The inflection point for this topic occurred in late 2007 when Jeremiah Owyang publicly asked whether enthusiasts respected media snackers. He then tagged several Social Media experts—Francine Hardaway, Chris Brogan, Shel Israel, Connie Benson, and Bill Claxton, among others—to continue the conversation. Ultimately, co-author Brian Solis was pinged by Todd Defren. To ascertain its value and potential, Brian thought it might be more helpful to examine what it is and why it exists instead of discussing whether he respected media snacking.

Media snackers are content creators or consumers who read small bits of information, data, or entertainment when, where, and how they want. Many relate this specifically to the Millennials (a.k.a. Generation Y—those born between 1980 and 1991) because, in a sense, they grew up more “connected” than the generations before them. However, it’s not just about the younger generations. Instead, it’s about media in general and how it is carving new channels and creating new vehicles to facilitate conversations, relationships, and sharing by, and for, the people—across every generation and market demographic. The content curators, creators, consumers, and thought leaders who are defining the new social economy, and are building social capital for themselves in the process, are driving micromedia.

Let’s further define micromedia as applications and usage, which requires additional exploration and explanation. Micromedia is similar to blogging, in that you proactively share updates. However, the updates aren’t blog posts. They’re similar to public updates (for example, what you’re doing, reading, thinking, observing, contemplating, learning, or sharing). And most important, you share these updates in a public timeline, which is similar to the MiniFeed in Facebook or newsfeeds in your feedreader. A public timeline enables your followers or community to see and reply to your updates, and people can proactively subscribe to your updates so that what you share appears in their stream of updates.

On one end of the spectrum, these updates are shared in 140-character (or fewer) bursts (Twitter). Other services, such as Tumblr, enable you to share more than 140 characters, but using additional characters or words is highly discouraged. After all, it’s about brevity and value—saying more with less. You can also share files, pictures, links, audio, and video (and include short captions).

Micromedia is actually creating a new paradigm for conversations and the dynamics in which people communicate with each other. It facilitates the opportunity to share the puzzle pieces, bit by bit, and to ultimately represent the bigger picture of who you are and why someone should follow you.

Perhaps one of the most compelling attributes of micromedia is the ability to listen to conversations relevant to specific brands. Instead of searching “brand name” in Google, Yahoo!, Ask.com, or blog search engines, micromedia channel searches reveal real-time conversations taking place in a variety of contexts across popular communities related to your brand.

These conversations mean everything. They represent not only a reflection of the current perception, but also an opportunity to contribute to the evolution of that perception. Perhaps one of the greatest value propositions of listening to and engaging in micromedia-based conversations is the ability to learn from those experiences; observe new perspectives, insight, and feedback; and assess the dialogue to shape future participation. In the business world, these lessons spotlight public sentiment and educate us on the very things that we can feed back into our product development, customer service, and marketing processes to make the next iteration more relevant and poignant.

In fact, many top brands are using tools such as Twitter as an outbound customer service channel to engage and help people with questions, negative opinions, information, or direction. New tools, networks, or services are continually introduced, and edglings flock to each of them, test them, and then share their experiences. Their reports and opinions determine whether the rest of the herd follows.

Twitter took off as micromedia’s early leader, but the overall landscape for new communications tools and communities is really in its infancy. At the time of this writing, we can’t declare clear winners. People are always on the hunt for new information, and they will go to great lengths to find and reach like-minded people. Of course, as in every market, people naturally follow guides and trendsetters, and with enough momentum, the crowds increase (because no one wants to get left behind). People naturally go where their peers, friends, and family go. However, with every new, exciting service that gains momentum, individuals—whether early adopters or mainstream users—are forced to create and maintain new and existing profiles across multiple networks simply to communicate with their contacts and maintain their relationships.

As mentioned previously, micromedia represents a shift in how people are talking to each other. You’re probably wondering how you will keep up with all these different tools and networks that currently exist—and those not yet introduced. People are pulled in so many directions, and many just don’t have the time or desire to read and watch everything that’s pushed to them. But this conversation is not about those who don’t use these tools; it’s about those who do. And millions are already experimenting with micro tools and associated communities.

Micromedia tools inspire a completely new culture of online behavior that is dedicated to staying connected through the active art of updates, participation, and discovery. Tools such as Twitter, Jaiku, Utterz, Tumblr, Seesmic, and even Facebook are becoming more popular, and they are widely recognized and utilized as primary forms of casual and even professional communications. Users praise micromedia services as a step in the right direction for enhancing our media consumption and production, increasing our participation within dedicated communities, and transforming those who would rather watch and listen to the discussions than contribute to their outcome. For example, some bloggers have stated that micromedia is the ideal solution for when they don’t want to write a regular blog post, but they still want to be connected. Short snippets of information on Twitter, Identi.ca, or Plurk might not always be relevant or fit into the regular content of your blog, but they still enable you to interact with your community and share information in real time. Perhaps one more sentence will help explain the phenomenon of micromedia. It’s not just the ability to publish updates whenever and wherever; it’s the flourishing dynamics of receiving immediate responses and responding to those within the community. Micromedia is the newest form of online “conversation,” and it is viral, global, and inspiring.

One of the most compelling trends that we can’t ignore is that scores of people are discovering and sharing information. As a marketing professional, therefore, you should pay attention. With every new channel that gains momentum, you can build a connection between you, your peers, and your customers to foster healthy and dynamic communities based on conversations and relationships.

