Hi there! It looks like you're new here! If so, take the time to subscribe to my newsletter and get free weekly articles on how to use the Internet to promote and sell your artwork. Subscribe now and get a free audio download on "Effective Ways to Market Your Website Offline"

* First Name: * Last Name: * Email address:

Every day I’ll pick a Internet-related term and try to explain it in plain English. If you know of a term to you would like me translate from geek to English, let me know

Today’s term is a part of a series that focuses on Web 2.0 related terms

The term “social media” describes how people use the Internet and different Internet technologies in order to share their content, opinions, and experiences with others on the Internet.

Now, using the web in order to connect with other people isn’t new. We’ve been using email, chat, and forums for years. What makes social media interesting is that the technology on the web now allows people to contribute their own content on the web…it allows people to share not only their own content, but the content of others with their friends and family…and they can also share their opinions and thoughts about that content. And instead of connecting with others just to talk to one another, people are connecting with in order to control and shape the Internet.

What kind of content are talking about? Pretty much anything and everything. You can upload and share your photos of Hawaii on Flickr and Zoto, and critique and share the photos of other shutterbugs. You can submit that video of you lip syncing to at Britney Spears song (minus hair cut) YouTube or Dailymotion and laugh at and email the videos contributed by other wannabe pop stars to your friends. You can use del.icio.us and StumbleUpon to store the links to your favorite sites and poke through the bookmarks of other people to find new sites. If your a Mister or Mrs. Smartypants, you would enjoy Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia where you can add your own “encyclopedia” entries and correct factual errors on others. And we mustn’t forget the infamous MySpace…a place where you can create your own “space” to gather friends and to create a network of people like you.

In a nutshell, social media is all about sharing…photos, videos, links, knowledge, opinions, news, games…anything you can think of.