For some people social media has become a key part of their lives whether it means tweeting daily on Twitter or updating their status on Facebook.But for others the idea of adding another method of communication to their already full schedule can be overwhelming to say the least.There are so many questions to answer where to start, which website to join and how to sign up? both from a personal user and business perspective.Here Elizabeth Tee, managing director of Troncossi Public Relations, breaks down the main social media websites including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, BlackBerry Messenger, Flickr and YouTube.FacebookFacebook is a social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook Inc.Since September 2006, anyone over the age of 13 with a valid e-mail address (and not residing in one of the countries where it is banned) can become a Facebook user.Users can add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves.Additionally, users can join networks organised by city, workplace and school or college. The website’s name stems from the colloquial name of books given at the start of the academic year by university administrations in the US with the intention of helping students to get to know each other better.Individuals can create a Facebook profile. Celebrities can create a fan page if they think they’re likely to attract more than 5,000 fans over time. With more than 800 million active users on Facebook, businesses have realised that having a presence on Facebook makes good commercial sense. It gives fans of the brand an opportunity to interact with their favourite company and further build that relationship online.More than 50 percent of Facebook’s active users log on to Facebook in any given day and the average user has 130 friends. More than 75 percent of users are outside the US. The average user is connected to 80 pages, groups, events.In order to get the most out of Facebook, users should sign on regularly to respond to comments in a timely manner. Businesses should consider a fresh post on a daily basis.TwitterTwitter launched in 2006 is a free social networking and micro blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to the author’s subscribers who are known as followers.Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. Since late 2009, users can follow lists of authors instead of following individual authors.Comcast, the largest cable company in the US, is Twitter’s poster child for reversing a bad service reputation through Twitter. For years, Comcast ranked consistently at or near the bottom of customer satisfaction surveys. When the Internet came along, this exacerbated it.A mid-level customer service employee opened a Twitter account in April 2008 with the handle [AT]ComcastCares. At first, the Twitter handle was dedicated to customer support and dealt with customers just like a call centre person does one at a time.Twitterville greeted this with suspicion at first. According to Twitterville by Shel Israel, “the help continued and it seemed to be around the clock. After a year, he’d helped 2000 customers. He really cares, passion for helping customers and uses an engaging personal approach”.The company expanded the Comcast Twitter team to 10 people by April 2009. In 2009, Comcast’s customer service rating gained nine percent, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, and this was attributed to Comcast’s Twitter participation. Customer problems were being resolved with more success and customer satisfaction than can be achieved in call centres.Twitter has 225 million users, one billion tweets per week, 65 million tweets per day and 572,000 new accounts created in one day (March 12, 2011), while 13 percent of online adults use the website.By age, 18 to 29-year-olds are still the most likely group to use Twitter, with 18 percent on the site. Use among those aged 25 to 44 is growing quickly as well. Since 2010, the number of people aged 30 to 49 using Twitter has doubled from seven percent to 14 percent, and there are more than 100,000 Twitter applicationsIn Bermuda, Twitter users are predominantly individuals. In order to get the most out of Twitter, users should engage with other tweeple and tweet regularly. Businesses should consider tweeting several times a day.LinkedInLinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking site for individuals on the web. As of November 3, 2011, LinkedIn has more than 135 million members in more than 200 countries and territories. More than two million companies have LinkedIn company pages.Users create profiles that summarise their career history with current and past employers as well as job responsibilities and job titles, skills, education, recommendations by clients and employers, Twitter handle, interests, LinkedIn groups, honours and awards as well as contact information.In order to get the most out of LinkedIn, users should complete their profile in full.LinkedIn is popular for business development and job hunting.BlackBerry MessengerBlackBerry Messenger (BBM) allows BlackBerry users to send and receive messages from other BBM members in seconds. Scan barcodes or swap PINs to add BBM friends quickly and easily. From there, you can create BlackBerry groups and message single or multiple contacts instantaneously.And when words aren’t enough, swap pictures, videos, voice notes and files up to six megabits (MB) per second. Users can personalise their BBM with a display picture, add a personal message.BlackBerry Messenger is a popular site for personal use among friends. BBM users cannot communicate with iPhone or Android users through BlackBerry Messenger.FlickrFlickr, which was launched in 2004, is a popular online photo-sharing community that allows anyone to share and organise their digital photos with anyone. While many people use Flickr recreationally, it can also be a powerful tool for organisations.Anyone who signs up for a free Flickr account can upload photographs and use the site to store, share and view photos (up to 100MB per month).Companies can brand their photo page, eg Fairmont Hamilton Princess. Photos can be tagged for search purposes, added to groups and users can comment on other photos. Tagged photos show up in more Google and Yahoo searches, which link tagged photos back to your website.It is recommended that you have two Flickr accounts, one for business and one for personal use.Copyright can be restricted if you want. You can also use Flickr as an image library for adverts, brochures, etc because it has free images that aren’t subject to copyright.There are 51 million members on Flickr. As of December 2010, Flickr was hosting five billion images. This equates to members uploading more than 3,000 images per minute.In May 2009, White House official photographer Pete Souza began using Flickr as a conduit for releasing White House photos. The photos were initially posted with a Creative Commons Attribution license requiring that the original photographers be credited.Flickr later created a new license which identified them as “United States Government Work”, which does not carry any copyright restrictions. The photos are posted with this disclaimer: “This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organisations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House.”YouTubeLaunched in 2005, YouTube is the number two search engine on the Internet. YouTube is a video sharing website on which users can upload and share videos. Three former PayPal employees created YouTube in February 2005.YouTube consists mainly of user-generated video, including movie clips, TV clips and music videos, as well as amateur original videos (80 percent). Most of the content on YouTube has been uploaded by individuals, although media corporations including CBS and the BBC offer some of their material via the site, as part of the YouTube partnership programme.An example of a company using YouTube is Toyota, as part of its recall and branding communications. The message with YouTube is that you can’t wait for a crisis to your business. Set up a channel now and be prepared.There are more than 120 million videos on YouTube, 200,000 new videos are uploaded every day, and more than 100 million videos are watched daily. More than 490 million accounts have been set up on YouTube. There are 92 billion page views each month. The average user spends an average of 25 minutes on the site each time they visit. The average user spends five hours and 50 minutes per month on YouTube. YouTube’s demographic is broad: 18 to 54-years-old. YouTube says that on average there are more than 400 tweets per minute containing a YouTube link.