Before blogging became a buzzword, MB Technews paved the way by featuring bloggers and their content platform. My little column "Blog-O-Rama" ran a good eight years before it outgrew itself. I am still blogging but I am pretty much happy seeing the trade being able to stand on its own now, albeit sometimes growing a head too big for its body. We are proud to have inspired and highlighted a generation of bloggers through the column and to have recognized the potential of the phenomenon before it became a "big" thing. MB started talking about blogging in 2004, to be exact.

These days social media has become the term we use for the most pervasive thing we do on the internet. It is basically premised on the creation and sharing of user-generated content. This explains the dominance of such sites as Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.

Apps have also become readily available for easy accessibility on our tablets and smartphones. If am planning a trip, for example, it wouldn't be complete without checking reviews on Trip Advisor for top-rated hotels. If I plan to eat out, I log on to Foursquare to know about a resto's address and comments about their food. Even my three-year old is not immune because she watches nursery rhymes through kiddie channels in Youtube. It's not something I would frown upon or deprive her of. Web 2.0 (and beyond) is her generation, after all.

Social media is continually evolving but it's definitely here to stay for quite some time. Here's our basis for saying this:

1. Total time spent on social media across PC and mobile devices is increasing, not decreasing.  According to Nielsen's Social Media Report 2012, consumers spent more time on social networks than on any other category of sites, with Facebook being the most visited network, at least in the US and the Philippines.

2. Social media has become a way of life for the majority. Outside of the family, it is now the primary means for people to converse, interact, satisfy their vanity, build a reputation or even to unload the day's stresses (through Facebook games, for example). Not using our fave social network for a day would be akin to not having a shower... we simply can't live without it.

3. Seizing today's opportunity, new social networks continue to be created. Yesterday's Myspace is today's Tumblr and who knows what will appear tomorrow to challenge the supremacy of Facebook. The SM phenomenon has given rise to a new army of professionals like social media managers, brand marketers and mobile apps developers whose specializations are to feed on the demand for social media. Same with social ads which are now competing with traditional media for precious space.

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