Wednesday, February 2, 2011

"Social Media" or "Social Networking"--Which Term is Correct?

I recently learned that Forrester Research has launched new online communities aligned by professional role: IT, Technology Industry, and Marketing & Strategy professionals. Curious to see what was going on, I joined the marketing & strategy professionals one.

The first discussion thread I noticed was titled "Please, please, please don't call it "Social Networking", unless you wanna look clueless." The poster included a link to a helpful diagram to prove his point.

Well, color me clueless because I do sometimes refer to the platforms I manage as "social networking platforms."

I personally don't totally agree with this, especially in the context of association communities. To me, when you participate in the online community of an association you belong to, the term "social networking platform" is correct because you are there to connect with colleagues...hence NETWORK. Socially.

What do you think?

No comments: