SocialMediopolis.com The Capital of Social Media

For millions of years, mankind lived just like the animals. Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imaginations. We learned to talk, and we learned to listen.

-Professor Stephen Hawking

Social media is a term used to describe the type of media that is based on conversation and interaction between people online. Where media means digital words, sounds & pictures which are typically shared via the Internet and the value can be cultural, societal or even financial.

-Wikipedia; The Free Encyclopedia

I take here at the outset the fortuity to express my sincere thanks to each of the very busy people that took of their valuable time to answer my call to arms. One of the wonderful things that make Social Media a viable entity is the fact that those involved are so willing to give, and the contributors present exemplify that principle to its highest magnitude.

I set before the Social Media community a very difficult task. I asked for the correspondence collective to be described in one word. A simple enough request, a behemothic endeavor. My inclination was that I might even get more than few responses, perhaps as many as 10 or even 15. Never in my wildest dreams would I have guessed there would be over 150! And the responses were so varied. Some were repetitious, but not many. Evidently, Social Media is in the mind of the beholder.

The following list contains names that are both abundantly apperceived and little known. There are directors, educators, consultants, entrepreneurs, CEO's, and many other captains of industry, as well as some whose involvement is purely from personal interest and have no professional affiliation whatsoever. Here, then, are your names and your characterizations (please note that there is no particular order to this list):