And it’s not just about the many early adopters who blaze the trail by experimenting, documenting, and sharing their experiences with shiny new objects. It’s about the people dictating their preference for creating, receiving, and sharing information in specific ways. Steve Rubel, a leading authority on New Media and PR, and senior VP at Edelman, wrote earlier this year that micromedia enabled him to do more with less. It freed him from the pressures of having to write daily posts, forcing him to focus on sharing shorter, more frequent thoughts and discoveries across myriad dedicated social networks, including his blog, microblog, and lifestream.

In micromedia, however, sometimes less isn’t more; it’s just less. We participate in almost all forms of macro and micromedia production and consumption. Plenty of garbage is out there. Just because we can produce things easily these days doesn’t necessarily make them good. But you choose what to share and what to watch, read, and listen to (just as everyone determines when, where, and what they consume).

As a content producer, don’t contribute to the irrelevance of the communities in which you participate. Earn followers because you are sharing updates and information that spark responses and stimulate bigger and more relevant conversations.

To reach these increasingly discerning groups of people, you need to understand their culture and the communities in which they participate, search, and share. You must then reverse-engineer the process from a position of sincerity and empathy. Again, it all starts with listening and observing. In the world of business communications, companies can actively monitor the use of their brand, or the brands of their competitors, to tap into real-world, real-time perception. Those who proactively monitor these bustling communities will learn everything they need to know not only to address individual conversations, but also to design targeted communications programs for imminent use.

For example, H&R Block used Twitter to respond to people who had questions about taxes during the last tax season. The company used Twitter search tools, such as Search.Twitter and Tweetscan.com, to monitor the conversations taking place and were quick to respond with information and answers.

JetBlue and Southwest Airlines are actively engaging fliers on all forms of micromedia; they’re communicating with fliers who have questions, those who want to share experiences, and those who are just seeking advice. Among others, Tony Hsieh (CEO of online shoe e-tailer Zappos) and Dell are actively answering customer questions, solving problems, and promoting specials. Comcast, which currently has a PR and customer service challenge, is using Twitter to actively address customer issues, and the approach is working.

These examples represent just a few of the growing number of companies that are online daily, listening and engaging via micromedia. All these businesses are contributing to and cultivating dedicated and loyal communities of brand ambassadors across all popular and niche micromedia networks.

Lifestreams and brandstreams are the inevitable derivative by-products of distributed conversations and scattered online presences.

For example, as a marketing professional or a brand officer, the results generated from actively listening and observing around the Social Web might have prompted you to create accounts on every relevant micromedia, social network, and content network.

Not only can micromedia tools provide a forum for reading and sharing short bursts of relevant information, but some can also aggregate your updates from various networks into one easy-to-follow data stream.

Streams funnel social information by receiving RSS feeds produced from each service, collecting the updates, and automatically presenting them in one elegant river of focused activity. Followers of lifestreams can easily view and, in some cases, comment directly within the stream. Aggregators are true micromedia channels, in that they share only a fixed amount of content so that the updates are “short and sweet.”

Services such as FriendFeed not only aggregate and publish online updates from the Social Web, but they also offer a community around streams. It’s similar to Twitter, but imagine if every tweet (Twitter update) were representative of everything you created, regardless of the point of origin. Now imagine a timeline in which the content not only reflects what you create and share, but also includes the activity produced from those you also follow. And it enables everyone to comment directly in the flow, which actually fuses distributed conversations.

Distributed conversations are becoming as pervasive as micromedia, and streaming applications channel responses away from the point of origin. As each distinct and niche community attains traction, conversations can take place in multiple networks around the same content, just in different places (wherever it’s broadcast). Therefore, it is increasingly difficult to monitor and participate in relevant conversations. But tools such as FriendFeed and other aggregation solutions help organize conversations so that you can participate easily and without restrictions.

Brands can also leverage micromedia to engage customers and cultivate communities. Instead of looking at it as a lifestream, companies can create brandstreams that tie together all the company’s social assets into one feed. Brandstreams give people choices of whether they want to subscribe to one feed, such as the company blog or micromedia account through Twitter, or the entire stream through something such as FriendFeed or Swurl. People choose the format that works for them, similar to how they can choose which social networks in which to cultivate friendships.

Micromedia represents a new paradigm for information to reach people and an opportunity for brands to monitor conversations related to their business. Micromedia and aggregated streams will continue to evolve into legitimate rivers that reach people, however and wherever they find and share their information. Even if you don’t subscribe to the “less is more” philosophy, many people do. People have choices, so ignoring them will only ensure that we’re not included in their diet of relevant media snacks. As mentioned throughout this book, the best listeners make the best conversationalists. Micromedia provides an active hub for listening and perception management, and it represents another avenue by which to become a resource and cultivate valuable communities.

When enough individual voices pool together, the whisper becomes a roar—transforming micromedia into macro influence.

Many micromedia tools are available today. Which ones you use will depend on a variety of factors, specific to your ultimate communication goals. The following subsections list some of the most popular micromedia tools and services currently available. Remember, however, that this list is current as of this writing. As mentioned earlier, this is a rapidly evolving phenomenon, so we can expect continual development, release, and use of “new and improved” micromedia tools and services.