends can be tracked using tools like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck.
• Twitter and Facebook use push technology to highlight trending issues.
• Breaking news or event promotion can be done on social channels.
• Sports reporters use social media to livestream video with game commentary.
• More people are turning to Twitter or Facebook for breaking news.
• In May 2011, when the White House announced President Obama would give a late-night address, CNN reporters previewed the address without revealing its topic.
• Twitter broke the news of Osama bin Laden's death before CNN or other news outlets.
• Reports of Osama bin Laden's death circulated widely on social media before major broadcast and cable networks reported the news.
• Keith Urbahn, chief of staff for the former defense secretary, tweeted about Osama Bin Laden's death before President Obama's address.
• His tweet was retweeted by several people, anyone who was interested knew what the president was going to announce before he walked into the pressroom.
• A tweet provided the first pictures of U.S. Airways Flight 1549 floating in the Hudson on Jan 15, 2009.
• Social media has been important in reporting news in the Arab World.
• Erroneous or out-of-date information being picked up by someone and sent essentially around the world before someone realizes there's a problem.
• NPR reported that Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords had died in the shooting spree in Tucson but had to retract the report within minutes, but it continued floating around on Twitter for at least a half hour.
• A CSUF communications alumnus tweeted about an earthquake in Hawaii that caused a deadly Tsunami and it was cited as a source for information about the tsunami making it to Hawaii.

Social Media & Public Relations

• Social media has reshaped communication in terms of how, when, where, and with whom people communicate.
• Social media has: encouraged customer focus, created the 24/7 news cycle, has made PR affordable for small businesses, led to integrated PR, and greater engagement.
• Brands are now focusing more on their customers and building positive relationships due to social media.
• The current 24/7 news cycle has upsides and downsides.
• The upside is brands can deliver good news at any time and know someone is listening and ready to respond.
• The downside is the 24/7 news cycle become a curse when bad news travels through the social media platforms, and creates a PR crisis making it more difficult to recover from, clean up, and contain.
• PR is now affordable for small businesses.
• The old was PR firms and specialists mostly worked with politicians and large organizations with the funds to spend for brand management and crisis communications.
• The new is today, even small businesses can afford to hire a college student studying communications, journalism or public relations to manage their online presence,
• To work with social media marketing, public relations experts must integrate marketing concepts and practices with PR strategy to achieve results.
• This integration can also cause a company with separate PR and marketing teams to butt heads over control for social media.
• Communication has shifted from a one-way street to one with customers being able to engage with brands and their content by leaving comments, sharing, and “liking." Because of this, brands know how effective content and ads are in reaching the masses, and boosting visibility.
• Always verify information found on social media to maintain credibility.
• Copywriting on social media requires cramming as much value into as few words as possible while remaining consistent and engaging.
• Each social network is unique and may require different content strategies; what works on Facebook might not work on LinkedIn.