1. Shari Weiss - hmmm, lots of "one words": Engagement is one great one, but here are two others: Collaboration, Community
2. Axel Schultze - Social (one word)
3. Marita Roebkes - Interpersonal
4. Robin - Social and Interactive
5. JoeM - Tool
6. Sebastian Pistritto - here is one word to consider when describing social media: Interdependency
7. Dana Webster - transparency........though, that's just one of many
8. Richard Meyer - relationship
9. Simon Young - transformative
10. Amanda Olsson - engage...talk...relate..connect
11. Gigesh G - UNexplored
12. Lysle C Wickersham - Empowerment
13. Tracy Terry - trust
14. Yusuf Chowdhury - Interaction
15. Matthew Boyles - mobile
16. Fred Greenberg - Unknown
17. Jane Mason - organic-dialog
18. Spencer Powell - Communication
19. David Ball - Comradery
20. Divya Sesha - Talk
21. Susan Ridgeway - Influential
22. Tracy Brunet - immediate
23. Susan Ridgeway - Karmic
24. Stephanie Fuerniss - Listen
25. Gordon Diffey - communication
26. Fiona Gibbins - engaged
27. Pieter Thijssen - Interaction, Engagement, Opportunities (for consumers and companies)
28. Michelle Chmielewski - Connectivity
29. Ivan Chen - Freedom
30. Jan Jivmark - Marketing-channel. Is that one word??? If not, Marketing-tool (Still two words???). OK, what about Message-vehicle? No? Content-medium (note singularis). No? OK, you win - Interaction!!!
31. Christine Hueber - Relationships
32. Joyce Feustel - Stimulating
33. Dan Kraus - Engagement
34. Eric Grossman - many-to-many
35. Jan Ryan - Trust-building
36. David Mayne - consuming
37. Kendra Plant - conversation
38. Florence Dujardin - relationships
39. Rani John - Transparent
40. Anna Chatburn - Interactive!
41. Meg Daintith - Interactive
42. Matt Kammerait - Integrated
43. Tommy TBones Cramer - WORK - I'd have put "hard" in front of "Work" but I only could use one word.
44. Robert Rance - Fad
45. Christine Hueber - Connect
46. Tracy Brunet - immediate
47. Don Mitchell - Ubiquitous
48. Julie Bonn Heath - Interaction
49. Jessica Seaberg - Transparent.
50. Marilyn Casey, APR -stoplooklisten
51. Allison Rohe - Purpose
52. Becky Holland Fuller - Connecting
53. Raul Burgos - Evolutionary
54. Chris Barry - Personal
55. Sharon Schwendt-Vetere - Engagement'
56. ASHIM GUPTA - Conversations
57. Anurag Kothari - Cultivation
58. Sham Mahabir - Annoying!
59. Ryan Ott - Community
60. Tim Holdsworth - Noise
61. Noël Fisher - social. I know it's obvious, but it's true.
62. Drew Giffin - Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
63. Marcus Pozzan - conversationsphere
64. Jérôme Amoudruz - Realtime
65. daniel jeffers - Social?
66. Olivier P. Soares - Global
67. Brad Poulson - Investment
68. Marti Konstant - Fleeting
69. Becky Wanamaker - Empowering
70. April Boone - Conversation
71. Matthew Myrtle - real time.
72. Gregory Borden - I describe social media as "connectivity"
73. Heather Jeffery - Networking
74. David Hughan - Persuasion
75. Mikael Svensson - opportunities
76. Cindy Morgan-Olson - Integrated!
77. Ed Burghard - Nice challenge. I decided to answer from the viewpoint of the practitioner and the time commitment required.
    Consuming
78. Brad Lovett - Listening
79. Windi Barth - Reputation
80. Courtney Wiley - Time-sensitive
81. Lana Shekhtman - Energizing!
82. Gretchen Gary - Dialog
83. Lisanne Vos - Relationships/engagement
84. The Write One (marketing communications and word design studio) -Now
85. Nick Barry - Fun
86. Cherryl Oake - Overrated
87. Russell Palmer - Engaging
88. Mark Schaefer - Opportunity
89. Le Wong - Advisement
90. Margaret Grigsby - Relationships
91. Daniel Nanvati - Concatenation
92. Stacey Womble - Explosive
93. Esther Huro - Future
94. Shai Ataneloy - Interact
95. Gerardo A. Dada - UGC (one word for user generated content) This is the industry accepted definition.
96. Craig Carrel - Educational or Learning
97. Rich Palmer - Discussion
98. Stephen Flick - Grail
99. Denise Stolis - Correspondence
100. Jamie Osborn - That is hard with one word - if I can use a hyphenated word then user-generated; if not, then interaction or involvement or interfacing
101. Stacy Rose - Conversation
102. Peter Goez - Interchange
103. Kirk Cheyfitz - Media
104. Brian Stackhouse - Customer-centric
105. Sandy A. Miller - Addictive
106. Prasanna Ravirai - Newsfeed
107. Jim Elliot - Currency
108. Larry Calvin - Brain power
109. Paolo Soragna - revolution
110. Che Osborne - Dialogue
111. ‘Kim Willis - Intoxicating
112. Mark Donnan - Astruction
113. Michael Driehorst - Hmmmmm.
     From a person's standpoint, I'd say: Connecting. (Echoing Dan Weingrod's reply)
     From a business' standpoint, I'd say: Community.
114. Scott Crider - Touchstone
115. Kevin Green - Listorious
116. Alyssa Carter - Cohesive
117. Larry Brauner - Connecting
118. Kathy Bibb - Collaboration
119. Steven Morris - Understanding
120. Tom D. DeVisscher - Friends
121. Jeannie Good Reed - Obsessive
122. Milene Laube Dutra - I believe the best is engagement or engaging.
123. Anand Sheombar - Hmm, only one word...either I post two times or I just give you my two: connecting & word-of-mouth
124. Warwick Davies - Engagement
125. Luke Thomas - Conversations
126. Patricia Bass - Perception
