The best way to define social media is to break it down. Media is an instrument on communication,like a newspaper or a radio, so social media would be a social instrument of communication.In Web 2.0 terms, this would be a website that doesn't just give you information,

but interacts with you while giving you that information. This interaction can be as simple as asking for your comments or letting you vote on an article, or it can be as complex as Flixster recommending movies to you based on the ratings of other people with similar interests.

Think of regular media as a one-way street where you can read a newspaper or listen to a report on television, but you have very limited ability to give your thoughts on the matter.

Social media, on the other hand, is a two-way street that gives you the ability to communicate too.

That means, your sole purpose of using a blog or any other social media is not only to get your message out.

While social media can take many different forms, including discussion boards, weblogs, wikis, podcasts (audio), pictures, and video, let’s continue the discussion about blogging.

One of the most important tasks for every blogger is to monitor what others are saying about your company or brand. In some ways, this is even more important than starting and owning a blog.

Being responsive to the conversation is not optional nowadays because whether you like it or not, the conversation continues with or without you. History — just not so long ago — teaches us not to disregard such conversations around the blogosphere. And now it extends beyond blogosphere to the whole social media…

Every blog post in its original format is conversation that tied to a moment. If a company can track on-going conversations simultaneously among millions of blogs, it is a very powerful way to tap into the market.

With flexible filtering, you can tune into whichever conversation you want to hear and care about.