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What are social networking sites?

Social networking sites are one kind of social media. According to Banes, social media is an umbrella concept that describes social software and social networking ( ). The most common kinds of social media are blogs, social networks, content communities, wikis, podcasts and forums (Spannerworks). Thus social networking sites share some of the features of social media.

According to Spannerworks (2007), there are five features which most of the social media would have. They are as follows,

1. Participation: social media encourages contributions and feedbacks from everyone who is interested. The line between media and audience is blurred.

2. Openness: Most of the social media are open to feedback. There are rarely any barriers to accessing and making use of content.

3. Conversation: Social media is different from traditional media. It transmits and distributes content through conversational, two-ways means.

4. Community: Social media allows communities to form quickly and communicate effectively around common interests.

5. Connectedness: Majority of social media thrive on their connectedness, via links and combining different kinds of media in one place.