Let me begin this post with a disclaimer: There are a lot of people in the Social Media space that I respect and I would consider educated, but I have yet to meet anyone who is a true Social Media expert. To all of my readers out there, if anyone claims to be a Social Media expert, be leery.
Most of the “experts” that I talk with focus on only a fraction (less than 10 percent to be specific) of the Social Media applications available to you. I call them "The Big Five" – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Flickr. And those are currently the leaders in their respective spaces, but what about Bebo, Hulu, Digg, Plurk, Yub, Technorati, MySpace, Yammer, orkut, del.icio.us, Xanga, Friendster, Drupal, Pownce, jaiku, Vimeo, SmugMug, Photobucket…and the list goes on and on.
As of the end of August 2009, there were an estimated 250 social media blogging sites (eBlogger), 245 social networking sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, LinkedIn, MySpace), 154 microblogging sites (Twitter) and 84 online video sites (YouTube). Add to that podcasting, wikis, widgets, bookmarking and many others, and there are literally thousands of Social Media platforms.
Here’s the kicker: Each one has a loyal demographic that could be best suited for your brand and consumer base. A large consumer brand may utilize 25 platforms. A small B2B brand may use two. A niche brand may use one
This space is at its infancy and is changing daily, but a true expert will have knowledge on all platforms, not just a select few, even if they currently are the most popular. Make sure and research other Social Media sites or work with someone that has a broad knowledge base. You’d be surprised at what may be the best platform for your brand.