I recently came across a social media site that used a spidering technique to find you (and your friends) at other social media sites and help you link across networks.

What this dynamic does is provide the opportunity to develop a network that is not only site specific, but integrated to include multiple sites. This can help you maximize the total number of friends in the total number of networks you're a part of.

This makes it less difficult to discover if a friend is involved in other social media sites and offers opportunity to expand your own network through multiplied opportunities to connect with others.

Social media is providing both an extensive personal experience as well as offering marketing potential. On a personal level you can share your thoughts in blog form, you can share your latest photography. Users are downloading originally designed audio and they are challenging all of us to share in personal opinion.

While separate blogs and forum boards exist, and are still going strong, the role of social media is that of a convenience store as compared to a specialty shop. In one location you have so many options at self-expression and connection that it can make other forms of online media seem a little dull in comparison.

In some cases I suppose a social media site can seem a little indulgent, but it can literally mean thousands of individuals receiving impressions about you and your business. In most cases social media is not reserved simply for personal thought conveyance. Businesses will routinely use it to share contemporary ideas and encourage new connection.

As a new generation finds less and less in common with traditional forms of media they are also finding social networking to be a meaningful alternative to many other sources previous generations found important.

For instance this new generation is less inclined to identify with traditional radio or newsprint. If they want information they will access it online. They won't watch evening news they will download video when they want – online. When they want music they are more inclined to listen on a social media site or a place like Pandora. If they really like a song they will purchase it online for their mp3 player.

It's not even that this generation hates these more traditional forms of media – they just don't get the lack of immediate gratification in the on demand world they live in. It simply doesn't fit their life.

That being said, a social media network allows them to access entertaining videos posted by members. They can preview songs they may like, but never hear on traditional radio, and they can find information often written by their favorite musician or actor.

This is the world this generation lives in, and if you are a web-based entrepreneur this is the world in which you will best reach them. That may seem like an overstatement, but it's true. This culture is all about connection and if you aren't willing to take your message to them you will not likely be heard. This is the power of social media.