Social Media:  A useful resource for all

Honestly, the title “social media” can be a little misleading with the massive scope and resource it is.  The main function of social media is obviously to be social, but its abilities far surpass just talking with friends and posting pictures.  Aside from its social realm, it has become a professional database and resource for people to build networks, for companies to market to new audiences and to monitor public opinion. 

The use of hashtags on twitter makes it easy to see what’s trending throughout the “twitter sphere.”  This is a great tool for companies to see what consumers are saying on a consistent and real time basis.  There are other ways of course to monitor public perception of a company, but social media offers an immediate access to the information a company is seeking.  It’s not a social tool for them but a resource and a valuable one at that.  It also gives companies the ability to directly contact consumers if they have complaints or for other purposes. 

Aside from monitoring perception and interacting with consumers, companies can utilize social media platforms as a form of marketing and promotion.  When someone asks why businesses should use social media the answer is simple.  Quite simply, it’s where people are.  If you want to get in touch with potentially millions of people from one laptop computer, then social media is the easiest and most efficient way to do this.  I don’t know how you would do that otherwise.  Maybe some giant email blast or something.  Regardless, it’s something people would ignore.  But as active as people are on social media platforms, they rarely would ignore something sent directly you their account or something that catches their eye. 

And the ability to market and connect on social media is not limited to businesses.  Politicians and campaign managers have found social media to be a great means of connecting to voters and new publics.  The 2008 presidential election was not just groundbreaking for the fact Barack Obama became The United States’ first black president, but of more minor significance, the way he campaigned through Twitter and Facebook gave him an extraordinary advantage over his opponent, John McCain. 

It’s interesting to think that over a decade ago MySpace was founded.  I doubt anyone saw social media turning into the phenomenon it has today.