Nowadays, “social media” has created quite a stir and rules the whole world of online marketing and other business related activities. It can be defined as the means of “social interaction”. This means of communication includes the use of web and mobile technologies for interaction. There is a wide variety of social media, ranging from social sharing sites like YouTube and Flickr to social networks like LinkedIn and Facebook. It makes it easy to share ideas, photos, videos, likes and dislikes, with the world at large. In addition to this, it also helps to join friends, make business contacts.

Most of it comes online in the following forms:-

1.Communication

• Blogs: Blogger (service), Livejournal, TypePad, WordPress, Vox
• Microblogging/presence applications: Twitter, Pownce and Jaiku
• Social networks: Avatars United, Bebo, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Orkut, Skyrock
• Aggregation of social networks: FriendFeed, Youmeo
• Events: Upcoming.org, Eventful, Meetup.com

2. Cooperation

• Wikis: Wikipedia, PBwiki, wet paint
• Social bookmarking: Delicious, StumbleUpon
• Social news sites: Digg, Mixx, Reddit
• Opinion sites: epinions, Yelp

3. multimedia

• Share photos: Flickr, Zooomr, Photobucket, SmugMug
• Video sharing: YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler, Revver
• Live broadcast: Ustream, Justin.tv, Stickam
• Audio and music sharing: imeem, The Hype Machine, Last.fm, ccMixter

4.Entertainment

• Virtual worlds: Second Life, The Sims Online
• Online games: World of Warcraft, Everquest, Age of Conan
• Shared game: Miniclip.com

Today, many companies, including those that provide software development services, have started using social media as a means of promoting their products and other search engine optimization activities. Search engine spiders locate content on the web, and social media helps search engines in that process.

Many business houses like software product development are now jumping on the social media bandwagon to achieve their marketing and PR goal. It also helps them to spread information very fast compared to other channels and wider coverage. Business houses can collect feedback directly from their target audience. It also enhances the brand and increases awareness. Social media has proven to be a key component to complement SEO initiatives. Since Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a key component of direct marketing today, many social media techniques, such as the use of keyword phrases/keywords, meta tags, links to blogs and websites, significantly improve user ratings. search engines.

It is reported in a study that 85% of businesses confirmed that social media directly contributed to the company’s online exposure and resulted in increased revenue. But social media needs to be used wisely, as the wrong online branding strategy could put you at a viral social disadvantage and even damage your reputation. Sometimes social media for marketing and advertising can be more time consuming than businesses expect. Recently, a major IT company, Microsoft Corporation, took to social media to advertise and popularize its products, especially Internet Explorer 8. Microsoft has also set up a page on its own site to promote the campaign, complete with all the videos and the social media sharing. options Microsoft has been running a large-scale new media campaign involving live events, a variety of social platforms including YouTube and Facebook.