Many technology companies face a problem when creating social media friendly content (blogs, Twitter updates and so on): how do they make it chatty, fun, interesting and useful when frequently the subject matter is very technical (and the majority of the audience may necessarily not be) and therefore potentially complicated.

The problem is mainly a B2C one, but also it can be a problem with B2B audiences; just because a person is operating in a business to business capacity doesn't necessarily mean that they are technically minded, even if they are interested in or already use your products or services.

In my opinion social media is actually an opportunity to make potentially complicated subject material easier to understand. You can do this in a number of ways:

- Encourage your online community to help each other understand stuff

Use Twitter for example to grow your community, then encourage peer to peer communication in that space. This has been one of the greatest achievements of Twitter; the facility for individuals who are all following a certain company or brand to help each other. Just because you are the instigator of the group doesn't mean that the members aren't better than you at helping someone understand a product or service or iron out a problem.

Wikis are also a great way for a community to define their own terminology and also shape their own way of expressing meaning - and avoiding jargon. Encourage people in the community to get involved and create their own glossary of terms - created by the customers for the customers!

- Speak more informally (and avoid using jargon)

Social media provides an opportunity for you to talk informally, in a more chatty way about sometimes very complicated or technical products or services. It is easier to describe what something does or why it exists when you write in this way as it frees you from tone of voice, terminology and sales-led speak - and a limit in characters or words. Allow yourself to become conversational when blogging about stuff that is hard to understand; this will be a big help for people who sometimes struggle to understand your offering.

- Use other media to communicate

One of the best things about social media is that there are lots of different mediums you can choose from. Why stick to words when you can create an animation, or a video, an audio recording, or make a slideshow? Use YouTube, SlideShare, and podcasts to illustrate your offering in a more 3 dimensional way.

The YouTube generation are changing the face of video production. They create video content with no knowledge of video production skills, without 'proper' kit and publish it online for free. Some brands and companies, particularly in the technology sector, are following suit and also publishing videos seemingly shot on cheap camcorders by the student intern onto their own sites as well as on the same video channels. So is this the end of the road for quality video communications with the high production standards, where the UK has arguably led the world for a generation? Or are brands merely trying to fit into the Everyman Internet where we're all potential publishers?

Desktop Publishing (DTP) changed the face of print publishing 25 years ago. Did it herald the downfall of professionally produced publications with talented writers that spend their hours being paid to create interesting content (like many forecasted)? No, it didn't. Before DTP came about, the only 'proper printed' publications were professionally and painstakingly typset affairs produced by the big publishing houses. This type of printing was beyond the budget of the masses.

When DTP software became widely available many predicted that the availability of these tools would cripple the publishing industry, however it had the opposite effect once all the hype died down. The technology made it cheaper and faster for professionals to produce content – as we can see by the proliferation of magazines and books available today. It also paved the way for a younger generation to have access to new ways of expressing their creative talents and became the base for many of today's digital professionals.

The same has been happening with video over the last 5-10 years; many of the facilities previously only available in expensive edit suites became easily available on a low budget home PC. The element that was missing previously was the costly nature of distributing the video. The explosion of video sharing sites (Vimeo, YouTube) has of course changed that. However we seem to be going through a similar transition to the publishing world, as naysayers announce that user generated videos threatens the work of the professional film/video producer. In my view what we will find at the end of this rainbow is an industry of creative video professionals who have never known anything different who will have injected a new lease of life into a tired industry. This YouTube phenomenon creates new ways of doing things and a much easier way of delivering high quality moving images so that more effort can be spent on the quality of the content that is being delivered - and that can only be a good thing!

Zunavision, created by Stanford University researchers studying artificial intelligence, is a new piece of software that can easily embed adverts into any video. This technology could be utilised to great effect as a reseller tool, allowing a vendor to create high quality promotional videos about the latest products and services. Resellers could then easily co-brand the video incorporating their logo or other content directly with the clip and embed it on their own website. We are looking at the possibilities so watch this space.