127. Anna Denison - Do-able
128. Israel Lisovski - News getting, search, learning
129. Julie Shipp - Engagement
130. Marilyn Cohodas - Conversations
131. Elizabeth Halliday - Personal
132. Katherine Turko - Fun... Just with the help of communication
133. Stephen Beals - One?twit/Transformative
134. Dan Weingrod - Connecting
135. Lee Traupel - Presence
136. Cecil Helton, Jr.- People
137. Grant Dahlke - Can't believe the one word...as simple as it is...hasn't been mentioned yet...
     communication
138. Terri Willows - Ideas
139. Casey Hamar, MBA, PHR - Community. (both pro and con)
140. Jeanette Verster - Connecting
141. Neil Kleiner - Human
142. Toby Chishick - Can think of a few single words... that ok?  Universal;  Accessible; Anonymous (often) ; Influential
143. Ben McGrath - Soulless
144. Ivor Kellock - (R)evolution
145. David Darrick - Follow
146. Amy Tibble - My favourite is: unfolding but others are: imminent, destined, inevitable, fate, ultimate
147. Mark Evans - Conversations.
148. Marie Prentice - Share
149. Mikkel Madsen - Opportunity
150. Frederic Savoye - Karma
151. Joop Huisman - Chance
152. Freddie Smith - interactin(g)
153. Imelda McGrattan - Commuincation
154. Jill Missee - Appreciation
155. Joseph Melanson - Connected
156. Amber Williams - Relationships
157. Rosemary O'Neill - Fruitful
158. Melissa Brenneman - Grassroot
159. Raymond A. Shirley, Sr. - Partyline
160. Rey Ybarra - Conversational
161. Daniel Lieberman - Revolutionary
162. Andrew Mitchell - Gregory, defining social media in one word is no easy task. However the word "dialog" comes to mind because social media enables people to have a two way dialog, as opposed to broadcast media which is one way communication.
163. Raakesh Kapoor - Glocal is the one world for social media. it has truly connected the world, different people from different origins sharing views helping each other is amazing
164. Jim Belavich - Relationships
165. Jerri Reson - Focus
166. Matt Knott - Intrusive, addictive
167. Yuni Iwata - Interactive, ROI-oriented, metric-driven
168. Jane Wong - Hive - both noun & verb
     noun: a teeming multitude
     verb: move together in a hive or as if in a hive
169. Justin Wheeler - Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious - Not sure you can sum up Social Media with one word as it means so many different things to different people. Still there is something rather magical about Social Media, so am sure Mary Poppins fits in there somewhere!
170. Martin Fuchs - Push
171. Frank Podlaha - Fishbowl
172. Angus Fraser - Relationships
173. Jonathan Florin - Pivotal
174. Eric Lapin - Proactive
175. Martha Mideer - Distinguishing
176. Rebecca Jones - Connections
177. Julia Frances - Inflated
178. Jeremy Victor - Communication
179. Terri Brooks - Connecting
180. David Mumpower - Historic (This our era's printing press)
181. Leon Spencer - Community
182. Bryan Crawford - Potential
183. Akanksha Agarwal - Instant
184. Lee Rivers - Entertaining
185. Shrawan Singh - Synergy
186. Brian J. Dooley - Folkagenic
187. Tiberius Brastaviceanu - MULTITUDE!
188. Scott Rice -  Sorry, I do not have a one word response. The most important form of advertising of all time has been "Word of Mouth". The word of mouth is now being handled by the various different social media outlets. Think about the power in that statement.
189. Alan Johnston- Seems people don't READ you said one word Gregory lol
     Well here is my one word to describe social media dauntingnewmediaohGoddoIhavetodothis?canyoudoitformeIhatefacebooktwitterwhatsthat?ihavenotimehowmanyfriends????youcan'tknowthem?allfollowmeFriday??itsonlyMondayBLOG?Ihavebloggedarteriesdoesthatcount?Ecadamyyouv'espelledthatwrongseeyoukidsthink youknoweverythingIrememberwhenwehadrealfriendsnotjpegs!!!! how's that?
190. Walt Reedy - Communication

As you can tell, there are many diverse and sundry portraitures. Most all are positive, many business oriented, a few might even leave some bemused and/or amused . Some could not be constrained to one word, others found no paradox.

Now, you might wonder what one word your humble author would have conjectured. I would describe Social Media in one word as-(a) hammer.

A hammer? What the hell does that mean? Hammer!

Many times I've heard it said that Social Media is a tool. So is a hammer. It is a simple, albeit powerful tool. It can be wielded by almost anyone. In the hands of the uninitiated, it can be destructive, even dangerous. When employed by the trained, it can be used to build up beautiful works. Social Media is the very same. It can be used for great successes, or it can be used for carnage and annihilation.

So there you have it. The complex, circuitous, and labyrinthine phenomena of Social Media described in one word. Allow me again to extend my acknowledgement, indebtedness, and sense of obligation to the many from around the globe that have helped make what has turned out to be the most ambitious blog experiment I've ever undertaken. I hope you have carried something of positive use away from these contemplations of your peers, who are the best the industry can offer. I know that I certainly have. My very best to each of you.