17 Things I Learnt About Social Media
So what are the 17 things I learnt about social media that I would want to write about, well, they are the things that everybody wants to know, what are the pros and cons of social media both from a personal level and business level. Well I tried to list them below as bullet points and then go on with a short note about each. Just in case you were in any doubt about what they might mean. I hope it answers your questions or even causes pause for thought. It isn’t meant to scare but definitely to warn. We have a generation of children coming up behind us, that need to know about the legacy they are creating for themselves by being social on line. As responsible people we want to give them and ourselves the tools to be properly equipped with the hurdles that will face both us and our children. They are not in any particular order. Good luck.
It is dangerous
It is fun
It is efficient
It is controversial
It is great for business
Interest comes from unexpected sources
It causes break ups
It causes relationships
It brings families together
It tears families apart
It is instant
It is forever
It is big brother
It crosses barriers
It opens doors
It answers questions and is a source of information
It is a news channel
It is dangerous – this can take many guises and wasn’t meant to scare the bejesus out of you but it does have to be said. We have heard of the horror stories of young people being targeted by ruthless individuals, or stalkers targeting victims. You can get involved in fairly innocent conversations that cause you to lose a job or cause trouble in some way within your life. These things happen in real life too, we just need to be more vigilant against the possibilities online and the dangers of extrapolating events to their end. As an individual I try to secure my personal life from all but close family and friends, the Xfactor taught us only too well, how easy it is for people to take your words and manipulate them to their own ends, without any thought for the devastation they may leave behind. As a business we should be on our guard to act in a professional manner, representing the business as if in person, being polite and trying to help people without the need for rudeness.
It is fun – well of course it is, seeing your words or pictures sent on around the social media world, with the possibility of being printed somewhere new. I once did an experiment on my birthday with a video message to see how far little old me could get it played round the world, and whilst it wasn’t played much it did manage to stretch around most of the globe, so it does work. You can keep in touch with family and friends, organise meet ups and business events easily and co ordinate your contacts into one place. Seeing amusing things posted by your friends that has happened to them or somebody they may know. Getting new information delivered into your personal space in a way that you want to receive it. I love to listen to podcasts on technical topics, I can do this easily now through people socially sharing their information and getting it out into the public domain. We are now better informed because of it.
It is efficient – using the power of social media you can get your message out there in double quick time, this goes both ways if you did something good, or indeed bad, the world likes to hear about it and they will. As above, organising people’s contact information into one place, having it on hand to use, saving money by using technology to get the message out. Finding information that may have taken years to find in the good old days. You can use social media to find out how to get to a place or as during the ash cloud incident pooling resources and gathering to get home safely.
It is controversial – we all know it is, only recently sky have created a new social media policy severely restricting employees on their usage of social media spaces. Or politicians or footballers saying the wrong thing. A member of the public making a joke about what he would do to an airport and getting arrested. All these things have happened or happening all the time. You should treat every word as if you were saying it to somebody who cannot be trusted. If you would not want it passed on or spoken about then for goodness sake do not say it. Always better to be safe than sorry. This goes for company information, would your company appreciate inside information being leaked by you out into the world, it just does not go down well.
It is great for business – social media for business is the current trend at the moment, everybody is talking about it, everybody knows their company should be doing it but how on earth do you approach it. Firstly you should take advice and make sure it is from a reliable source, you can contact us if you would like to discuss moving your company along in the social media stakes, actually it is one of our passions so we would love the opportunity to help out, and we would not charge obscene rates to get you underway. The social media spaces are great for airing company products or getting opinions, dealing with critique, getting information to your customers, putting out special offers, finding customers, learning about the competition. There is no doubt it is great for business, but if you take a wrong turn, that can be quite the reverse.
Interest comes from unexpected sources – there is no doubt at all that I have learnt that interest comes from those completely unexpected sources relative to your social media projects. If you try and gauge where you think interest might come from, its pretty certain it will come from somewhere else. That is one good reason why you should have in place strict social media monitoring, to try and keep tabs on who, what, when, where, and why. The story is fascinating when you start to piece it all together. Keywords being one of the best examples, people never search on the key phrases you worked hard to optimise. So again, the tools should be in place to correct your movements in any given direction, should you be wasting precious resources doing the wrong thing.
