I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to explain what is happening with social media to people who don’t know much about it.

Social media are blogs, videos, podcasts, forums, and all the social networking sites. But, it’s more than just the specific product that’s produced. It’s people having conversations about their interests. It’s companies trying to get you to spend time and contribute and engage with them. It’s not just online. Sometimes it’s online plus a f2f meetup. It’s UGC (user-generated content) and WOM (word of mouth) sharing. It’s buzz. It’s more than buzz. Plus, there are all the companies and technologies that help others make the most of their social media sites (search, stats, etc.). Getting all of these things going in a meaningful way is not an easy undertaking.

I really admire what Southwest is doing with their site, Nuts About Southwest. I’ve read their blog for a while, and really enjoy the diverse posts. However, I clicked over to their site and discovered that I’ve been missing a lot by only reading it in RSS.

In addition to the blog, they now have sections for flickr images, video images, polls, corporate news, and official media. All of these different sections provide different looks at Southwest as a company. Instead of just a blog, Nuts About Southwest is now an interactive media portal.

I’m accustomed to seeing the big media sites (cnn, espn, etc) offer different types of content, but now that I’m back in corporate, there are many times when I’m really impressed at the great diversity of content being produced (or collected/aggregated) by companies whose primary mission is other than media.

I also couldn’t help thinking about how it would be fun to structure a class around creating a site like this one and discussing all the issues that go into it. From branding, to generating conversations and marketing, to legal issues, etc., etc. and a ton more on the back end.

I’m curious….what corporate blogs/social media sites are your favorites? why?