社交网站(shè jiāo wǎng zhàn) - social media in Mandarin

社交网站 (shè jiāo wǎng zhàn) is a social networking site, from 社交 (shè jiāo, social) and 网站 (wǎng zhàn, website). Where 社交媒体 (shè jiāo méi tǐ) names the whole category of social media, 社交网站 (shè jiāo wǎng zhàn) points at the site itself as one specific destination, the way English can say either "social media" or "a social networking site" depending on how concrete the sentence needs to be.

脸书是一个有名的社交网站 (liǎn shū shì yí gè yǒu míng de shè jiāo wǎng zhàn), "Facebook is a well-known social networking site", shows the pattern: name the platform, then classify it with 社交网站 (shè jiāo wǎng zhàn), the same way an English sentence would.

The AQA gloss for this entry and for 社交媒体 (shè jiāo méi tǐ) both give plain "social media" in English, which flattens a distinction Mandarin still makes. When precision matters, reach for 社交网站 (shè jiāo wǎng zhàn) to talk about a named platform as a place, and 社交媒体 (shè jiāo méi tǐ) to talk about the broader habit or phenomenon.