What is social media?

Recently someone stopped by the house to have a chat and after all the niceties said:
I looked you up on the internet. Actually I Googled- Todd Vendituoli- tons of things came up about all kinds of things. So what is it that you do?

Now I have no real idea why he Googled me but my response was:
I'm a blogger, builder and I do a lot of work in social media.

Him:
I know what a blogger is and what a builder does but what is social media and how do you do it?

Wow. That gave me pause as -how do you describe social media to someone that has no idea? After a pause I simply stated that the short version was that it was about being social, being real, marketing and PR and using things like Facebook, Twitter and other sites to communicate and engage with many other people.

He nodded, made a umm huh noise and we moved on to a new conversation.
But it got me thinking - How would you describe in a clear and meaning full way what social media is all about to someone that has no idea?

Care to leave me your take or what you would say if that came up?

Tweet