Blogs, podcasts, social networking sites, and virtual worlds were discussed as popular social media platforms currently and may evolve in the future. Blogs like Huffington Post and TMZ had millions of monthly visitors. Podcast Alley contained 90,000 podcasts across genres. Facebook had 700 million monthly visitors, focusing on photo sharing, while Myspace had 80 million focusing on music. World of Warcraft had over 11 million subscribers interacting in a virtual world. Twitter may become a new blogging platform, while sites may aggregate content and merge features through personalization.

1. SOCIAL MEDIA: CURRENTLY AND IN THE FUTURE. By ~B. Craven

2. BLOGS: A blog is a frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and web links. The two most popular blogs of 2011 are the Huffington Post, and entertainment news site TMZ. The Huffington Post has 54 million monthly visitors. TMZ has 19 million monthly visitors.

3. Word Press is ranked number one for: Plug-ins, Themes, and custom design templates . Word Press

4. Blogger is ranked right under Word Press for it’s mobile blogging, and money making opportunities by displaying AdSense ads on your blog. Blogger

5. WHY A BLOG IS STILL RELEVANT… MICROSOFT REP; ROBERT SCOBLE “ The Blog- short for Weblog- can indeed be fabulous for relationships. But it can also be much more: a company’s worst PR nightmare, its best chance to talk with new and old customers, and ideal way to send out information, and the hardest way to control it. Blogs are challenging the media and changing how people in advertising, marketing, and public relations do their job.”

6. PODCASTS: A podcast is audio content on a website that can be transferred onto an audio player, such as and Ipod or other MP3 players. How many people here own an Ipod, or MP3 Player? According to CNN Money, 11 million Ipods were sold last quarter.

7. Podcast Alley has 90,000 podcasts. Podcast Alley is overflowing with comedy shows, but offers a drop-down menu for easy access to other genres. Podcast Alley also offers a Monthly top 5 podcasts list.

8. THE UNIVERSITY OF HEALTH AND SCIENCE ON WHY PODCASTS ARE SO POPULAR “ The unique qualities of podcasting are the automatic subscription format and, should you own a digital audio player, the convenience of portability.”

9. SOCIAL NETWORKING Social networking is the use of websites designed to build and reflect social relations among people and organizations who share connections, interests, or activities. How many people have a myspace? How many people have a Facebook?

10. Facebook is the most used social networking site with 700 million monthly visitors. Myspace used to be considered number one, but is now number four with 80 million monthly visitors.

11. WHAT MAKES EACH SOCIAL NETWORK SPECIAL. The top reason Facebook is so popular is because of it’s unlimited uploaded pictures feature. Facebook is the most popular website for uploading pictures. 14 million photos are uploaded daily. Tagging a friend in a photo and commenting on another’s photo has kept things very interactive. Facebook mobile also allows one to embed or upload your videos by using just your phone. Sharing memories has never been so easy. Another reason is the use of Status messages … An article on Ezine, by Thea Tan Continued…

12. CONTINUED… Without using an instant messaging program like Yahoo messenger, one can just read a friend’s status to know what they’re up to. With the same thought in mind, one can use the event invite when one wants to update their friends about something and doesn’t have the time to message them all. For example, if one wants to throw a party and wants to know who can come and who can’t, but doesn’t have the time to message all their friends they could send out a mass personal invite and have results almost instantaneously.

13. AN ARTICLE ON SILICON CARIBE, BY CHERIE DOWDIE ABOUT WHAT KEEPS MYSPACE RELEVANT. Myspace is still popular and useful for its attention paid to music. “ With the opportunity to discover new bands and artists, watch music videos, get tour dates, music, news, meet other fans and more, Myspace stays friendly to the music-lover.” Facebook does not have a music feature. A personal reason I like Myspace better than Facebook is for it’s creativity.

14. VIRTUAL SOCIAL WORLDS: An online community that often takes the form of a computer-based simulated environment through which users can interact with one another and use and create objects. These objects can be weapons, clothes, or an avatar. An avatar is used online to visually express a person or his alter ego in chat rooms, on message boards or in video games.

15. The Most popular version of a virtual social world is World of Warcraft. Currently There is 11 million subscribers to World of Warcraft World of Warcraft

16. CONTINUED… World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King is the most recent version to make a profound impact. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King has broke all PC gaming records. 2.8 million copies were sold within the first day. The Blizzard company made 112 million dollars that day.

17. World of Warcraft is so popular in social media it has gained two spots in the Guinness Book of World Records. The First for most popular MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game). The Second for Best Selling PC Strategy Game.

18. AN ARTICLE FROM GADG, BY KRISTOFF JONES ON WHY WORLD OF WARCRAFT IS SO POPULAR. “ After six years World of Warcraft stays popular for many reasons. The vastness of the world and the depth of lore which are carefully explained by doing simple tasks or quests. One can become emotionally involved with saving the make-believe world of Azeroth. Unlike games like Final Fantasy, one doesn’t have to roam aimlessly trying to find missions from non-playable characters. Most non-playable characters have an exclamation point or question mark above them, giving the player a hypothetical set of training wheels.” “ World of Warcraft can be played on any computer system. One doesn’t have to go out and spend hundreds of dollars just to get the best experience. World of Warcraft is the definition of a MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game). With a free game trial, anyone can see for themselves why World of Warcraft is so popular.”

19. THE FUTURE… What does the future hold for social Media? Twitter is going to be the future of online blogging. A chief marketing officer for SocialText says, “We are now following our favorite bloggers on Twitter because it allows us to know immediately what they are doing and will write about, rather than waiting for the blog post to eventually come out at the end of the day. Twitter will not replace blogs, but it will break the news and channel users.”

20. CONTINUED… Aggregation will become a necessity for the next generation. Sites like Friendfeed has already started the change. Aggregation will allow for one to get all the news they need, without going to multiple different websites. Social Media Mash-Ups - As time goes on users won’t just want content aggregated, but functionalities too. With sites like Opensocial and Open ID, it will be possible to merge and tailor individual sets of social media on a per-user basis.

21. FINAL THOUGHTS: Many wonder how much longer social media will stay free. Will customers pay to use blogs or social networking sites for a small fee, or will it scare everyone away? Would you use your social media outlets, if a charge was included? http://youtu.be/mgp7GwHxV14

22. WORK CITED… Cnet: www.news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10103951-52.html CNN: www.tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/04/10/how-many-ipods-did-apple-sell-last-quarter/ Digital Spy: www.digitalspy.com/gaming/news/a158552/guinness-announces-gaming-world-records.html Dowdie, Cherie, “Is Myspace still relevant for Musicians?” www.siliconcaribe.com/2011/03/08/is-myspace-still-relevant-for-musicians/ Ebizmba: www.ebizmba.com/articles/blogs www.ebizmba.com/articles/social-networking- websites Ezine: www.ezinearticles.com/?Top-Reasons-Why-Facebook-Is-So-Popular&id=1089087 Joystiq: www.joystiq.com/2011/05/09/world-of-warcraft-dips-to-a-mere-11-4-million-subscribers/ Linked-In- www.linkedin.com/answers/technology/blogging/THC_BLG/221667-14835525?browseCategory = Make use of: www.Makeuseof.com/tag/5-podcast-directories-visit-subscribe-download-free-podcasts/ Quertime: www.quertime.com/article/arn-2011-02-25-1-top-10-best-blog-sites-and-blogging-platforms/ Scoble, Robert, “why are blogs so popular” www.morningstarmultimedia.com/why-are-blogs-so-popular/