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Classifying Types of Social Media

Social-Media-Icons-2012-Zee-Que-DesignboltsThere are several types of social media classifications, and, each category is not so cut and dry. At times one social media site may offer the same type of media creation and sharing as another, and so the lines can be blurred. However, we can start looking at the content on various social sites and their functions and usefulness will become more apparent. While the social sphere may seem like one big animal at this point, you’ll find there are all types of species existing and emerging as the social web expands. Marketing professors Kaplan and Haenlein constructed this breakdown of categories:

  1. Collaborative projects (for example, Wikipedia)
  2. Blogs and microblogs (for example, Twitter, Tumblr)
  3. Content communities (for example, YouTube, Pinterest)
  4. Social networking sites (for example, Facebook, LinkedIn)
  5. Virtual game-worlds (e.g., World of Warcraft)
  6. Virtual social worlds (e.g. Second Life)

In their articles, the authors attempt describe how the term social media differs from Web 2.0 and User Generated Content, although the three are entwined. Web 2.0 could be the platform that enables social media, User Generated Content the term that describes how Web 2.0 operates, and social media a type of content that is created to be shared.