http://www.thedigitalgangster.com CBC News Today ho... (more) Added: January 24, 2008 http://www.thedigitalgangster.com CBC News Today host Nancy Wilson interviews Jes... (more) Added: June 25, 2007 CBC News Today host Nancy Wilson interviews Jesse Hirsh regarding the role and influence of social media on the 2008 US Presidential Election. Social Media or Social Networking(industry term) has a number of characteristics that make it fundamentally different from traditional media such as newspapers, television, books, and radio. Social media is not finite: there is no set number of pages or hours. The audience can participate in social media by adding comments or even editing the stories themselves. Content in social media can take the form of text, graphics, audio, or video. Several formats can be mixed. Social media is typically available via feeds, enabling users to subscribe via feed readers, and allowing other publishers to create mashups. Social Media signifies a broad spectrum of topics and has several different connotations. In the context of Internet marketing, Social Media refers to a collective group of web properties that are driven by users. For example, blogs, discussion boards, vlogs, video sharing sites and dating sites. Social Media Optimization (SMO) is the process of trying to get ones content more widely distributed across multiple Social Media networks. Social Media has two important aspects. The first, SMO, refers to on-page tactics through which a webmaster can improve a website for the age of social media. Such optimization includes adding links to services such as Digg, Reddit and Del.icio.us so that their pages can be easily 'saved and submitted' to and for these services. Social Media Marketing, on the other hand, is an off-page characteristic of Social Media. This includes writing content that is remarkable, unique, and newsworthy. This content can then be marketed by popularizing it or even by creating a "viral" video on YouTube and other video sites. Social Media is about being social so this off-page work can include getting involved in other similar blogs, forums, and niche communities. Search Engine Marketing or SEM involves utilization of all available Social Networking platforms to brand a product using Search Engine Optimization or SEO techniques of communication, to the end consumer. Social media applications are Google (reference, social networking), Wikipedia (reference), MySpace (social networking), Facebook(social networking), Last.fm (personal music), YouTube (social networking and video sharing), Second Life (virtual reality), and Flickr (photo sharing). Social Media has different connotations. In the context of Internet marketing, Social Media and Social Marketing refers collective web properties that are driven by users. For example, web 2.0 and social blogs, discussion boards, vlogs, social marketing video sharing sites and dating sites. Social Media Optimization (SMO), and Social Media Training and Social Marketing Training are offered free to Leaders Club members