It causes break ups – this was one of the first things learnt from friends reunited, that whilst it brings people together, so too does it tear you apart, with suspicion, accusations, misunderstood messages and careless posting. This goes for business and personal, we have seen employees going home and being rude about their company or bosses and coming in to find they have been fired for said action. Personally it will cause endless pain, hence the advice to use it with decency and honesty and do not try and keep secrets on line they will come back and haunt you, even the ones with good intent where you are perhaps, trying to arrange a secret party for the loved one.
It causes relationships – as he taketh away so shall he giveth. In the social media world the reverse is true to the above, you can form meaningful relationships with your customers learning about them as individuals and why they like certain things giving you a unique view in their lives and how they might like your products or services and as people we form relationships with people and families creating strong ties and enjoying the banter we have.
It brings families together – this is the one I like, being able to contact long lost family members even stretching across the countries and finding out what is going on in their lives, far more efficient than a once a year christmas card. Seeing photos and being part of their lives.
It tears families apart – those same things that bring them together can shed light on facts that remained hidden for so many years and subsequently tear families apart. No more needs to be said.
It is instant – I love this thing about social media, it is real people talking about real things right now. It is current and fresh and lively and instant. You can hear about events happening on the other side of the world right now. You can get your message out instantly, to the world and get instant feedback. It is such a benefit to having this stream of information at our fingertips, some spaces deliver information quicker, such as twitter whilst facebook gives you a bit of flexibility with your information.
It is forever – the downside to being instant is that your message is out there forever, you cannot take back what has been said, it has been viewed by thousands of eyes even if you strike it through immediately, and somewhere in the darkest recesses of the gloomy internet there will be a copy of said message. It comes back to “if you do not want it spoken about, do not say it on the internet”.
It is big brother – this one, many of you will find hard to believe, but my goodness, if you put a foot wrong some kind soul is there to put you right with a swift kick up the backside. You cannot say it without it being seen so you can guarantee that message will be delivered straight to the person you wanted to avoid. I have found it out personally that my opinions whilst being mine are sometimes probably best left inside my head. My friends do not want to hear about the far corners of my mind, no matter how fascinating or right I think it is, I probably have a friend somewhere who disagrees, so I need to exert more restraint in my thoughts before I commit them. I honestly do not mean to offend, I’m a very straight forward person, who likes to call it how it is, but this does not work well for everyone, even the things I find funny can offend friends, so I think this one is going to be a lifetime of work, but I am committed to being better with my words every day.
It crosses barriers – social media has the power to bring us together and cross those barriers we thought were uncrossable, with this comes a certain power that we should be respectful of it. Do not cross the line just because you can, use the power of social media philanthropically and it will repay you tenfold. But do not do it with expectation of reward or profit, sometimes people appreciate the decency we can show. And they can most certainly see when you are trying to do something for another reason. So be nice, play nice and be friendly.
It opens doors – the typical receptionists trained to keep you at bay are now out of the picture with social media, we can now find and discuss subjects with CEO’s, directors and executives, but do not forget the other employees, they are the future. In fact they might hold the key to that door you want to open, so everybody deserves that respect. Because of the improved access it is easier to make mistakes and rush into things. Step back, think and then act.
It answers questions and is a source of information – well you can certainly ask for information easier than ever on the internet and nowhere so great as your social media space, all those friends you have committed to being nice to, helping out and treating with respect, well guess what? They want to do the same for you. If they can help you they will and this is the real beauty. It is a treasure trove of people all trying to make a living and live their lives in harmony. Asking google will undoubtedly get you information, but is it trustworthy, has it been recommended by a friend you trust who has used them before. Which would you choose if your friends told you horror stories of one over the other.
It is a news channel – That’s right, it is! We woke up one day and found out that all the news we had consumed about the world over the weekend was all delivered in the way we wanted it, when we wanted it and we had found out breaking news before our non social media friends had even taken delivery of their 24hours old newspaper.
So those are my thoughts, sorry for the rambling nature and slightly long blog, but I thought they may be helpful to both old hands and new ones. If I have scared you, I did not mean to, just to warn you of the real dangers that can lie in wait for young or new players. If I have inspired you then great, I can take it as work well done.
Dont forget if you want to comment or leave your own thought about what you have learned then feel free to do so, you can also look to our social media page for more information,
or if you need help on social media then do Telephone us on 01424 250629 or Contact Us.
Related articles
To Outsource, Or Not To Outsource your Social Media (astoriasocialmedia.com)
Don’t Ignore Customer Service In Social Media (viralblog.com)