Social media is one of the most aspects of the internet. It is a rapidly growing niche that has seen unprecedented and extremely significant growth in the past few years. Social media not only entertains its users, but it also provides an avenue for business deals as well as other income opportunities.

If you are curious about what social media is actually about, you can research some of the qualities that define social media. Most of the time, you can find what you are looking for if you know exactly what you are looking for.

User-generated content – this is one of the most essential and telltale signs of a good social media site. Social media is all about the users that form the social network around it. Whether they are audio files, video files or just plain text, the social media site will allow you to easily post this content at no charge.

Social media encourages user-generated content because they know this will be the biggest draw to any website in the future. Sites like Youtube thrive in user-generated content that many people will want to see.

The great thing about user-generated content is the fact that the site no longer needs to spend a lot of money in order to generate content. All they have to do is to wait for their users to supply the content for them.

User interaction – social media is all about encouraging people to socialize with each other. This means providing features and functionality that enable viewers to discuss various media with other users.

One of the simplest and most effective tools available for enhanced user interaction is the comment box. Whether it is a video or a blog post or a picture, interaction is encouraged via the comment box.

Influence – social media is also all about influencing other people. Just like a regular offline society, the internet will also have its share of influencers. Many companies and businesses use social media in order to influence people to buy their products and services.

The influence that can be found from using social media has led to a rise in the demand for social media marketers that possess the knowledge and skills to effectively promote products or services via social media.

Raw and viral – these are the two of the most popular words that define social media. Since a significant majority of social media content is user generated, it gives it a raw feel. Post-production techniques are only exclusive to high-end industrial studios.

The raw nature of social media content ensures that people will associate it with the truth and not fabricated it. The viral nature, on the other hand, pertains to the huge spikes in popularity of a particular social media content that comes with people wanting to share the content with other people they know.

Viral videos are an extremely popular examples.