Social Networks/Media

Social media is the way in which people interact through different media forms, including virtual communities, brand communities, weblog communities and other web communities.

• Virtual communities are groups of people that primarily interact via e-mail, internet social network and instant messaging etc. rather than face to face. Virtual communication has become an additional medium whereby people communicate with people whom they usually know in real life
  
• "A brand community is a specialised, non-geographically bound community based on a structured set of social relations among admirers of a brand". Muniz and O'Guinn (2001, pg.412). An example of a brand community would be Harley Davidson and the Harley owners group
  
• There are 3 different forms of Blogs and they include, Personal, Employee, and Corporate. Blog communities allow individuals to have their own personal voice heard and offer refreshing, unfiltered authentic voice. Blogs also offer communal affiliation and passionate self-expression. One risk to blogs is that "time spent in collaberative environments can appear largely social and not "real work" or "real study". " 2009, Colin Cooney, Dept of Business Studies, DkIT.

Although social networking is possible in person,especially in college, it is more popular online. People from all over the world gather on these networks and share their information/experiences together, e.g. sports, literature or just to strike up a friendships. Social networks are also meeting places for businesses. Social networks exist on the internet and vary from chat rooms to websites. One of the most commonly known social networks include Facebook which has approimately 300 million members worldwide showing the popularity of the network. More and more people are getting involved and signing onto social networks and looks like it is here to stay.